MM1 Items Monsters Events

MM1 Items Monsters Events

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Not yet decoded in this repository. This page records what we know from companion projects and where to start a future trace.

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Status summary

Data	Likely source (DOS)	This repo
Items	ITEMS.DTA or embedded tables in MM.EXE	❌ no codec
Monsters	MONSTERS.DTA	❌ no codec
Spells	SPELLS.DTA / exe tables	❌ no codec
Map events	Per-map *.OVR (code + data)	❌ not exported
Strings	MM.EXE, STRINGS.DTA (variant)	partial — slug table @ 0x10C07 only
Shops / tables	OVR / exe	❌

For gameplay reference (not binary layouts), the FAQ monster lists and item notes in Might and Magic FAQ.txt cover MM2 primarily; MM1-specific tables are sparse there.

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Best external references

Resource	Use for
ScummVM engines/mm/mm1	Authoritative loaders for monsters, items, spells, map scripts
ScummVM mm1/datafiles	Expected filenames and platform variants
lagdotcom RE (GOG/.../re/lagdotcom/)	WALLPIX / maze tooling (already used here)
RPGClassics / Fandom MM1 tables	Human-readable item/monster lists for validation

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Map events (*.OVR)

Each MAZEDATA screen has a companion overlay file (e.g. SORPIGAL.OVR, AREAA1.OVR). Structure:

• 14-byte header (code size, data size, …)
• Code segment — map script bytecode (movement, encounters, doors, text)
• Data segment — tables, WALLPIX lane ids (outdoor), exit ids, etc.

ScummVM’s engines/mm/mm1/maps/ implements the interpreter. We only parse data-segment fields needed for outdoor conversion (tools/mm1_wallpix.py parse_ovr_data()).

Next trace targets: event opcode table in OVR code, encounter hooks, item give/take ops — mirror the MM2 event.dat work once opcode layout is confirmed.

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Items & monsters (planned)

When decoding starts, expect parallels with MM2:

MM2	MM1 (hypothesis — verify in ScummVM)
items.dat 256×20	ITEMS.DTA fixed records
monsters.dat 256×26	MONSTERS.DTA fixed records
spells.dat 96×2	SPELLS.DTA or exe-embedded
event.dat container	per-map *.OVR scripts

Deliverables will follow repo convention: struct in EXTRACTED/decomp/, Python + C codec in tools/, format doc numbered in EXTRACTED/docs/, MM2ED-style editor section if warranted.

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See also

• 50-mm1-overview — decoded maze + outdoor work
• 22-mm1-mazedata-format — geometry only
• 18-items-dat-format — MM2 item layout (comparison baseline)
• 16-monster-ability-format — MM2 monster layout

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See also

Page	Why
MM1 Overview	Decode status
items dat Format	MM2 item layout baseline
monsters dat Format	MM2 monster layout baseline