I found the forum topic that I was thinking of. It started with nothing but dblock and dindex then found a DB .
Restore Backup with only dblock and dindex files. Unfortunately I think the final tool relied on using the DB.
@Sparx82 Any thoughts on how to get something back without a dlist file or DB? I see I had suggested building a dlist file from dindex info which could then help a more normal tool (without having to hack on it).