BAN Converter

Extract text from BAN files

Select File
Drop or upload your .BAN file

Online File Converter

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How to extract text from your BAN file

Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your BAN file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert BAN to another file type

To convert your BAN file to another format, you need Dovetail Games Train Simulator or other Game software.

Convert a file to BAN

To convert other file formats to the "Animation Data" file type, you need software like Dovetail Games Train Simulator or a similar tool.

About BAN files

The .ban file extension serves multiple distinct software ecosystems, creating a frequent point of confusion for users. Most commonly (27%), it functions as a Train Simulator animation file developed by Dovetail Games, storing motion data for trains and scenery. A close second (26%) involves team data files for the soccer management game Brasfoot or Dream League Soccer, where it holds roster statistics. Older files might be vector banners created by Broderbund PrintMaster or BannerMania.

The primary issue with .ban files is their proprietary nature; a file created in Silkroad Online cannot be opened by PrintMaster, and neither can be viewed with standard tools like Notepad or Windows Photo Viewer. Users typically encounter these files when attempting to mod games, migrate team data, or recover legacy graphic designs. Because they are often binary encoded or strictly formatted text, modifying them without the original environment risks file corruption.

For conversion, the target format depends entirely on the source:

For Game Animations (Train Sim/Silkroad): Enthusiasts often seek to convert these to FBX or OBJ for editing in 3D suites like Blender or Autodesk 3ds Max, though this usually requires specific community-made extractor scripts.
For Banners (PrintMaster): The goal is archiving. Converting these legacy designs to PDF, JPG, or PNG ensures they can be viewed on modern devices and printed without the original 1990s software.
For Data (Brasfoot/MiniProf): Users often need to parse this data into CSV or XLSX spreadsheets to analyze statistics or measurements outside the game interface.

Convert.Guru analyzes your BAN file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted TXT, SCAN, ABL and SSD files.

FAQ

If you want to convert BAN file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use Dovetail Games Train Simulator or similar software from the "Game Animation & Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to BAN, try Dovetail Games Train Simulator or another comparable tool in the "Game Animation & Data Storage" category.

The BAN Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our BAN converter.