The .blx and older .BLK map files are not an old .map format (as was originally speculated), but instead are a format containing editor icons. Each map type's icon set is extracted into individual 16x16 pngs, and also as a grid of all icons. The grids are aligned based on numerical values found in .blx files that determines a block's "type" vs. "value".
Description: Developer icon resources used in DDI's level editor