If your web browser formats this page incorrectly, try viewing the page source. In netscape 4, click the view menu, then click page source. I have blobwars episode 1 metal blob solid version 0.5 on my mandrake 10 contribs cdroms. This file is notes about blobwars. in 2007 http://www.parallelrealities.co.uk/blobWars.php said that the newest version was 1.07, http://www.parallelrealities.co.uk/download.php?file=blobwars-1.07-1.tar.gz&type=zip. This file is notes about blobwars 0.5 and may or may not apply to other version. enable cheating by going to the options menu and typing lockandload. You do not need to press enter. /usr/share/games/blobwars/blobwars.pk3 is a zip file. If the files stored in blobwars.pk3 are unarchived in /usr/share/games/blobwars/ and blobwars.pk3 is deleted, blobwars does not run Most of the *.png files in gfx/ are 32x32. probably most of these are background tiles. the format of a level data file appears to be: in the beginning of the file, each line is a row of numbers, seperated by spaces. Most but not all lines end with a space. Probably each number sets the type of background. The most common type of background is 0, which is probably air. Probably you add .png to each number to get the file name of a 32x32 pixel map. I don't see a file which defines background properties like whether or not you can more into it, so that must be hardcoded in the binary. Most level data files have 400 numbers per line and 300 lines, but floodedTunnel1 has 308 lines. maybe the level can be any size, up to the amount of memory in your computer. So if the level map is 400x300 pixmaps, and each pixmap is 32x32, then the map is 12800x9600 pixels. Most maps have large parts which are all 0. 0 is probably empty space. So most level files define a theoretical level which is larger than the level you actually play. 0 is air or empty space 8 is soft red rock which can be tunnelled through 9 is hard red rock in caves a blank line marks the end of the first part of the level file. The second part of the level file defines the start locations of objects, enemies, doors, trains (moving platforms), switches, etc. Blank lines and lines beginning // are ignored. I think that the location of an object is the location of the lower right pixel of the bitmap for the object. Thus an object at 0,0 is actually off the map, because the lower right pixel of the object is at 0,0, and the rest of the pixels of the object are at locations less than 0. To place an object in the upper left corner of the map, try 31,31. The first word of an object definition is a word like EMH or MH. Probably this determines whether or not the object exists in the current difficulty. The difficulty levels are Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extreme. I guess E means the object exists in Easy, M means the object exists in Normal, and H means the object exists in Hard and Extreme. The second word of an object definition says what kind of object is being defined. The additional words depend on the second word. EMH START 4896 96 EMH means this definition applies to all difficulties. START means that this gives bob's location at the start of the level, 4896 says bob start 4896 pixels from the left edge (about a third of way to the right edge), 96 says bob starts 96 pixels from the top. If you are editing a game level, you can change START to somewhere in whatever room you are currently working on, so you don't have to go through all the other rooms to test the room you are editing. EMH TRAIN TRAIN1 3488 1378 3488 1856 120 TR_AT_START ACTIVE EMH means this definition applies to all difficulties. TRAIN means this is a train, which some people might call an elevator, a lift, or a moving platform. TRAIN1 is the name of the train, which is important if a switch turns the train on or off. If the train is not connected to a switch, the name is unimportant. Multiple trains can have the same name. 3488 is the starting position of the train in pixels from the left edge. 1378 is the starting position of the train in pixels from the top. 3488 is the ending position of the train in pixels from the left edge. 1856 is the ending position of the train in pixels from the top. I am not sure what 120 means, but most trains are 60 or 120. One train is 2290. TR_AT_START means the train starts at the start position; the alternative is TR_AT_END, which means the train starts at the end position. ACTIVE means the train is moving at the start; the alternative is INACTIVE, which means the train is not moving at the start and will not move until you hit the switch which turns the train on. Trains can move move up and down without moving left or right, or move left and right without moving up or down, or move diagonally. The TR_AT_START/TR_AT_END option seems silly because it does not matter where the train starts unless the train is INACTIVE. But even if the train is INACTIVE, why not define the starting position as the starting position? A train moves back and forth between one location and another location. One location is called start and the other location is called end. If you remember to define the location where you want the train to start as start, then you do not need a start-at-end option. But start is usually left of or above end; so maybe TR_AT_END is needed for rare situations where the train is INACTIVE and you want the train to start in the lower or right location. But what if you want the train to move diagonally between upper right and lower left? In version 0.5, diagonally moving trains do not work unless the diagonal is exactly 45 degrees (the amount of up and down movement is exactly equal to the right and left movement). An incorrect diagonal train does not move, and does not generate an error message. Maybe this is a bug.