Hack. Inspect. Pack.

A tool for modding Nancy Drew adventure games. Extract assets, edit scripts, and rebuild archives.

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HIP Toolkit

Mod Nancy Drew games — finally easy

HeR Interactive uses proprietary archive formats for all game assets: graphics, sound, and Lua scripts. HIP Toolkit gives you a clean native interface to read, edit, and repack everything — no hex editor required.

  • CIF

    Container format for PNG images, compiled Lua scripts, and XSheet sprite sheets. Encode and decode with automatic JPEG→PNG conversion.

  • Ciftree

    The main multi-file archive format bundling all game assets. Pack a folder into a .dat archive or extract one — with optional auto-decoding of every CIF entry inside.

  • HIS Audio

    The game engine’s audio wrapper around OGG Vorbis. Extract music and voice lines from archives, or encode your own .ogg files back into the game.

Drop a file — the tool figures out the rest

Drag any supported file onto the app window and HIP automatically selects the correct mode — no manual switching needed.

  • Auto-detect Mode

    Drop a .cif → decode mode. Drop a .lua → encode. Drop a folder → pack Ciftree. Drop a .dat → unpack. HIP reads the file and switches automatically.

  • Batch Processing

    Process entire archives in one go. Unpack a Ciftree with dozens of entries, decode all CIF files inside, or mass-decompile Lua scripts from a directory — all at once.

  • Live Result Log

    Every operation appends to an on-screen log with status icons. See file names, sizes, image dimensions, and warnings inline — no dialogs, no noise.

Lua Scripts

Nancy Drew games are driven by Lua 5.1.5 scripts embedded as compiled bytecode inside CIF archives. HIP gives you the full pipeline.

  • Compile & Encode

    Write or edit a .lua source file, then compile it to bytecode and encode it into a CIF container in one click. Uses the same Lua 5.1.5 engine bundled with the game.

  • Decompile ß

    Recover human-readable source from compiled bytecode. HIP auto-detects whether a CIF holds source or compiled Lua and can decompile an entire archive at once. Function and variable names may differ — debug symbols are not stored in the game files.

Screenshots

  • HIP Toolkit — CIF
  • HIP Toolkit — Ciftree
  • HIP Toolkit — HIS
  • HIP Toolkit — Inspect Ciftree
  • HIP Toolkit — Inspect CIF
  • HIP Toolkit — Inspect HIS
  • HIP Toolkit — CIF
  • HIP Toolkit — Ciftree
  • HIP Toolkit — HIS
  • HIP Toolkit — Inspect Ciftree
  • HIP Toolkit — Inspect CIF
  • HIP Toolkit — Inspect HIS

Made for macOS

Built natively with SwiftUI on a cross-platform C++ engine. HIP Toolkit is a first-class Mac app — not a port.

  • Quick Look

    Preview CIF images and archive contents directly in Finder without opening the app. Powered by the native macOS Quick Look extension.

  • Drag & Drop

    Full drag-and-drop support — from Finder, from other apps, into the window or onto the Dock icon. Drop multiple files for batch processing.

  • Dark Mode

    Follows your macOS appearance settings automatically. Uses system fonts for a perfectly native look at any scale or resolution.

Advanced Format Details

  • Sea of Darkness OVL

    Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness uses a special CIF type 4 (OVL) variant for overlay graphics — distinct from the standard type 2 PNG. HIP encodes to type 4 when needed, just toggle the option before packing.

  • XSheet Sprite Definitions

    Encode and decode XSheet files (CIF type 6) used for sprite animation. Accepts raw .xsheet files or JSON exports, and round-trips them back to CIF without data loss.

Platform Support

  • Available

    macOS 26

    macOS

    macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later. Build from source with Xcode 26+.

  • Available

    Windows 11

    Windows

    The same C++ core is platform-agnostic. Windows 10 or later is supported

Open Source

The full source is published on GitHub. Inspect it, fork it, or contribute.

Compatible with Nancy Drew games from Trail of the Twister (#22) up to Sea of Darkness (#32).