Cyclone's X-Troll Website - Products

Demos
  Acid-Intro
Musicdemo
Longscreen
  Sprite Magic
  Final Swobbler
  New Year Demo
  AudioPac
  Neoshow
  Digidrum Demo
Digisound
Outline 05 Entries
Dbug 191
Outline 06 Entries
Outline 07 Entries
Ourline 08 Entries

Products
MEDI
MV2000
  Turbobooster
  Block Editor
Lethal Xcess
SMDsend
  Super Magic Tool
  Danger Zone
Dragonworld
Pooz Editor

Pixels

Press Releases

X-Troll at Pouet

About us

X-Troll Products - Eclipse Block Editor

This editor is the deluxe version for Eclipse Software Design, it was used on many games and had been developed for designing the levels of Lethal Xcess. The original version was coded by Blue Devil / Gigabyte Crew, but it was slow and had many flaws, so Cyclone / X-Troll decided to improve it. The 1st thing that was rewritten, was the screen-rendering routine, which was originally done in GFA-Basic like the whole editor. In this version the screen is rendered in pure assembler which means its better to handle and got much better responses.

The improved and completely redesigned editor has many advanced features:

supports *.NEO, *.PI1 and *.IFF files for all picture file operations
importing blocks from pictures
converting pictures to block objects
deleting double blocks
deleting unused blocks
merging blocks from another level-file
integrated workscreen for precombining larger bock objects
save screenshots
integrated support for a graphic-tool to paint new blocks
automated calculation of map-size from various parameters
capable of importing/exporting byte-maps if less than 256 blocks are used
advanced disk support (format disk, create folder, delete file)
integrated help system and key information
automatic resolution change between low and medium resolution

Block Editor Short Reference

This brief summary gives you all the keys that can be used within the Block Editor. It's no complete manual, but I hope you find it helpful.

Map Editor Key Commands

ESC	exit to main menu
HELP	show help screen
CURSOR	scroll map blockwise
CTRL CURSOR	scroll map pagewise
SHIFT CURSOR	jump to end of map
G	get block from current map position
SPACE	select block from blockset
+ -	increase/decrease block number
CTRL 0-9	set jump marker to current map position
ALT 0-9	get jump marker an jump to marker position
J	jump to coordinate
BACKSPACE	cut block object
UNDO	block object on/off
H	hide block object on/off
F	fill block object with selected block
R	random fill block object with selected blocks
W	show work screen
N	call painting utility (NEOchrome)
RETURN or ENTER	show current picture
L	load picture
S	save snapshot from current map position
B	convert current picture into block object
U	zoom map
M	show zoomed map
C	delete/insert columns
Z	delete/insert rows

Workscreen Key Commands

ESC	exit to map
HELP	show this screen
L	load workscreen
S	save workscreen
C	clear workscreen
BACKSPACE	cut block object from workscreen

Select Block Key Commands

ESC	exit to map
HELP	show this screen
UP / DOWN	scroll blocks blockwise
INSERT	insert empty block at current position
DELETE	insert empty block at current position
C	cut workblock
P	paste workblock
E	edit workblock
O	overlay block to workblock
L	load picture with blocks
S	save visible blocks as picture
N	call painting utility
A	add new blocks from current picture

Pixel Editor Key Commands

ESC	exit
HELP	show help screen
C	clear workblock
F	fill workblock with color 1
H	flip workblock horizontally
V	flip workblock vertically

LEVEL-FILE-FORMAT

There are three files for each level, they are divided into a header file (*.LVL), a file containing the map objects (*.MOB) and the blockmap itself (*.MAP).

Unfortunately there are at least two level formats that have been used by BlockEdit. All of them are still supported on load, but they are no longer used for saving.

Level Files before Version 3.3

These level files (*.LVL) are rather simple:

Adress	No.	Type	Content	Name	Description
$0000	16	word		pal	colour palette consisting of 16 words in STE format
$0020	1	word		blk_cnt	number of map objects in *.MOB file
$0022	1	word		map_wd	map width in blocks
$0024	1	word		map_ht	map height in blocks

The length of the header file is 38 bytes.

The map object file (*.MOB) contains the number of blocks specified within the header file. The blocks are 16 px squares in 4 planes, so each block consumes 16 lines with 16 px in 4 bitplanes (bytes), that's a total of 128 bytes per block. Each single bock is stored in one go.

The mapfile (*.MAP) itself consists of an array with [.w] block numbers in it. The size is given within the header file.

Level Files for Version 3.3 and later

With Version 3.3. of BlockEdit the level file format (*.LVL) was changed to the following structure:

Adress	No.	Type	Content	Name	Description
$0000	1	long	"ECLP"	magic	Magic Key
$0004	1	long	"0000"	version	Version Information
$0008	1	word		blk_cnt	number of map objects in *.MOB file
$000A	1	word		map_wd	map width in blocks
$000C	1	word		map_ht	map height in blocks
$000E	1	word	1	pal_cnt	number of colour palettes following (Default=1)
$0010	16	word		pal	colour palettes with 16 words each (STE Format)
	1	word	0	palsw_cnt	number of following palette switches (Default=0)
	*	word		palsw_y	y-position of palette switch (only if palsw_cnt>0)
	*	word		palsw_pal	ID-number of used palette (only if palsw_cnt>0)
	10*2	word		jmpstore	jump markers x / y coordinates (10 jump markers)
	1	word		scr_wd	game screen width
	1	word		scr_ht	game screen height
	1	word		x_speed	x scrollspeed
	1	word		y_speed	y scrollspeed
	1	word		vbls	number of vbls in game
	1	word		hertz	vertical refresh in game
	4	word			internal coordinate information

The length of the LVL file should be 110 Bytes if there are no additional palettes and colour switches.

The mapfile (*.MAP) itself consists of an array with [.w] block numbers in it. The size is given within the header file.

X-Troll a demo crew on Atari ST, Atari STE and Mega ST 16 bit computers was founded in 1988 and consisted of Sunnyboy, Nexus 6 and the Cyclone. Their releases were: Acid-Intro, Sprite Magic, The final Swobbler, The Longscreen, The Cyclones New Year Demo, AudioPac Demo, Digidrum Demo and the best Atari game ever Lethal Xcess, the follow up to Wings of Death.

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This page has been updated 04.05.2008