Firestaff

A source-faithful Dungeon Master engine for modern hardware.

Firestaff brings the classic FTL dungeon crawlers to macOS, Windows, Linux and Steam Deck era machines while keeping the original game logic anchored to the best available source references. It runs original game data you already own, validates it by hash, and lets you choose between pixel-perfect V1 presentation and selectable V2.0/V2.1/V2.2 presentation resolutions from 640x400 up to 3840x2160.

Screenshots

Real in-game captures, all at the original 320x200 (V1) and 640x400 (V2.0) / 3840x2160 (V2.1/V2.2) presentation resolutions that the launcher targets.

Original-style DM1 (V1, 320x200)	V1 title source path (320x200)

Enhanced title rendering (V2.1, 640x400)	V2 4K presentation work (3840x2160)

The V1 captures use the original DM PC 3.4 VGA palette, the original 320x200 framebuffer, and the original SWSH/TITLE/DUNGEON cadence preserved by the V1 source path. The V2.1 capture is rendered through the 2x filtered presentation target; the V2 4K capture uses the selectable 3840x2160 presentation target while gameplay still runs in the original 320x200 coordinate space.

Current Status

Firestaff is in active development. The launcher, data scanner, build system, packaging scripts and source-lock verification framework are in place. DM1 is the strongest runtime target today. The other games have hash-verified launch profiles and substantial engine slices, with end-to-end playability still being hardened game by game.

The table below separates runtime fidelity from presentation work. A "verified slice" means the named behavior is covered by focused tests or probes; it is not a claim that the whole game is finished.

Across the game profiles that expose V2.0, filtered mode targets a fixed 640x400 runtime surface. It presents the original 320x200 framebuffer at 2x scale and maps input back to the original game coordinate space.

V2.1 and V2.2 profiles expose a per-game resolution setting. The launcher offers targets from 640x400 through 4K/3840x2160; M11 renders the selected presentation surface while preserving the original 320x200 input/game coordinate space.

Game / version	Current status
DM1 V1 Original	Playable and source-locked against the PC 3.4 lineage. v2.7.25 added 18 Group 8 bounded fixes: 2 real source-locked bug fixes (TAB-06 G0050 wound-defense, DUN-06 F0705 stairs NULL-deref), 16 source-lock pins covering F0284 cell rotation, F0150 step-delta, F0316/F0317 scent, F0192 poison resistance, BUG0_78 door-wound preserve, BUG0_16 projectile cap, F0822/F0824 explosion advance/despawn, F0830/F0831 lifecycle, F0501 party-location, F0758 potion power, and F0864 reincarnation RNG. 28 hand-drawn Latin Extended-A glyphs in M11 game-text fix 244/548 (44%) of sv.po msgstrs that previously rendered as SPACE. CSB launch verified end-to-end via --scan-data and --game csb.
DM1 V2.0 / V2.1 / V2.2	V2.0/V2.1/V2.2 all share a per-game selectable presentation resolution from 640x400 through 3840x2160, with V1 command ownership preserved. V2.0 is no longer locked to 640x400 — it uses the same resolution selector as V2.1/V2.2. Side-by-side V1/V2 seed and region manifests are in place; full enhanced screenshot/pixel gates and broader presentation polish remain active.
CSB V1 Original	Hash-verified launch/profile boundary, real DUNGEON.DAT load, dungeon handle handoff, object-chain access, imported champion stats/load behavior, party rotation, tick accumulation, timeline dispatch, wall text, and deterministic boot-to-viewport render slices are verified. End-to-end CSB playability, title/import UI composition, broader command queue binding, and full viewport integration are still being hardened.
CSB V2.0 / V2.1 / V2.2	V2.0/V2.1/V2.2 share the same selectable 640x400..3840x2160 presentation resolution (V2.0 no longer locked to 640x400). V1 compatibility and launch/profile separation exist. HUD overlay and smooth-movement scaffolds are covered by probes, but enhanced assets, lighting, controller ergonomics, and full side-by-side screenshot verification remain open.
DM2 V1 Original	Boot/profile, utility/import, world-state, save/load, weather, projectile-door, asset-loader, dungeon-loader, object-model, and map-state probes exist. Broader dungeon, rendering, mechanics, creature/combat, shops/NPCs, and real-runtime compatibility remain active work.
DM2 V2.0 / V2.1 / V2.2	V2.0/V2.1/V2.2 share the same selectable 640x400..3840x2160 presentation resolution. Enhanced asset, HUD, lighting/outdoor effects, smooth movement, touch/controller, and verification scaffolds are implemented. V2 remains presentation work on top of the still-active V1 parity effort.
Nexus V1 Original	Saturn DMDF/DGN parsing, world/runtime state, rendering slices, save/load, actor bounds, mechanics scaffolding, and verification paths exist. Launcher/game-loop handoff with real Saturn asset-path proof and broader runtime coverage remain active.
Nexus V2.0 / V2.1 / V2.2	V2.0/V2.1/V2.2 share the same selectable 640x400..3840x2160 presentation resolution once launchable. Asset, UI, lighting, and touch/controller slices exist, but V2 compatibility lock, launch/profile separation, smooth movement, and full verification remain behind the V1 handoff proof.
Theron's Quest V1 Original	JP/US Track 02 provenance is hash-verified. Parser, world/progression state, viewport/UI, initial mechanics, save/load, shop-table guards, direct hash-verified boot-profile loading, and a narrow US bank-boundary signal are verified. Exact Track 02 dungeon-bank offsets, full dungeon loader parity, runtime playability path, and README-eligible real screenshots remain active work.
Theron's Quest V2.0 / V2.1 / V2.2	Not started beyond keeping the V1 compatibility boundary honest. When a V2.0 path is exposed, it should use the same selectable 640x400..3840x2160 resolution as the other games (V2.0/V2.1/V2.2 share one selector). V2 work waits on stronger V1 Track 02 parity and runtime proof.

What Firestaff Gives You

• Source-faithful gameplay work: DM1 and related systems are checked against ReDMCSB, CSBWin, skproject, CSB lineage sources and Greatstone data references.
• Modern launcher: a 1920x1080 start menu with per-game status, settings, language support, availability checks and hash-verified data discovery.
• Game-data scanning: Firestaff searches recursively by file hash, not by filename or folder layout. It lists required files that are found or missing.
• Launch safety: games with missing required data are shown as unavailable and cannot be started until the required hashes are present. Optional title, intro and other non-essential extras can be absent.
• Multiple presentation modes: original V1 rendering, filtered V2.0 at 640x400, and selectable V2.1/V2.2 presentation targets up to 3840x2160.
• Cross-platform C11 engine: pure C, CMake, SDL3, no C++ dependency.
• Packaging path: preview packaging scripts exist for macOS DMG/ZIP, Windows ZIP/installer and Linux DEB/RPM.

Latest Release

Current version: 2.7.25

The latest release is a DM1 V1 Group 8 bounded-fix batch plus i18n hardening, documented in RELEASE_NOTES.md:

• 18 Group 8 bounded fixes from docs/dm1-v1-functional-divergence-report.md:
  • CHM-04 (F0319 chest auto-close runtime helper), MOV-05 (F0284 cell-rotation invariants), MOV-06 (F0316/F0317 scent add/delete compat), DUN-01 (F0150/F0701 step-delta pin), TAB-06 (G0050 wound-defense source-lock, a real bug fix), TAB-07 (Phase17 explosion subtype pin), MNU-04 (F0758 potion-power formula pin), CHM-08 (F0864 reincarnation RNG determinism), GRP-02 (F0192 poison-resistance pin), CHS-02 (BUG0_78 door-wound preserve), DUN-06 (F0705 stairs-transition NULL-deref guard
    • a real bug fix), PJE-05 (BUG0_16 projectile-cap pin), LIF-01 (F0830 time-criteria and F0831 stamina-amount pins), DUN-01 (F0501 party-location bit-pack), PJE-04 (F0822/F0824 explosion advance/despawn).
  • 2 verified source-locked bug fixes (TAB-06, DUN-06); 16 source-lock pins. 50+ new test scenarios, all PASS.
• i18n TTF + Latin Extended (M11 game-text):
  • 28 hand-drawn Latin Extended-A glyphs fix 244/548 (44%) of sv.po msgstrs that previously rendered as SPACE.
  • SDL3_ttf-based font cache covering all 19 l10n languages with a per-language TTF lookup chain (assets + system fallback).
• CSB launch path verified end-to-end via --scan-data and --game csb: 51/51 boot_profile_smoke PASS, launch_blocker_m12 PASS, required_complete_launches PASS.
• Build portability: Windows MSVC compatibility for setenv/unsetenv and -Wmaybe-uninitialized in test harnesses.

See RELEASE_NOTES.md for the full history.

Download

Get the latest build from GitHub Releases.

Platform	Package
macOS	DMG and ZIP
Windows	Installer and ZIP
Linux x86_64	DEB and RPM
Linux ARM64 / Steam Deck	DEB and RPM

All game data is user-supplied. Firestaff does not include copyrighted game assets.

Quick Start

1. Download Firestaff from Releases.
2. Run it once so the default data directory is created.
3. Put your original game files anywhere under the configured data directory.
4. Start Firestaff. The launcher scans the directory automatically and shows which games are ready.

Default data directory:

~/.firestaff/data/

Suggested subdirectories:

~/.firestaff/data/
  dm1/
  csb/
  dm2/
  nexus/
  theron/

Filenames are less important than file hashes. Firestaff searches recursively, so a custom folder layout works as long as the original files are present. Game data may also live inside ZIP archives or ISO/BIN disc images; the scanner hashes archive contents and reports matches as virtual paths.

Game Data Scanner

Use the CLI scanner to see what Firestaff can find:

firestaff --scan-data

or:

firestaff --scan-game-data

The scanner reports required data per game. Required files block launch when missing. Non-essential extras such as title or intro animation files are reported as optional and can be skipped.

ZIP files are supported for hash discovery across the game-data root. Stored entries are supported everywhere; deflated entries are supported when Firestaff is built with zlib, which is enabled automatically when CMake finds it. ISO/BIN disc images are scanned as ISO 9660 containers, covering DM2 disc images and the existing Saturn/Nexus data-image path. For DM1, CSB, and DM2, required files found inside archives are materialized into Firestaff's local asset cache before launch so the runtime still receives ordinary game-data paths.

You can point Firestaff at a custom root:

firestaff --data-dir ~/Games/FirestaffData --scan-data

The launcher also exposes the configured data directory and game availability in the start menu.

Command-Line Options

firestaff [options]
  --duration <ms>       Run for a fixed duration (-1 = run until exit)
  --width <px>          Window width
  --height <px>         Window height
  --scale-mode <n>      1=V1 original, 2=V2.1 enhanced, 3=V2.2 modern
  --script <cmds>       Comma-separated input script
  --data-dir <path>     Game-data root
  --scan-data           Scan game data and print found/missing files
  --scan-game-data      Alias for --scan-data
  --game <id>           Pre-select dm1, csb, dm2, nexus or theron
  --fullscreen          Run fullscreen
  --no-vsync            Disable vertical sync
  --fps                 Show FPS counter
  --version             Show version and exit
  --help, -h            Show help

Examples:

firestaff --scan-data
firestaff --game dm1 --scale-mode 1
firestaff --data-dir ~/Games/FirestaffData --fullscreen
firestaff --duration 5000 --fps

Graphics Modes

Mode	Resolution target	Purpose
V1 Original	320x200	Pixel-faithful original rendering
V2.0 Filtered	640x400..3840x2160 (user-selectable, same selector as V2.1/V2.2)	2x presentation of the original framebuffer with CRT scanlines, palette correction and sharpening
V2.1 Upscaled	Selectable 640x400 to 3840x2160	Cleaner modern output while preserving the DM look
V2.2 Modern	Selectable 640x400 to 3840x2160	New modern art and UI experiments

V1 owns gameplay-critical behavior. V2 modes are presentation layers and must not bypass source-locked command, collision, timing or inventory routes.

Architecture

M12  Modern launcher UI
  -> M11 game engine, render loop, input and audio
      -> M10 data layer, dungeon state, graphics, combat and timeline
          -> Original game files supplied by the player

Main source areas:

Directory	Purpose
src/engine/	SDL loop, game view, rendering, input, save/load and audio
src/ui/	Modern launcher, menu state, rendering and hit-testing
src/shared/	Asset loading, hash validation, palette, config and localization
src/frontend/	Title screens, entrance sequences and boot presentation
src/memory/	Dungeon, movement, combat, sensors, timeline and savegame model
src/dm1/	DM1 source-locked runtime systems
src/dm1v2/	DM1 enhanced presentation systems
src/csb/	Chaos Strikes Back runtime and presentation work
src/dm2/	Dungeon Master II runtime and presentation work
src/nexus/	Saturn DM Nexus DMDF/DGN support
src/theron/	Theron's Quest support
tests/ and probes/	Integration tests, source-lock gates and headless probes

Source Fidelity

Firestaff is built around source references, not guesswork.

Primary references:

• ReDMCSB for DM1 and large parts of the PC-34 lineage.
• CSBWin and CSB for Chaos Strikes Back lineage.
• skproject for Dungeon Master II.
• Greatstone for dungeon maps, data notes and graphics atlas material.

Source-lock comments in the code cite the relevant original source files and functions for gameplay-critical behavior.

Building from Source

Requirements:

• CMake 3.20 or newer
• A C11 compiler
• SDL3

On macOS:

brew install sdl3

Build:

git clone https://github.com/yeager/firestaff.git
cd firestaff
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --parallel
./build/firestaff --help

Run the headless Phase A probe:

SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy ./build/firestaff_m11_phase_a_probe

Run the full local test set:

ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure

Some integration tests need original game data.

Localization

The launcher uses gettext PO files and supports a broad language set, including English, Swedish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish.

v2.7.25 expanded the runtime text-rendering pipeline:

• M11 game-text: 28 hand-drawn Latin Extended-A glyphs (Ä Ö Å Ü ß é è ê ç à â î ï ô û ñ ã õ ü ï ø) plus a UTF-8 decoder. This restores 244 of 548 (44%) of sv.po msgstrs that previously rendered as SPACE.
• TTF font cache (firestaff_font_cache_pc34_compat.c): per-language TTF lookup chain covering all 19 l10n languages with <asset>/fonts/NotoSans-<lang>.ttf, system fallback (Arial Unicode.ttf on macOS, DejaVu on Linux, Arial on Windows), and CJK fallback (NotoSansCJK / Hiragino Sans GB). Used by the SDL3_ttf renderer to cover Cyrillic, Greek, Kanji, Hangul, and CJK beyond what the bitmap-glyph table supports.

Legal

Firestaff is a clean-room engine reimplementation based on public source and format references. You need original game data files that you legally own.

No copyrighted game data is included.

Dungeon Master, Chaos Strikes Back and Dungeon Master II are trademarks of FTL Games. DM Nexus is a trademark of Victor Interactive Software. Theron's Quest is a trademark of Working Designs / Victor Interactive Software.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.