06-01-2010, 01:48 PM
The file extension .dat is just a generic file extension used for program data. Sometimes developers will use standard formats, then change the extension to "hide" the files, but a lot of times when you come across a .dat or .bin file, you're dealing with a non-standard file format.
You can try running the file through a file ripper, but most modern games employ compression, which defeats the file ripper most of the time. If the file-ripper fails, you can use a hex editor to see if there's a magic number that tells what kind of file it is. After that, you'd have to reverse engineer the file format, which is not an easy task.
Unfortunately, I don't know where to get any modern file rippers (the last one I used ran under DOS).
You can try running the file through a file ripper, but most modern games employ compression, which defeats the file ripper most of the time. If the file-ripper fails, you can use a hex editor to see if there's a magic number that tells what kind of file it is. After that, you'd have to reverse engineer the file format, which is not an easy task.
Unfortunately, I don't know where to get any modern file rippers (the last one I used ran under DOS).