diff --git a/src/java/com/threerings/media/image/FastImageIO.java b/src/java/com/threerings/media/image/FastImageIO.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..876bccf48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/java/com/threerings/media/image/FastImageIO.java
@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@
+//
+// $Id: FastImageIO.java,v 1.1 2003/04/27 06:32:15 mdb Exp $
+
+package com.threerings.media.image;
+
+import java.awt.Point;
+
+import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
+import java.awt.image.DataBuffer;
+import java.awt.image.DataBufferByte;
+import java.awt.image.IndexColorModel;
+import java.awt.image.PixelInterleavedSampleModel;
+import java.awt.image.WritableRaster;
+
+import java.io.DataOutputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.io.RandomAccessFile;
+
+import java.nio.IntBuffer;
+import java.nio.MappedByteBuffer;
+import java.nio.channels.FileChannel;
+
+/**
+ * Provides routines for writing and reading uncompressed 8-bit color
+ * mapped images in a manner that is extremely fast and generates a
+ * minimal amount of garbage during the loading process.
+ */
+public class FastImageIO
+{
+    /** A suffix for use when storing raw images in bundles or on the file
+     * system. */
+    public static final String FILE_SUFFIX = ".raw";
+
+    /**
+     * Returns true if the supplied image is of a format that is supported
+     * by the fast image I/O services, false if not.
+     */
+    public static boolean canWrite (BufferedImage image)
+    {
+        return (image.getColorModel() instanceof IndexColorModel) &&
+            (image.getRaster().getDataBuffer() instanceof DataBufferByte);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Writes the supplied image to the supplied output stream.
+     *
+     * @exception IOException thrown if an error occurs writing to the
+     * output stream.
+     */
+    public static void write (BufferedImage image, OutputStream out)
+        throws IOException
+    {
+        DataOutputStream dout = new DataOutputStream(out);
+
+        // write the image dimensions
+        int width = image.getWidth(), height = image.getHeight();
+        dout.writeInt(width);
+        dout.writeInt(height);
+
+        // write the color model information
+        IndexColorModel cmodel = (IndexColorModel)image.getColorModel();
+        int tpixel = cmodel.getTransparentPixel();
+        dout.writeInt(tpixel);
+        int msize = cmodel.getMapSize();
+        int[] map = new int[msize];
+        cmodel.getRGBs(map);
+        dout.writeInt(msize);
+        for (int ii = 0; ii < map.length; ii++) {
+            dout.writeInt(map[ii]);
+        }
+
+        // write the raster data
+        DataBufferByte dbuf = (DataBufferByte)image.getRaster().getDataBuffer();
+        byte[] data = dbuf.getData();
+        if (data.length != width * height) {
+            String errmsg = "Raster data not same size as image! [" +
+                width + "x" + height + " != " + data.length + "]";
+            throw new IllegalStateException(errmsg);
+        }
+        dout.write(data);
+        dout.flush();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Reads an image from the supplied file (which must contain an image
+     * previously written via a call to {@link #write}).
+     *
+     * @exception IOException thrown if an error occurs reading from the
+     * file.
+     */
+    public static BufferedImage read (File file)
+        throws IOException
+    {
+        RandomAccessFile raf = new RandomAccessFile(file, "r");
+        FileChannel fchan = raf.getChannel();
+
+        try {
+            MappedByteBuffer mbuf = fchan.map(
+                FileChannel.MapMode.READ_ONLY, 0, file.length());
+
+            // read in our integer fields
+            IntBuffer ibuf = mbuf.asIntBuffer();
+            int width = ibuf.get();
+            int height = ibuf.get();
+            int tpixel = ibuf.get();
+            int msize = ibuf.get();
+
+            if (width > Short.MAX_VALUE || width < 0 ||
+                height > Short.MAX_VALUE || height < 0) {
+                throw new IOException("Bogus image size " +
+                                      width + "x" + height);
+            }
+
+            // make sure our colormap array is big enough
+            if  (_cmap == null || _cmap.length < msize) {
+                _cmap = new int[msize];
+            }
+            // read in the colormap
+            ibuf.get(_cmap, 0, msize);
+
+            // advance the byte buffer accordingly
+            mbuf.position(ibuf.position() * 4);
+
+            // read in the image data itself
+            byte[] data = new byte[width*height];
+            mbuf.get(data);
+
+            // create the image from our component parts
+            DataBuffer dbuf = new DataBufferByte(data, data.length, 0);
+            int[] offsets = new int[] { 0 };
+            PixelInterleavedSampleModel smodel =
+                new PixelInterleavedSampleModel(
+                    DataBuffer.TYPE_BYTE, width, height, 1, width, offsets);
+
+            WritableRaster raster = WritableRaster.createWritableRaster(
+                smodel, dbuf, _origin);
+            IndexColorModel cmodel = new IndexColorModel(
+                8, msize, _cmap, 0, DataBuffer.TYPE_BYTE, null);
+
+            return new BufferedImage(cmodel, raster, false, null);
+
+        } finally {
+            fchan.close();
+            raf.close();
+        }
+    }
+
+    /** Used when loading our color map. */
+    protected static int[] _cmap;
+
+    /** Used when creating our writable raster. */
+    protected static Point _origin = new Point(0, 0);
+}