Game File

The game files, also known as DAT files, used by the Adventurer application are in the Scott Free, which consists of data arranged into groups that define various items used in the game.

The data is stored as either a number or string, and can separated by a space or carriage return. A string is any characters (except inverted commas) enclosed by inverted commas, and a number is just that.

For example, the following is a definition for an item and consists of a string and number

"Evil smelling mud/MUD/" 1

It consists of the following groups:

Header - 12 lines that define the numbers of items 2 - 7, and other required game variables.
Actions - these cause things to happen in the game based on user input, probability or the completion of a turn. A single action is composed on 8 numbers.
Words - the verbs and nouns recognised by the game.
Rooms - the rooms in the game. Each room composed of 7 lines, six numbers that specify the room exits (north, south, east, west, up and down) and a string for the room description.
Messages - strings that represent messages displayed to the player by the game.
Items - things that the player can interact with, a string describing the item and a number being the room it starts in. One line per item.
Action comments - strings that represents comments for the actions above, one line per action.
Footer - three numbers that specify game information.

Group locations

The locations of items 2 - 8 are dependant upon the values specified in the header

Actions - begins on line 13 and end at line 8 * the header value for number of actions.
Words - begins at Actions end + 1, and end at Actions end + 1 + the header value for number of actions * 2.
Rooms - begins at Words end + 1, and end at Words end + 1 + the header value for number of rooms.
Messages - begins at Rooms end + 1, and end at Rooms end + 1 + the header value for number of Messages.
Items - begins at Messages end + 1, and end at Messages end + 1 + the header value for number of Items.
Action comments - begins at Items end + 1, and end at Items end + 1 + the header value for number of Actions.
Footer - begins at Action Comments end + 1.

Game Files in more information

The Adventurer application offers three command line switches that convert the game file into different formats that can be helpful in understanding the data format.

The command