What is a .PAK file?
PAK is a game data archive holding levels, textures and sounds. Used by Quake, Unreal and many engines.
- Did you know
- The PAK archive dates back to id Software’s Quake in 1996.
- A Quake PAK opens with the magic letters “PACK” and is just an uncompressed table of files and paths.
- From Quake III onward id Software dropped PAK for ZIP-based .pk3 archives, though unrelated engines still reuse the .pak name.
- What Analyser reads
- Inspect game ROMs, patches and engine assets: iNES/NES2.0, Game Boy/Color/Advance, SNES, Nintendo DS/DSi, Nintendo 64, and Sega Genesis ROM headers (title, mapper, region, checksum); IPS/BPS/UPS/PPF patches; Doom WAD lumps; Minecraft NBT/schematics and Bedrock bundles; Aseprite sprites; Godot .pck; Quake/id Tech PAK/PK3; Source BSP/VPK/VTF/VMT; KTX/KTX2 textures; Tiled maps; LÖVE games; PICO-8 carts - plus MPQ, 3DS/Switch and Ren’Py/RPG Maker identification.
- Depth of analysis
- .PAK is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .PAK file
- Drag a .PAK file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.