The Lost Vikings/Blackthorne Tools

About

Blackthorne is a 1994 cinematic platformer by Blizzard Entertainment for the SNES and MS-DOS. The Lost Vikings is a 1993 puzzle-platformer by Silicon & Synapse (later Blizzard) in which three vikings with different abilities cooperate to complete each level. This is a public-domain library and set of command-line tools (pack_tool, sprite_view, tileset_view, level_view, and a virtual-machine disassembler/compiler for The Lost Vikings) built from a partial reverse-engineering of the DOS data formats used by The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne. It doesn't reimplement either game — it's for extracting, viewing, and decompiling their original data files — and has only been tested on Linux.

Getting started

Run each tool with --help for its command-line options. The level viewer, for example, takes a path to the extracted DATA.DAT file and a level number; arrow keys pan the view, and F/B/O/G/R toggle foreground tiles, background tiles, objects, the grid, and object bounding boxes.

Known issues & limitations

• rendering: Many sprites are rendered incorrectly or not at all in the level viewer due to unclear sprite set selection and palette handling.
• rendering: Packed 32x32 object sprites are not drawn; the game's sprite set selection mechanism is not fully understood.
• rendering: Blackthorne levels often do not render correctly; parts of the map appear to be folded and secondary tile maps for backgrounds are not supported.
• rendering: Palette animations are decoded but not fully understood or supported.
• Some levels, especially most special levels, crash the level viewer.
• Many larger Blackthorne levels do not render correctly in the level viewer.
• Blackthorne's secondary tile maps are not supported, causing incorrect rendering.
• Many sprites are missing or rendered incorrectly in the level viewer.
• The tileset viewer does not properly support palettes, including Blackthorne levels with multiple palettes.
• The tools generally crash when given incorrect arguments or invalid data.
• Music and sound formats have not been reverse engineered.

What you need to run it

Features

• The sprite viewer displays sprite formats used by the games.
• The tileset viewer displays the games' 16x16 tilesets.
• A basic, incomplete level viewer is included.
• The compiler and decompiler support The Lost Vikings, but not Blackthorne.
• The level viewer can display splash screens and cutscenes encoded as levels.

How to install

1. Run a tool with --help to see its command-line options.
2. For Blackthorne, pass the --blackthorne argument when using the tools.
3. Start the level viewer with the DATA.DAT path and level number; numbering starts at 1.

Controls

• Use the arrow keys to move the level-viewer display.
• Click a tile or object to show information about it.
• F toggles foreground tiles, B background tiles, O objects, G the grid, and R object bounding boxes.

Licensing & legal

• The tools themselves are public domain, though they operate on copyrighted DATA.DAT files from the original commercial games.

FAQ

What is The Lost Vikings/Blackthorne Tools?

The Lost Vikings/Blackthorne Tools is an open-source tool of Blackthorne and The Lost Vikings. Tooling used for decompilation and recompilation work. The original game ran on DOS.

Do I need the original game files to run The Lost Vikings/Blackthorne Tools?

Yes. The project does not include the original game's assets, so you need your own copy. The tools require the original DATA.DAT file from either The Lost Vikings or Blackthorne to extract and work with game resources.

How is The Lost Vikings/Blackthorne Tools licensed?

project: public domain (tools). The repository itself is the authoritative source.