TITLE.PIC Format

This document describes the format of the Wasteland 1 TITLE.PIC file.

It covers:

• the file layout
• the image dimensions and pixel packing

The generic vertical-XOR transform is documented separately:

• Vertical XOR

Scope

TITLE.PIC contains a single static title image.

The image uses packed 4-bit pixels:

• width: 288 pixels
• height: 128 pixels
• 2 pixels per byte
• row stride: 144 bytes
• full image size: 144 * 128 = 18432 bytes (0x4800)

File Layout

TITLE.PIC has no container structure.

There is:

• no header
• no signature
• no size field
• no compression wrapper
• no footer

The entire file is the image payload.

For the Wasteland 1 title image, the file size is therefore exactly 18432 bytes.

Image Payload

The file content is a single packed image buffer stored in row-major order.

Each byte contains two 4-bit pixels:

• high nibble = left pixel
• low nibble = right pixel

However, the stored bytes are not yet the final pixel values. The complete 18432-byte payload is vertical-XOR encoded with a row stride of 144 bytes.

After vertical-XOR decoding, the result is the final 288x128 title image.

Decoding

To decode TITLE.PIC:

1. Read the whole file as a byte array.
2. Verify that it contains 18432 bytes.
3. Vertical-XOR decode the entire array with a stride of 144 bytes.
4. Interpret the result as a packed 288x128 4-bit image.

In pseudocode:

decoded = decodeVxor(fileBytes, 144)
Copy

Validation Notes

Useful consistency checks when implementing a reader:

• the file should contain exactly 18432 bytes
• decoding must use a vertical-XOR stride of 144 bytes
• the decoded image buffer must still be interpreted as packed 4-bit pixels, not as 8-bit indexed pixels