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The Force Engine - RetroBIOS
Type standalone
Classification Game engines
Source https://github.com/luciusDXL/TheForceEngine
Version v1.22.420
Profiled 2026-10-04
Cores theforceengine, tfe
Systems dark-forces, outlaws
Checked by existence
Technical notes

Modern Jedi engine reimplementation by Lucius Dark, supporting LucasArts Dark Forces (shipping) and Outlaws (in-progress).

TFE itself bundles the engine data under TheForceEngine/ in the source tree, which batocera.ports/theforceengine.mk rsyncs to /usr/share/batocera/datainit/system/configs/theforceengine/ on install: Captions/ Documentation/ ExternalData/ Fonts/ Mods/ Shaders/ SoundFonts/ UI_Text/ UI_Images/

The user is expected to supply the retail game data. Dark Forces is probed by checking for DARK.GOB in the configured source-data path (TheForceEngine/main.cpp:484-485, with PATH_SOURCE_DATA from TFE_Paths).

Dark Forces loader list (TFE_DarkForces/darkForcesMain.cpp:70-83): c_gobFileNames[] = DARK.GOB, SOUNDS.GOB, TEXTURES.GOB, SPRITES.GOB c_optionalGobFileNames[] = enhanced.gob The DOS retail Dark Forces floppy and CD both ship DARK.GOB, SOUNDS.GOB, TEXTURES.GOB, SPRITES.GOB; enhanced.gob is the TFE-only HD asset pack.

Dark Forces official patch v1.22 (df_patch4) is pulled by the build script as df_patch4.zip from df-21.net and dropped under Mods/, so the engine applies the retail v1.22 patches on top of any user retail install (THEFORCEENGINE_ PATCH_SOURCE in the batocera mk). The patch itself is bundled with the emulator, not with the retail data.

Outlaws: every method of TFE_Outlaws/outlawsMain.cpp is a stub and runGame() returns false. The only Outlaws file the code names is Outlaws.lab, tested by the settings dialog before it stores the Outlaws source path (TFE_FrontEndUI/frontEndUi.cpp:1340); the line that would make it the active source path is commented out (:1344).

6 files | 4 required, 2 optional | 0 in repo, 6 missing Categories: 6 game data

DARK.GOB required missing game_data
Dark Forces main data archive (levels, briefings, scripts)

SOUNDS.GOB required missing game_data
Dark Forces audio archive

TEXTURES.GOB required missing game_data
Dark Forces texture archive

SPRITES.GOB required missing game_data
Dark Forces sprite archive

enhanced.gob optional missing game_data
Optional enhanced HD asset pack

Outlaws.lab optional missing game_data
Outlaws main LAB archive

Generated on 2026-10-10T11:26:02Z