Micro Machines BITSFILE Format
| Format type | Image |
|---|---|
| Hardware | VGA |
| Colour depth | 8-bit (VGA) |
| Minimum size (pixels) | 8×8 |
| Maximum size (pixels) | 88×24 |
| Palette | External |
| Plane count | 1 |
| Transparent pixels? | Yes |
| Hitmap pixels? | No |
| Games |
The race graphics shared by all rounds of Micro Machines are stored in BITSFILE.PH0: wheel puffs, HUD digits and icons, position labels and banners. The file is compressed with Micro Machines Compression and decompresses to 26048 (0x65C0) bytes. It is reloaded before every race, so the colours come from the round's palette.
File format
The decompressed data is a fixed list of images. Each image is stored row by row with one byte per pixel; colour 0 is transparent. Offsets are from the start of the decompressed data.
| Offset | Images | Size | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0000 | 3 × 8 | 8×8 | Wheel puffs and wakes, three sets of 8 animation frames (boost, skid, mud) |
| 0x0600 | 5 | 24×24 | Knockout / re-appear animation |
| 0x1140 | 1 | 24×24 | Unused |
| 0x1380 | 1 | 16×16 | Warning sign, shown in the HUD while racing |
| 0x1480 | 11 | 8×16 | Digits 0-9 and a colon |
| 0x1A00 | 1 | 16×16 | Red light (head to head score bar) |
| 0x1B00 | 1 | 16×16 | Blue light (head to head score bar) |
| 0x1C00 | 1 | 16×16 | Checkered flag, shown in the HUD once a car has finished |
| 0x1D00 | 4 | 16×8 | Position labels "1st" to "4th" |
| 0x1F00 | 5 | 32×32 | Splash animation for the powerboats. In round 8 overwritten with the helicopter rotor from the .VH0 file. |
| 0x3300 | 5 | 8×8 | Projectile icons (only the first two are used) |
| 0x3440 | 6 | 88×24 | Banners: "Bonus", "Winner", "Play Off", "1 Up!", "Failed", "Paused!". Only the top 22 rows are drawn. |
The images fill the file completely, with no gaps.
Credits
This file format was reverse engineered by VorticonCmdr. If you find this information helpful in a project you're working on, please give credit where credit is due. (A link back to this wiki would be nice too!)