List of File Formats - Video Game Storage Media

Video Game Storage Media

List of the most common filename extensions used when a game's ROM image or storage medium is copied from an original ROM device to an external memory such as hard disk for back up purposes or for making the game playable with an emulator. In the case of cartridge-based software, if the platform specific extension is not used then filename extensions ".rom" or ".bin" are usually used to clarify that the file contains a copy of a content of a ROM. ROM, disk or tape images usually do not consist of a single file or ROM, rather an entire file or ROM structure contained within a single file on the backup medium.

  • JAG,J64 – Atari Jaguar (.jag, .j64)
  • BIN – Wii (.bin)
  • GCM - GameCube (.gcm)
  • NDS – Nintendo DS (.nds)
  • GB – Game Boy (.gb) (this applies to the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Color)
  • GBC – Game Boy Color (.gbc)
  • GBA – Game Boy Advance (.gba)
  • GBA – Game Boy Advance (.gba)
  • SAV – Game Boy Advance Saved Data Files (.sav)
  • SGM – Visual Boy Advance Save States (.sgm)
  • N64, V64, Z64, U64, USA, JAP, PAL, EUR, BIN – Nintendo 64 (.n64, .v64, .z64, .u64, .usa, .jap, .pal, .eur, .bin)
  • PJ – Project 64 Save States (.pj)
  • NES – Nintendo Entertainment System (.nes)
  • FDS – Famicom Disk System (.fds)
  • JST – Jnes Save States (.jst)
  • FC? – FCEUX Save States (.fc#, where # is any character, usually a number)
  • GG – Sega Game Gear (.gg)
  • SMS – Sega Master System (.sms)
  • SMD,BIN – Mega Drive/Sega Genesis (.smd or .bin)
  • SMC,078 – Super NES (.smc, or .078) (.078 is for split ROMs, which are rare)
  • FIG – Super Famicom (Japanese releases are rarely .fig, above extensions are more common)
  • SRM – Super NES Saved Data Files (.srm)
  • ZST – ZSNES Save States (.zst, .zs1-.zs9, .z10-.z99)
  • FRZ – Snes9X Save States (.frz, .000-.008)
  • PCE – TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine (.pce)
  • NPC – Neo Geo Pocket (.npc)
  • TZX – ZX Spectrum (.tzx) (for exact copies of ZX Spectrum games)
  • TAP (for tape images without copy protection)
  • Z80,SNA – (for snapshots of the emulator RAM)
  • DSK – (for disk images)
  • TAP – Commodore 64 (.tap) (for tape images including copy protection)
  • T64 – (for tape images without copy protection, considerably smaller than .tap files)
  • D64 – (for disk images)
  • CRT – (for cartridge images)
  • ADF – Amiga (.adf) (for 880K diskette images)
  • ADZ – GZip-compressed version of the above.
  • DMS – Disk Masher System, previously used as a disk-archiving system native to the Amiga, also supported by emulators.

Read more about this topic:  List Of File Formats

Famous quotes containing the words video game, video, game, storage and/or media:

    “It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
    —Marie Winn (20th century)

    “These people figured video was the Lord’s preferred means of communicating, the screen itself a kind of perpetually burning bush. “He’s in the de-tails,” Sublett had said once. “You gotta watch for Him close.””
    —William Gibson (b. 1948)

    “Life is a game in which the rules are constantly changing; nothing spoils a game more than those who take it seriously. Adultery? Phooey! You should never subjugate yourself to another nor seek the subjugation of someone else to yourself. If you follow that Crispian principle you will be able to say “Phooey,” too, instead of reaching for your gun when you fancy yourself betrayed.”
    —Quentin Crisp (b. 1908)

    “Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to me extravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
    —Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)