Extract text from game sprite archives (SG3)
To convert SG3 sprites to another format, you need Caesar III or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Game Graphics Data File" file type, you need software like Caesar III or a similar tool.
The .SG3 file is a proprietary game sprite and graphics archive used extensively by late-90s and early-2000s isometric city-building games. Developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra Entertainment, this format is the visual backbone for classic titles like Caesar III, Pharaoh, Zeus: Master of Olympus, and sometimes sprite mods for Age of Mythology. These files store hundreds of individual 2D image frames, animation sequences, and specific 256-color palette data needed to render buildings, citizens, and terrain on screen.
The primary disadvantage of the .SG3 format is its heavily closed, proprietary nature. It was never intended to be accessed outside of the original game engine. As a result, you cannot open a .SG3 file natively in modern image editors like Adobe Photoshop or standard web browsers. Modders typically have to rely on obscure, community-built reverse-engineering tools - such as SG3 Explorer or Pharaoh Model Viewer - just to extract the raw bitmaps.
Because this format is highly specialized and lacks public documentation, standard online converters completely fail to process it. Standard tools simply do not know how to read the custom offset tables and proprietary image headers. However, if you drag and drop your .SG3 file into convert.guru, our engine will attempt to analyze the internal structure. We can identify the file format, inspect the binary headers, and show you any embedded text strings or metadata. If our analysis detects standard underlying image data, viewing or extracting to conventional targets like PNG or BMP may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SG3 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted MGM, DTT, MESHWORLD and SG2 files.
If you want to convert SG3 file to EXE, ISO, BIN, CUE, PAK, WAD, PK3, PK4, BSP, MAP, SAV or DAT, you can use Caesar III or similar software from the "Game Sprite Graphics Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MOD, BIN, CFG, SCX, DAT, MPQ, LOG, CUE, INI, EXE, SCM or ISO files to SG3, try Caesar III or another comparable tool in the "Game Sprite Graphics Storage" 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 SG3 converter.