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Philip Howard edited this page Nov 26, 2020 · 1 revision

Metadata

The 32blit tools provide a means for converting a metadata.yml into embedded metadata for games.

Metadata Content

Game metadata includes:

  • Title - maximum of 24 characters
  • Description - maximum of 128 characters
  • Version - such as v1.0.0 - maximum of 16 characters
  • Splash - a 128x96 pixel cover art image
  • Icon - an 8x8 pixel icon

metadata.yml

A .yml file is used to store metadata and determine which image to use for the Splash and Icon.

This is the metadata.yml for the hardware-test example:

title: Hardware Test
description: A test of 32Blit's inputs and outputs.
author: pimoroni
splash:
  file: hardware-test.png
icon:
  file: hardware-test-icon.png
version: v1.0.0

32blit tools

Metadata is attached to a 32blit binary file using the tools.

Writing metadata to a binary

The 32blit tool accepts a --config argument with a path to the matadata.yml file and --file argument with the path to a 32blit binary file.

Metadata is parsed, validated, packed and appended to the end of the 32blit binary.

32blit metadata --config metadata.yml --file hardware-test.bin

If metadata is already appended to the target binary, the --force argument must be supplied to overwrite it.

Read metadata from a binary

If a 32blit binary has metadata, the tools can be used to display it.

For example, running:

32blit metadata --file hardware-test.bin

Will display the metadata like so:

Parsed:      hardware-test.bin (24,812 bytes)
Relocations: No
Metadata:    Yes

    Title:       Hardware Test
    Description: A test of 32Blit's inputs and outputs.
    Version:     v1.0.0
    Author:      pimoroni

    Icon:        8x8 (3 colours)
    Splash:      128x96 (8 colours)

Dump images from a binary

The tools can also retrieve the images from a 32blit binary with metadata using the --dump-images flag.

Images fill be saved in the format <binary-name>.<image-type>.png.

Running:

32blit metadata --file hardware-test.bin --dump-images

Will display the metadata and filenames of the dumped images:

<snip>

    Icon:        8x8 (3 colours)
    Dumped to:   hardware-test.icon.png
    Splash:      128x96 (8 colours)
    Dumped to:   hardware-test.splash.png
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