fantasy-general-tools

README

Fantasy General 1 Tools

Overview

fgtool is a Fantasy General modding toolkit.

• Decode game files (SHP->PNG, DAT->JSON, ...)
• Encode game files (PNG->SHP, JSON->DAT, ...)
• Apply binary patches to change some in-game constants

You would need a legally-obtained copy of the game to use this tool.

Installation

It's recommended to download the latest release binary for your system.

You can also build it from sources.

Documentation

• fgtool.md - how to use this tool
• data_files.md - describes the known parts of Fantasy General file structure
• units.md - describes unit stats and how to edit them
• shp_sprites.md - sprite and palette related info

Support

Want to support the author? Add my game to your Steam wishlist.

Useful Resources

Information used to create this tool:

• https://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/ILBM_IFF_Interleaved_Bitmap
• https://moddingwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/LBM_Format#CMAP:_Palette
• http://blog.ssokolow.com/archives/2018/12/02/resources-for-reverse-engineering-16-bit-applications/
• https://www.luis-guzman.com/zips/PG2_FilesSpec.html
• https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic/c/Yt_sxvy67CM - PG1 files info
• https://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?p=856948
• https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=3944 - DosBox debug guide

Tools used:

• ndisasm to dump DOS binary assembly
• hexl mode in Emacs to inspect/edit binary files
• basic tools like grep, awk
• debug-enabled in DosBox (DosBox Debug)
• custom Go scripts to patch the binary