# Show HN: I reverse-engineered the world maps of Test Drive III (1990 DOS game)

> Source: <https://github.com/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps>
> Published: 2026-05-31 09:45:45+00:00

Reverse engineered and extracted maps of the DOS Game *Test Drive III: The Passion* by Accolade

As a kid, I played Test Drive III a lot. Not because of the racing, but simply to explore the world.

There was so much to see, so much to discover. This project is an attempt to reconstruct those maps as accurately as possible. Over the past five years, I have worked on it on and off. Now, with the help of AI, I am close to success. Apart from the occasional flying car and missing sprites.

The 3D format itself is nothing too exotic, but it does contain a few special cases. Each tile or object is a small mesh stored as three parallel arrays of 16-bit signed X, Y, and Z vertex coordinates, followed by 8-byte polygon records containing the polygon type, vertex indices, and palette color. These are preceded by a short 4- or 8-byte header.

A map is a 32×16 grid. Each cell is 2 bytes: a tile ID selecting one of those meshes, plus packed rotation and height bits.

Wavefront Object files are available in the objs directory.

- Node.js 20.19+ (required by Vite 7)

```
npm install
npm run dev
```

Opens the viewer at [http://localhost:5173](http://localhost:5173)

```
npm run build
```

Output is in the `dist/`

directory.

```
npm run export
```

Exports all maps and objects to the `objs/`

directory.

```
npm run imgextract
```

Exports the currently documented DAT images as indexed-color PNGs to the `images/`

directory.

```
npm run spriteextract
```

Extracts transparent scene-sprite PNGs from the known scene render descriptor banks, including the `SCENE02`

same-family variant.

```
# View LST file contents
npm run lstview -- public/base/SCENE01.LST

# Extract VGA image from DAT file
npm run imgview -- public/base/DATAB.DAT 0x151 12083 320
src/
├── browser/     # Browser-only modules (Three.js viewer)
├── shared/      # Shared modules (extraction logic, LZW/RLE decoders)
└── tools/       # Node.js CLI tools
    ├── export/      # OBJ exporter
    ├── imgextract/  # Batch DAT image → PNG exporter
    ├── spriteextract/ # Scene sprite extractor
    ├── lstviewer/   # LST file viewer
    └── imgviewer/   # VGA image extractor
public/
└── base/        # Game data files (required)
objs/            # Exported Wavefront OBJ files
images/          # Extracted VGA images (PNG format)
spec/            # File format specifications
```

For a visual overview and previews of all extracted UI assets, scene sprites, map palettes, and car designs, visit the ** Project Images Gallery Index**. Each individual directory contains its own generated visual gallery:

[📁 Corvette ZR-1 Asset Gallery](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/images/CCERV/README.md)[📁 Honda NSX Asset Gallery](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/images/CCNSX/README.md)[📁 Lamborghini Diablo Asset Gallery](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/images/CDIAB/README.md)[📁 Mythos Asset Gallery](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/images/CMYTH/README.md)[📁 Chevrolet Corvette Stelvio Asset Gallery](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/images/CSTEL/README.md)[📁 Scenery Sprites Galleries](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/images/SCENE01_SPRITES/README.md)

The `spec/`

directory contains reverse-engineered documentation for Test Drive III file formats:

| File | Description |
|---|---|
|

[dat-file-layouts.md](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/spec/dat-file-layouts.md)[map-format.md](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/spec/map-format.md)[scene-render-descriptor-bank-format.md](/s-macke/Test-Drive-3-Maps/blob/master/spec/scene-render-descriptor-bank-format.md)`SCENE01.DAT`

, `SCENE02.DAT`

, and `SCENETT1.DAT`