Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HAL file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert HAL to another file type
To convert your HAL file to another format, you need Hired Guns or other Game software.
Convert a file to HAL
To convert other file formats to the "Game Data File" file type, you need software like Hired Guns or a similar tool.
About HAL files
The .HAL extension is a classic example of file format collision, serving three distinct, incompatible ecosystems.
Amiga Game Data (Primary): Historically associated with the 1993 sci-fi RPG Hired Guns by DMA Design. These files typically contain map data, assets, or level structures. They are often binary and may be compressed using Amiga Power Packer, making them unreadable without specific extraction tools or an emulator like WinUAE.
HotDocs Answer Library: A legacy binary format used by HotDocs (versions 6–2008) to save user responses for document automation. These files are proprietary and cannot be opened by standard text editors. Users typically need to convert them to the modern XML-based HDL format within the HotDocs software to ensure long-term access.
HansaWorld Application Language: A plain text scripting file used by Standard ERP (formerly HansaWorld Enterprise) to customize reports and behaviors.
Conversion Advice:
For Text/Code: If the file opens in Notepad++ and contains readable code, convert it to PDF for archiving or TXT for universal editing.
For HotDocs: You must use the Answer File Manager in HotDocs 2009+ to import the binary .HAL and save it as HDL or ANX (XML).
For Amiga: These require an Amiga environment. The best approach is wrapping them into an ADF (Amiga Disk File) image for emulation.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HAL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert HAL file to JS, TS, PY, JAVA, CPP, C, CS, PHP, RB, GO, RS or SWIFT, you can use Hired Guns or similar software from the "Amiga Game Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SH, PY, KT, PS1, SWIFT, LUA, PL, JAVA, SCALA, JS, VBS or TS files to HAL, try Hired Guns or another comparable tool in the "Amiga Game Data" category.
The HAL 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 HAL converter.