I play my games then "dissect" them. I came across some file extensions and looked them up on the internet and also through http://extsearch.com/ (they weren''t listed there). An Interplay game has the file extensions .hnr and .efm (in the "gamefile" folder) and I''ve also seen .li$ and .sta . How do I open these files to find the game code they used? I am just learning Visual C++ and my 3D graphics programs, so haven''t gotten to these types of files yet. Thanks.

They're probably inhouse files. They probably did one of two things: wrote a converter to convert a normal format to that one or an editor to create the files and save them in a custom format. If you really want to mess with them, find out what they're used for, then open the up in a hex editor and try to make some sense out of them.

[Resist Windows XP's Invasive Production Activation Technology!]

Edited by - Null and Void on June 13, 2001 10:30:34 PM

Yeah... remember, an extension doesn''t actually mean anything. I can call a BMP an EXE if I like, and it still works perfectly fine as a BMP. The only difference is that operating systems such as Windows have a harder job guessing what application I want to view it in.

So game files could have whatever extension the programmers felt made sense. Even ''normal'' file types sometimes get renamed... for example, the data files for Thief are renamed zip files. The only way you''re gonna find out is by examining them with a hex editor or running them through a few standard editors to see if any of them understand the file.

Very interesting.

I would still like to be able to decipher the code, so will try a hex editor. I tried several other applications and got gibberish - which was probably computer code from previously written text.

Thanks!