Zone 66 Level Format
| Format type | Map/level |
|---|---|
| Map type | 2D cell-based |
| Layer count | N/A |
| Tile size (pixels) | 32×32 |
| Viewport (pixels) | 320×200 |
| Cell dimensions | 256×256 |
| Games |
The Zone 66 Level Format is made up of a collection of files for each level in the game.
File format
- Each level is a fixed size of 256×256 cells, with 32×32 pixel tiles.
- The files are named as mapX... where X is a character between A and H. A is episode 1, B is episode 2, etc.
- All maps are drawn with the palette found in mpal.z66.
Signature
There is no signature, however careful processing of the files can be used to check whether the format is correct:
- mapX.z66 must be exactly 65536 bytes in length.
- mapXdat.z66 must be n×2 bytes in length, where n is the maximum value in mapX.z66
mapX.z66
This file contains the map background. It is 65536 bytes long (256×256 bytes) and contains one byte for each cell in the level.
Each byte is an index into the tile mapping table stored in mapXdat.z66
mapXdat.z66
Note that this file is NOT compressed.
This file contains a mapping between 8-bit tile codes and 16-bit tile numbers. It is an array of up to 256 UINT16LE values.
| Data type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UINT16LE | count | Number of tile mapping codes |
| UINT16LE | animCount | Number of animated tile structures |
| UINT16LE[count * 2] | bgMap | List of tileset indices for up to 256 background layer map codes plus another 256 codes for destroyed tiles |
| UINT8[count] | destroyScore | Points awarded when this tile is destroyed |
| UINT8[count] | canDestroy | 0=invulnerable, 1=tile can be destroyed |
| ANIM[animCount] | anim | Information about animated tiles |
The bgMap array holds the index of the tileset image to use for each map code. There are two entries for each code, the first is the tileset index of the normal tile, the second is the tileset index of the destroyed tile. So map code 0 corresponds to the first (normal) and second (destroyed) entries in this array. Map code 1 uses the third (normal) and fourth (destroyed) entries, and so on.
The ANIM structure is as follows:
| Data type | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UINT16LE | mapCode | Map code of tile to animate ! confirm |
| UINT16LE | frameFirst | Tileset index of first animation frame |
| UINT16LE | frameLast | Tileset index of last animation frame |
| UINT8 | loopFlag | 0=jump (from last frame back to first), 1=ping-pong (play forward, then in reverse) |
| UINT8 | reserved1 | Used only internally by the game |
| UINT8 | reserved2 | Used only internally by the game |
| UINT8 | speed | Number of ticks between frames |
Each value read from mapX.z66 is looked up here (i.e. if the value read was 9 then the tenth value in this file would be read. The tenth value is the UINT16LE at offset 4+9*2=22). This value is then an index into the tileset stored in mapXgrfx.z66.
mapXgrfx.z66
This is the tileset containing images for each cell in the map. It is in a different format to the other tilesets (which are in Zone 66 Tileset Format). Instead, this file contains no header or other data. It is simply 32×32 8bpp images one after the other. A given cell index t will begin at offset t * 32 * 32 in this file.
mapXdat3.z66
! Document this format from http://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?p=45050#p45050
Credits
This file format was reverse engineered by john_doe. 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!)