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DOS file formats
The asset files of the 1994 DOS release: the MADSPACK containers of MicroProse's MADS engine, the FAB compression inside them, and the sprites, pictures, fonts, palettes and text they carry.
Every claim on these pages is either read from the code of VICEROY.EXE or
measured over every shipped file. Addresses are file offsets in the shipped
494,910-byte executable, given with the routine's name — draw_icon, file
0xe76a. Anything not established is carried through untouched and called
UNKNOWN.
The dos-tools suite implements every format here, extracts each to editable files, rebuilds the game from them, and its tests re-measure the counts on these pages against a real install.
| Format | Files | Status |
|---|---|---|
| MADSPACK — the container | all 246 .SS, .PIK and .FF |
rebuilds byte-identical |
| FAB — the compression | 793 packed entries | decodes all; repacks 479 identically |
.SS sprite sheets |
206, holding 1,517 sprites | re-encodes byte-identical |
.PIK pictures |
35 | round-trips |
.FF fonts |
5 | every byte accounted for |
Palettes and VICEROY.PAL |
1, plus one in nearly every sheet and picture | stored on disk, 6 bits a channel |
| Text files | 18 .TXT, 2 .DB |
plain code page 437 |
Saves and maps #
COLONYnn.SAV and AMER2.MP are in formats the Windows release shares byte
for byte, so they are documented once, under
shared file formats: .SAV saves
and .MP maps.
Not covered yet #
The sound banks (*.COL), COLDIG.BIN, the .DAT files, AMERICA.MOV and
the separate OPENING.EXE, CLOSING.EXE and MAPEDIT.EXE programs are not
described here.
The other release #
The Windows game of 1995 shares the rules, the map file and the save layout, but keeps its art as Win16 resources. See Windows file formats, and the two releases compared.