clipper.clp — Resource Archive

`clipper.clp` — Resource Archive

clipper.clp (1,151,267 bytes) is the Windows version’s resource archive. It uses a simple directory + raw data layout:

[2 bytes]  entry count (uint16 LE) → 816
[816 × 56 bytes]  directory entries
[raw data...]

Directory entry (56 bytes)

Offset	Size	Type	Description
0x00	40	char[]	null-terminated name string
0x28	1	uint8	entry type
0x2A	4	uint32	data size (bytes)
0x2E	4	uint32	data offset (from file start)
0x34	2	uint16	width (images only)
0x36	2	uint16	height (images only)

Entry types

Type	Count	Description
0x01	34	Markers (separator/navigation entries)
0x02	751	Images (raw 8-bit indexed, no compression)
0x03	7	Palettes (256 × 3 bytes RGB, 768 bytes)
0x04	22	Sound effects (raw IFF or WAV)
0x05	2	Speed effects (unknown format)

Image format

Images are raw indexed pixels — 1 byte per pixel, dimensions stored in the directory, no compression. The palette is chosen by image-name context. Transparency uses two known background colours (brown 95,67,51 and cyan 0,255,255), detected and made fully transparent.

The marker brackets

The 35 type-0x01 marker entries form 17 Start X / End X brackets, and crypt.exe looks those bracket names up by string at runtime — so they’re the game’s own resource taxonomy, not incidental separators. Every one of the 505 unnamed image entries falls inside a bracket:

Bracket	Entries	Geometry
Speed Graphics	73	all 16×16 (spell effects)
Faces	8	4 × 111×90, 4 × 31×24
Keys	29	all 8×14
Key Holes	87	29 each of 16×20 / 16×15 / 16×11
Throwing Items	12	4 weapons × 3 depths
Items	175	all 24×24
Misc	5	all 24×24
Chest	19	all 32×29 (chest armour)
Floor Items	147	49 groups × 3 depths
Monsters	14	mixed

The marker brackets map to the Amiga

Several brackets are byte-exact matches to Amiga banks:

Keys (29) = the Amiga bcdfa key-icon bank.
Key Holes (87) = the Amiga bcdfb–bcdfn wall-decoration bank.
Floor Items (147) = the Amiga bcdfa floor-item bank.
Speed Effects (73) = the Amiga BCSPEED spell-effect atlas.
Throwing Items (Arrow + Dagger) = the Amiga bcdfa throwing-projectile bank — but Sword and Hammer are DOS-exclusive projectiles the Amiga never had.

Palettes

Seven palettes, each 768 bytes (256 × RGB):

Palette	Usage
Palette	default/dungeon rendering
Automap Palette	automap view
Character Gen Palette	character generation screen
Options Palette	options/UI screens
Title Palette / 2 / 3	title screen variants

The DOS Character Gen Palette is the Amiga chargen palette, re-scaled — both store the same 4-bit component n; Amiga renders it n × 17, DOS n × 16 (94/96 components match).