LST File Format

LST is an archive format that can contain multiple type of information.

Header is 6 bytes. The first two bytes are the file ID, hex 20 43. This is then followed by 4 bytes that tell the number of items in the archive. The items that follow are always continuous, so all data for one item is in one block.

Each item is identified with a 2 byte value. It only has two valid values: 0 tells the item is unused and you should continue to the next item, 1 tells the item exists and a 2 byte Type ID follows.

Type ID has following valid values:

0x01 = WAV or XMIDI
0x02 = RLE Compressed Bitmap
0x03 = Font
0x04 = Player Colored Bitmap
0x05 = Palette
0x07 = Shadow Bitmap
0x0E = Uncompressed Bitmap

WAV or XMIDI (01)

The first 4 bytes tell the length of the data.

WAV files are 8-bit mono 11025 Hz PCM files without WAV header.
XMIDI files can be identified by FORM at the start of the data.

RLE Compressed Bitmap (02)

Size	Data
2 bytes	Zero point X
2 bytes	Zero point Y
4 bytes	Unknown (always 0 = hex `00 00 00 00`)
2 bytes	Width
2 bytes	Height
2 bytes	Palette ID (always 1 = hex `01 00`)
4 bytes	Length of data

Data begins with the start positions of each line in the bitmap. This is a 2 byte value and there is Height amount of them. The actual RLE compressed data follows and this always ends with a hex FF.

Font (03)

Contains 224 Player Colored Bitmaps for each valid letter (characters 32 - 255). The header before all bitmaps is only 2 bytes and tells the X and Y spacing of the font (one byte each). This is then followed by all the bitmaps.

Player Colored Bitmap (04)

Size	Data
2 bytes	Zero point X
2 bytes	Zero point Y
4 bytes	Unknown (always 0 = hex `00 00 00 00`)
2 bytes	Width
2 bytes	Height
2 bytes	Palette ID (always 1 = hex `01 00`)
4 bytes	Length of data

Data begins with the start positions of each line in the bitmap. This is a 2 byte value and there is Height amount of them. The actual data is compressed using a custom algorithm.

Start value	End value	Description
0x01	0x3F	Number of transparent pixels No data
0x41	0x7F	Number of uncompressed pixels Length = Value - `0x40` Data * Length follows
0x81	0xBF	Number of player colored pixels Length = Value - `0x80` Data * Length follows
0xC1	0xFF	Number of compressed pixels Length = Value - `0xC0` Data * 1 follows
0x00		Invalid, unused
0x40		Invalid, unused
0x80		Invalid, unused
0xC0		Invalid, unused

Palette (05)

Contains 256 colors in RGB order. The first 2 bytes = Palette ID (always 1 = hex 01 00), followed by 768 bytes of palette data.

Shadow Bitmap (07)

Size	Data
2 bytes	Zero point X
2 bytes	Zero point Y
4 bytes	Unknown (always 0 = hex `00 00 00 00`)
2 bytes	Width
2 bytes	Height
2 bytes	Palette ID (always 1 = hex `01 00`)
4 bytes	Length of data

Data begins with the start positions of each line in the bitmap. This is a 2 byte value and there is Height amount of them. The actual data is compressed using a custom algorithm.

The compression swaps between semitransparent and fully transparent mode, basically the bitmap is a 1-bit monochrome image.

Start value	End value	Description
`0x00`	`0xFE`	Mode 1: Number of shadow pixels Mode 2: Number of transparent pixels
`0xFF`		End of line

Uncompressed Bitmap (0E)

The only bitmap type to have a footer as well as a header.

Size	Data
2 bytes	Palette ID (always 1 = hex `01 00`)
4 bytes	Length of data

Data

A raw paletted 8-bit bitmap, pixel-by-pixel.

Side	Data
2 bytes	Zero point X
2 bytes	Zero point Y
2 bytes	Width
2 bytes	Height
8 bytes	Unknown (always hex `00 00 02 01 06 70 00 F4`)