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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

	INTRO 2048 x 1024, 0.1 MB
	STORY 2048 x 1024, 0.0 MB
	MAP 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_01: Underground Tunnel 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_02: More Giant Trolls 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_03: An Unusual Tribal Village 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_04: The Maze of Madness 2048 x 1024, 0.1 MB
	BOARD_05: Another Erupting Volcano 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_06: A Violent Storm 2048 x 1024, 0.1 MB
	BOARD_07: Underwater Cove 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_08: Search for Precious Jewels 2048 x 1024, 0.4 MB
	BOARD_09: The Ruins of Xarg 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_10: The Labyrinth Level 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_11: The Land of Leeches 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_12: The Dungeon of Death 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_13: The Dismal Looking Castle 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_14: Xargon’s Eerie Castle 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_15: The Evil Xargbot Factory 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_32: Xargon 2048 x 1024, 0.1 MB

Combined Download

xargonepisode3.zip (3.9 MB)

	INTRO 2048 x 1024, 0.1 MB
	STORY 2048 x 1024, 0.0 MB
	MAP 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_01: The Quest Continues 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_02: The Massive Volcano 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_03: More of this Strange Land 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_04: Cave of the Deadly Xbat 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_05: Strange Creatures 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_06: Swamps of Despair 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_07: The Lava Pits 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_08: The Surreal Forest 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_09: Beneath the Earth 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_10: The Grunt’s Hideout 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_11: The Dangerous Waters 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_12: Some Ancient Ruins 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_13: A Mysterious Maze 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_14: The Hidden Fortress 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_15: The Secret Chamber 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_32: The Secret Chamber Reactor 2048 x 1024, 0.1 MB

Combined Download

xargonepisode2.zip (3.8 MB)

Episode 1 Maps

	INTRO 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	STORY 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	MAP 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_01 : Journey’s Begin 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_02 : A Strange New Dimension 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_03 : The Forest of Enchanted Trees 2048 x 1024, 0.4 MB
	BOARD_04 : A Robot Development Plant 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_05 : The Corridors of Doom 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_06 : The Cave of the Ancients 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_07 : The Mysterious Corkscrew Cave 2048 x 1024, 0.4 MB
	BOARD_08 : The Chilly Waters of the Coral Grave 2048 x 1024, 0.3 MB
	BOARD_09 : The Tunnels of Terror 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_10 : Xargon’s Secret Factory 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB
	BOARD_32 : Xargon’s Secret Factor Reactor 2048 x 1024, 0.1 MB
	BOARD_33 : Ending Sequence 2048 x 1024, 0.2 MB

Combined Download

xargonepisode1.zip (3.5 MB)

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)

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.

Maps

	Level 01 : RuinsA 3840 x 2100, 3.1 MB
	Level 02a : RuinADrn (full) 1984 x 1428, 0.9 MB
	Level 02b : RuinADrn (drained) 2368 x 1428, 2.6 MB
	Level 03 : RuinAWat 2368 x 1340, 1.9 MB
	Level 04 : RuinsB 4096 x 2152, 4.8 MB
	Level 05 : RuinBWat 1408 x 852, 0.3 MB
	Level 06 : RuinBTem 2432 x 1216, 1.0 MB
	Level 07 : Temple 3648 x 2120, 3.5 MB
	Level 11 : CastWine 3136 x 1572, 2.5 MB
	Level 12 : CastThrn 3136 x 2076, 3.6 MB
	Level 13 : CastMoon 2176 x 2004, 1.3 MB
	Level 14 : UndrMine 2688 x 1788, 2.8 MB
	Level 15 : UnderSpi 3904 x 1952, 3.8 MB
	Level 16 : WaterAci 3968 x 2048, 3.4 MB
	Level 17 : WaterCan 2816 x 1656, 1.1 MB
	Level 18 : WaterDra 1792 x 1072, 0.9 MB
	Level 19 : WaterObe 448 x 432, 0.1 MB
	Level 20 : LavaMud 3136 x 2116, 2.5 MB
	Level 21 : LavaMine 3840 x 2152, 3.3 MB
	Level 22 : VesteTst 3648 x 2080, 5.1 MB
	Level 23 : VesteBld 2240 x 1312, 1.2 MB
	Level 24 : Vest2Tst 3456 x 2012, 2.8 MB
	Level 25 : VesteMaz 3968 x 2088, 5.7 MB
	Level 26 : VesteFin 1472 x 1248, 0.8 MB

Combined Download

ShadowCaster.zip (59.2 MB)

Notes

As before, all maps were generated using a Python map generator I wrote. The map generator for Shadow Caster is a bit improved from the ROTT version. I am sure it will improve further for the next game. The map generator decodes all floor/wall/ceiling information, as well as monster/object/item placement. For any other information, manual markup has been added. The manual markup has been kept at a minimum; mostly for area transitions, items dropped by enemies or chests, teleporters, and identifying obelisks. Some potential markup I excluded include identifying traps, marking locked doors, and identifying key puzzles. Some puzzles are identified, but only when they impact something that I already marked, such as a level transition, or the obelisk in LavaMine. Underwater transitions are also not exactly marked, but typically if there is water (or a water-like substince in VesteTst and Vest2Tst), you can dive under. The under water area is always the very next map number.

If anyone would prefer more markup, please let me know and I can create an alternate version of the maps for this purpose.

The maps are identified with their exact filename inside of shadow.lib. Some of the map names are fairly easy to decode, and I could have expanded them to their “full” name, but I chose not to. Other maps, such as WaterObe are a bit more cryptic (Water Obelisk?).

Many maps contain inaccessible regions outside the map, suspected to be used for scripting. In almost all cases, I have blanked out these regions for the purposes of displaying only the portions of the maps intended to be viewed in-game. The only exception is the last level, VesteFin, contains a room where all of Veste’s shapeshifting forms “wait” until he changes into each one. I kept this room in order to display all of the forms he uses.

RuinADrn is a bit special, as I actually produced two versions of this map. The first version has the water present, and blanks out any rooms that are inaccessible in this state. The second version reflects how the map appears once the water is drained and the level opens up. RuinAWet is the underwater version of this map. Although technically only a portion of the map is accessible, the whole map is still included.

I have no idea why there is no map 8, 9 or 10. The above maps reflect every .map file inside of shadow.lib. The numbers are based on the number allocated by the in-game automap. As far as I can tell, these maps simple do not exist.

Note that these maps were generated from the CD version. Vest2Tst and VesteMaz are exclusive to this version. In the floppy version, the exit from VesteTst leads directly to VesteFin.