PoP1 DAT specification
Posted: February 21st, 2014, 6:22 am
Hello guys 
This is my first post, please be nice to me
A tiny bit of my background; I have experience in programming in the .NET environment and I've made some games before in Unity3D. This is my first time working with binary files.
I'm making a program to read the PoP1 DAT files (specifically, the LEVELS.DAT). I'm working with the 1.4v of PoP1.
I've read the formatspecifications.pdf and managed to read some part of the data.
The result of reading levels.dat :
*results are casted to some type of int.
Index = 395216
Entry = 0
Item ID = 0
Absolute Offset = 0
Size of Item = 0
I'm confused with the bolded part. Was it supposed to return 0? Because when I open other .dat files it comes out with huge numbers (way more that the file size?) Is this normal?
Reading the format specification, it states that the pop1_foretable has an offset of 0. But doesn't the first 6 bytes contains the header information?
Really appreciate if someone could clear this up for me. Thanks.
This is my first post, please be nice to me
A tiny bit of my background; I have experience in programming in the .NET environment and I've made some games before in Unity3D. This is my first time working with binary files.
I'm making a program to read the PoP1 DAT files (specifically, the LEVELS.DAT). I'm working with the 1.4v of PoP1.
I've read the formatspecifications.pdf and managed to read some part of the data.
The result of reading levels.dat :
Code: Select all
Index Specification
File size = 37B
Index Offset = 36901
Index Size = 130
Number of Items = 16
Index = 395216
Entry = 0
Item ID = 0
Absolute Offset = 0
Size of Item = 0
Dump all
[1] {0:X6} 190-00-00-82-00-B5-33-21-00-00-21-21-33-33-2F-23 ......3!..!!33/#
[17] {0:X6} 1734-34-00-00-14-34-34-34-34-34-34-34-22-22-00-34 44...4444444"".4
[33] {0:X6} 3334-34-34-34-33-33-21-00-00-00-21-0B-0B-24-34-34 444433!...!..$44
[49] {0:X6} 4934-00-00-22-34-00-00-34-34-34-34-22-00-34-34-00 4.."4..4444".44.
[65] {0:X6} 6500-34-24-00-00-00-00-0B-33-32-33-24-34-00-00-00 .4$.....323$4...
[81] {0:X6} 8122-21-34-34-34-34-34-00-00-00-14-14-34-34-34-34 "!44444.....4444
[97] {0:X6} 9723-21-21-33-21-33-21-0B-0B-24-34-34-34-34-34-34 #!!3!3!..$444444
[113] {0:X6} 11334-00-00-34-34-34-34-34-34-34-34-00-00-14-34-34 4..44444444...44
[129] {0:X6} 12934-34-00-34-34-00-00-34-34-34-34-34-21-34-34-00 44.44..44444!44.
[145] {0:X6} 14500-34-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-01-01-14-34-14-14-14 .4..........4...
[161] {0:X6} 16114-14-34-00-00-34-09-00-00-00-00-00-09-00-00-34 ..4..4.........4
[177] {0:X6} 17708-13-10-11-13-0F-08-01-01-14-34-34-34-34-00-34 ..........4444.4
[193] {0:X6} 19334-34-34-34-34-34-34-34-00-34-34-34-34-34-14-14 44444444.44444..
[209] {0:X6} 20914-14-01-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14-14 ................
[225] {0:X6} 22514-14-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-01 ................
[241] {0:X6} 24101-01-01-01-01-01-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-21-21-23 .............!!#
and so on.
Index = 395216
Entry = 0
Item ID = 0
Absolute Offset = 0
Size of Item = 0
I'm confused with the bolded part. Was it supposed to return 0? Because when I open other .dat files it comes out with huge numbers (way more that the file size?) Is this normal?
Reading the format specification, it states that the pop1_foretable has an offset of 0. But doesn't the first 6 bytes contains the header information?
Really appreciate if someone could clear this up for me. Thanks.