Zerk Zone

Cranberry Granola Bars

This recipe is very similar to the Chocolate Granola Bar recipe, but with slightly adjusted proportions. This should work equally well with any other dried fruit. I’m not quite as happy with this recipe, so any suggestions are welcome.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
2. In a bowl, mix the rolled oats, grains, cranberries and coconut.
3. Measure the water, and add the cornstarch to the water (keep in the measuring cup). Stir the cornstarch until consistently mixed.
4. In another measuring cup, measure the honey and add the brown sugar.
5. Heat a large frying pan/stir fry pan on the stovetop at high heat, then add the cornstarch/water mixture. Stir and wait until the mixture is a consistent gel.
6. Add the honey and sugar to the mixture and stir until consistently melted.
7. Add rolled oats/coconut/cranberry/grain mixture and mix until evenly coated. Scoop onto a baking sheet, and flatten/shape as desired.
8. Bake for approximately 15 minutes.
9. Cut to desired size.

Filed under: Recipes |

Chocolate Granola Bars

And now for the Granola bars. These chocolate ones are my favourite. I use PC Ancient Grain/7 Reasons cereal for my “additional grains”, but you can always use additional nuts/seeds/etc if you aren’t allergic to most of them.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
2. In a bowl, mix the rolled oats, grains and coconut.
3. Measure the water, and add the cornstarch to the water (keep in the measuring cup). Stir the cornstarch until consistently mixed.
4. Heat a large frying pan/stir fry pan on the stovetop at high heat, then add the cornstarch/water mixture. Stir and wait until the mixture is a consistent gel.
5. Add the chocolate chips to the mixture and stir until consistently melted.
6. Add rolled oats/coconut/grain mixture and mix until evenly coated. Scoop onto a baking sheet, and flatten/shape as desired.
7. Bake for approximately 15 minutes.
8. Cut to desired size.

Filed under: Recipes |

Shortbread Cookies

Now for the second cookie recipe: Shortbread!

1. Preheat oven to 300 F (150 C)
2. Beat butter on medium speed of electric mixer until light. Gradually
   add icing sugar and vanilla, beating until creamy. Gradually add flour
   and cornstarch, beating until smooth.
3. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake in centre of 300 F (150 C) oven for 25-30 minutes, or just until
   set and starting to brown around the edges.

Filed under: Recipes |

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, just for fun I decided to post some of my recipes. Right now, I mostly just make Granola bars (which will be posted shortly), but I used to bake cookies a fair bit as well. Here is the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that used to be my favourite:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C)
2. Cream butter, adding brown and white sugar. Add flour and salt. Disolve
   the baking soda in the hot water, then add the solution to the mixture.
   Mix in Oatmeal and Coconut, then add Chocolate chips.
3. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet, flattening as
   necessary.
4. Bake in centre of 350 F (175 C) oven for approximately 10 minutes.

Filed under: Recipes |

Xargon Mapper and Resource Extractor

About and Dependencies

This is a series of Python scripts to generate maps of Xargon, as well as extract most of the Xargon image resources. These scripts require the Python Imaging Library (PIL) and Python 2.x (tested with Python 2.7.3). PIL unfortunately does not yet support Python 3, which prevents these scripts from being forward-compatible at this time.

Windows users should be able to download Python and PIL from the above links. Most Linux/Unix varients should be able to install Python and PIL via your package manager of choice; Ubuntu users can install the python and python-imaging libraries. OSX users should already have Python, but you may need to compile PIL yourself via the source download at the PIL website.

The scripts also obviously require Xargon, either the shareware or full versions. The full version has been released as Freeware, so it should be easy for you to get what you need.

A full development log for this tool is available on the VGMaps Forums.
This tool was developed without the use of the Xargon source code by manually
decoding the game resources, so some of the techniques may be useful for decoding other games.

Please note the palimage#.png image files are used to obtain
the assorted Xargon colour paletted variations, and are required for
this tool to work.

Usage

There are two scripts included in the package that are intended to be executed directly.
xargonmapper.py is the main map generation script,
xargongraphics.py is a script to extract the contents of a Xargon GRAPHICS resource file. In addition to the three scripts above, several supplimentary scripts can be run to gather debug outputs of one form or another, and are listed under the Other Scripts heading.

The genep1.sh, genep2.sh and genep3.sh are pre-made shell scripts to generate map images for each episode of the game. You can edit these files to change the path to Xargon for alternate configurations. Sorry, no .BAT files are provided for Windows users, but the .sh files and the below instructions should get you going.

xargonmapper.py

Usage: python xargonmapper.py [Graphics File] [Tiles File] [Map File(s)...]

Generates map images for every Xargon map file indicated. Requires the
corresponding GRAPHICS file for the images to use, and the TILES file
for the map tile to graphics resource mapping. All files should be from
the same Episode of Xargon.

xargongraphics.py

Usage: python xargongraphics.py [Graphics File]

Extracts all graphics resources from the specified GRAPHICS file from
Xargon. Output is stored in the Episode#Images and
Episode#OriginalImages folders, where # is the episode number of the
input file. The OriginalImages folder contains the original 256-colour
images without any additional processing, while the Images folder
contains 32-bit RGBA images after colour index 0 has been set
transparent.

Other Scripts

xargonmap.py

Usage: python xargonmap.py [Map File(s)]

Generates the following debug information for each specified Xargon map
file:

[mapname]_flat.png

A false-colour image of the map, where each tile
value is represented as a different colour.

[mapname].csv

A simple CSV containing each tile value

[mapname]_info.csv

Auxiliary information about a map from the footer.
Contains all the unknown header-type information,
as well as the strings.

[mapname]_objs.csv

A full listing of all objects in the specified map,
and all their associated fields.

[mapname]_strings.csv

A listing of all the strings in the map, as well
as the guessed mapping to object reference
values.

xargontiles.py

Usage: python xargontiles.py [Tiles File]

Generates a debug CSV file for the mapping specified in the given
TILES file from Xargon. Output is written to tiles.csv.

xargonfontgen.py

Usage: python xargongraphics.py [Graphics File]

Generates BDF fotn files for the two identified fonts stored in the
Xargon GRAPHICS file. The BDF files can then be converted to .pil files
for use in the main mapper via the pilfont.py script. The BDF files can
also be used in any software that supports BDF.

Download

xargonmapper.tar.gz (194.2 kB)
xargonmapper.zip (212.6 kB)

Filed under: Maps,Xargon |

Xargon Episode 3 Maps

Finally, here’s Xargon Episode 3. As before, the a tutorial of my process is over at the VGMaps forums.

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Filed under: Maps,Xargon |

Xargon Episode 2 Maps

And here’s Xargon Episode 2. If you missed it before, I’m also writing a tutorial of my process (and a log of my progress) over at the VGMaps forums.

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Filed under: Maps,Xargon |

Xargon Episode 1 Maps

After finishing Shadow Caster, I had originally planned to take a break from mapping. However, I had the idea to map a “simple” game for the purposes of writing a tutorial over on the VGMaps forums. Xargon turned out to be not quite-so-straightforward as I thought, but overall wasn’t too much. I haven’t totally finished Episodes 2 and 3, but Episode 1 is ready, so I am posting this now.

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Filed under: Maps,Xargon |

Shadow Caster Isometric Mapper and Resource Extractor

About and Dependencies

This is a series of Python scripts to generate Isometric views of Shadow Caster maps, as well as extract most of the Shadow Caster Resources. These scripts require the Python Imaging Library (PIL) and Python 2.x (tested with Python 2.7.3). PIL unfortunately does not yet support Python 3, which prevents these scripts from being forward-compatible at this time.

Windows users should be able to download Python and PIL from the above links. Most Linux/Unix varients should be able to install Python and PIL via your package manager of choice; Ubuntu users can install the python and python-imaging libraries. OSX users should already have Python, but you may need to compile PIL yourself via the source download at the PIL website.

The scripts also obviously require Shadow Caster (CD version), which can be a bit hard to find nowadays. Purchasing a used copy on eBay or other used game source appears to be the only option.

As before, special thanks to the SLADE Editor and everyone on the ShadowCaster modding thread at Doomworld. Both sources were instrumental in the development of these tools.

Please note the sample.png image file is used to obtain the Shadow Caster colour
palette and is required for this tool to work.

Usage

There are three scripts included in the package that are intended to be executed directly.
isomap.py is the main isometric mapper script,
shadowdat.py is a script to extract the contents of a Shadow Caster .dat file, and shadowlib.py is a script to extract the contents of a Shadow Caster .lib file. In addition to the three scripts above, several supplimentary scripts can be run to gather debug outputs of one form or another, and are listed under the Other Scripts heading.

isomap.py

Usage: python isomap.py [LIB FILE] [cd_castr.dat] [hd_castr.dat]

Generates a isometric map for each level in the specified Shadow Caster
LIB file (typically shadow.lib). The DAT files are used for image data.

shadowdat.py

Usage: python shadowdat.py [DAT FILE]

Extracts the complete contents of a give Shadowcaster dat file.
Does not support the cutscene dat files from the CD version, only
cd_castr.dat and hd_castr.dat. The .dat file from the floppy version may
also work, although it is unknown how frequently the floppy version uses
the RLE flag.

shadowlib.py

Usage: python shadowlib.py [LIB FILE]

Extracts the complete contents of a given Shadowcaster lib file. Resources are not interpreted and are written as-is.

Other Scripts

shadowdebugmapper.py

Usage: python shadowdebugmapper.py [LIB FILE]…

Generates a debug HTML file for each level in the specified LIB file.
Each index in the map is output into a cell in an HTML table
containing the following information:

The map index

the value for each of the map layers, in order

shadowsimplemapper.py

Usage: python shadowsimplemapper.py [LIB FILE]…

Generates a debug HTML file for each level in the specified LIB file.
Each index in the map is output into a cell in an HTML table
with lines representing walls.

shadowmap.py

I didn’t even write any usage instructions for this, but this
can generate image files for each layer of each map in a given lib file,
as well as CSV files for the data from each supplementary data file.

Download

ShadowCaster Mapper.tar.gz (162.8 kB)
ShadowCaster Mapper.zip (161.4 kB)

Filed under: Maps,Programs/Libraries,Python |

Shadow Caster maps

Well, here we go again. After doing Rise of the Triad, I looked around for similar games to map, and decided on Shadow Caster. Special thanks to the SLADE Editor and everyone on the ShadowCaster modding thread at Doomworld. Both sources were instrumental in getting me started on decoding the game data.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of a means to purchase the game at this time beyond searching for used copies on eBay or Amazon. The game is not particularly popular, so it should not be expensive. That said, it can be a bit clunky, so I’m not sure I would recommend it for most players.

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Filed under: Maps |