Game files and data formats

What to know

Start with the file list, sizes, names, and signatures. Then trace which code opens each file and how it uses the bytes. Extensions and likely layouts are clues. The reader in the game is the evidence for the format.

Keep a decoder's bounds explicit. Check counts, offsets, lengths, byte order, and any data after the last counted record. Before editing a format, write it back unchanged and compare every byte. Then run that check over every file of the type before testing edited values in the game.

The media guides cover file triage and structure. The linked cases show why round-trip checks and the game's own record count matter.