Extract text from Game and navigation files (NOB)
To convert NOB files to another format, you need 7-Zip / Coastal Explorer or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Game Data Archive" file type, you need software like 7-Zip / Coastal Explorer or a similar tool.
.NOB files generally serve one of two distinct purposes. Most commonly, they function as Game Data Archives used by titles developed by Terminal Reality (such as Nightfall and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines), or other games like IL-2 Sturmovik and Fallout 2. These files act as proprietary containers that bundle game assets - including 3D models, textures, and audio files - into a single massive file. The other common use is as Navigation Object files. These are structured in plain XML and used by marine navigation and plotting software like Rose Point Coastal Explorer and Navionics.
Because game archives use proprietary packaging, standard online converters fail to process them. Users cannot directly convert an entire game archive into consumer formats like JPG or MP3. Furthermore, these files often exceed 1GB, making browser-based processing difficult. However, the underlying format of many .NOB game archives is simply standard ZIP compression with a changed extension to prevent casual tampering. Users typically need to extract the contents using tools like 7-Zip or specialized modding software to access the raw game files.
For marine .NOB files, the disadvantage is limited cross-compatibility. Users usually need to convert this proprietary XML schema into universal GPS formats like GPX or KML to import waypoints into hardware plotters.
Because this file format is heavily tied to the original software, it is notoriously difficult to open natively on Windows or macOS. Just drag and drop your .NOB file into convert.guru to identify its true structure. We analyze the file's magic bytes to detect if it is a standard ZIP container or a plain-text XML file. If a supported embedded format is detected, viewing the internal code or extracting assets may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NOB file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PAZ, DON and IC files.
If you want to convert NOB file to , you can use 7-Zip / Coastal Explorer or similar software from the "Game Archive or Navigation Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert files to NOB, try 7-Zip / Coastal Explorer or another comparable tool in the "Game Archive or Navigation Data" 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 NOB converter.