Extract text from MAD files
To convert your MAD file to another format, you need Electronic Arts Games or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Proprietary Video Container" file type, you need software like Electronic Arts Games or a similar tool.
A .MAD file is most commonly a proprietary video and audio container used by Electronic Arts (EA) games, specifically utilizing the Madcow codec. Found in titles like Need for Speed, The Sims 2, and SimCity 4, these files contain in-game cutscenes, logo splashes, and movies. Because the format is highly specialized and obsolete, modern media players like VLC or Windows Media Player cannot open them without specific, often unavailable, codecs. This creates a significant catch for gamers and archivists trying to view or preserve game assets. The best workflow is to convert these legacy files to standard MP4 or AVI formats using FFmpeg or specialized game extraction tools.
Alternatively, a .MAD file may be a project file for MadMapper, a video mapping software used by artists to project visuals onto physical 3D surfaces. These files store mapping configurations, projector settings, and media references. They are strictly proprietary to the MadMapper ecosystem and cannot be "converted" in the traditional sense; users must open them in the software to export the visual output as MOV or MP4.
Lastly, in rare legacy enterprise environments, this extension represents a Microsoft Access Module Shortcut - a tiny system file that simply points to a specific VBA module within a database. These cannot be converted as they contain no actual data.
Convert.Guru analyzes your MAD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted MAI, FRM, WAV, M4A, ZPA and US files.
If you want to convert MAD file to US, MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WMA, M4A, AIFF, OPUS, ALAC or APE, you can use Electronic Arts Games or similar software from the "Game Video & Audio Container" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MIDI, AAC, TTA, AU, WV, DTS, MID, FLAC, RA, MP3, PCM or WAV files to MAD, try Electronic Arts Games or another comparable tool in the "Game Video & Audio Container" category.
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 MAD converter.