The Blues Brothers Map Format

The Blues Brothers Map Format

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Format type	Map/level
Map type	2D tile-based
Layer count	Unknown
Games	The Blues Brothers

There are six levels in The Blues Brothers. Here's a table which shows which files are used in which level.

Level number	French name	English translation	Level data	First 128 background tiles	Second 128 background tiles 2	Foreground tiles	Tile attributes	Enemy sprites
1	Magasin	Store	MAG.SQL	MAG.CK1	MAG.CK2	AVTMAG.SQV	MAGASIN.BIN	ENEMI1.SQV
2	Entrepot	Warehouse	ENT.SQL	ENT.CK1	ENT.CK2	AVTENT.SQV	ENTREPOT.BIN	ENEMI2.SQV
3	Prison	Prison	PRISON.SQL	PRISON.CK1	PRISON.CK2	AVTPRIS.SQV	PRISON.BIN	ENEMI3.SQV
4	Egout	Sewer	EGOU.SQL	EGOU.CK1	EGOU.CK2	AVTEGOU.SQV	EGOU.BIN	ENEMI4.SQV
5	Ville	City	VILLE.SQL	VILLE.CK1	VILLE.CK2	AVTVILLE.SQV	VILLE.BIN	ENEMI5.SQV
6	Concert	Concert	CONCERT.SQL	CONCERT.CK1	CONCERT.CK2	none	CONCERT.BIN	ENEMI6.SQV

Each level has a width of 128 tiles, the height of a level is equal to filesize / 128. Every byte in the level data corresponds to a background tile. When the value of a byte is smaller than 128 the tile is found in a .CK1 file, when the value is 128 or more the tile is found in a .CK2 file.

The positions of the players, enemies and gates are stored in the executables. For 1.EXE the offsets are:

Level number	Player 1 x	Player 1 y	Player 2 x	Player 2 y	Enemies x	Enemies y	Enemy types	Gates x	Gates y
1	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
2	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
3	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
4	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
5	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
6	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown

And for 2.EXE the offsets are:

Level number	Player 1 x	Player 1 y	Player 2 x	Player 2 y	Enemies x	Enemies y	Enemy types	Gates x	Gates y
1	0x18469	0x1822B	0x1846B	0x1822D	0x1841B	0x181DD	unknown	unknown	unknown
2	0x182CF	0x18091	0x182D1	0x18093	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
3	0x18321	0x180E3	0x18323	0x180E5	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
4	0x18373	0x18135	0x18375	0x18137	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
5	0x183C5	0x18187	0x183C7	0x18189	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown
6	0x18417	0x181D9	0x18419	0x181DB	0x183C9	0x1818B	unknown	unknown	unknown

The unit of the values of the UINT16LEs found at these offsets is pixels.

Attributes

The .BIN file associated to the level contains 256 entries which are 10 bytes long each, these indices do represent the tiles found in associated CK1 and CK2 sprite sheets.

Byte index	Type	Meaning
0	UINT8?	0x01 : spike ? 0x05 : weapon, there is only one -> the crate 0x07 : ladder (except the edges ?) 0x0A : walkable / ground / cannot pass through
1	unknown	always 0x00 or 0x03
2	unknown	unknown
3	unknown	MAG : 0x00 ENT : 0x00, 0x01 PRISON : 0x00, 0x01, 0x02, 0x03 EGOU : 0x00, 0x01, 0x02 VILLE : 0x00 CONCERT : 0x00, 0x01, 0x02
4	unknown	unknown
5	unknown	always 0x00 or 0x01
6	unknown	probably related to front tiles since for CONCERT it is always 0xFF
7	unknown	For level 1, either 0x00 or tile index: - when 0x00 object is not animated (exceptions: camera, moving walkway; these are animated) - when not 0x00 object is animated : sparkles, vinyls (actually only these)
8	unknown	unknown
9	INT8	Index of the front tile to draw from the associated AVTXXX.SQV file, if 0xFF it means there is no front tile for this tile. For CONCERT level it will be always 0xFF since there are no front tiles associated to this level.

Note: pay attention to signed/unsigned type in the table above. For instance, the value of byte 9 will mean -1, not 255 when its value is 0xFF.

Parsing example (C#):

    byte tile = ...;
    if((sbyte)tile > -1)
    {
        // tile has a front tile, draw it
    }
    
    // it is more meaningful than writing
    byte tile = ...;
    if(tile != 0xFF)
    {
        // ...
    }

Credits

This file format was reverse engineered by Frenkel. 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!)