.XA File Extension

Audio file used by The Sims, a game where players build and simulate cities; contains music or other sounds for the game; commonly stored within The Sims archive files (.FAR files).

XA files can be used to modify The Sims audio with custom sounds. However, these modifications are not supported by Electronic Arts.

An XA file is an audio file used by a PlayStation (PS1) video game. It contains dialogue, sound effects, or music played in the game. Many games include XA files.

Most gamers will never encounter XA files. However, some dedicated gamers have created utilities that allow them to extract XA files from PS1 games. This allows the gamers to play the files and convert them to more common audio formats, using PlayStation game data utilities.

Some games that use XA files include:

• NBA Live 97
• Bust a Groove 2
• Mega Man Legends

NOTE: .STR files use audio saved in the XA format.

You can open an XA file and play the audio it contains with PSMPlay (Windows), PsxMC (Windows), or XA Audio Converter (Windows).

PSMPlay, PsxMC, and XA Audio Converter can all convert XA files to the .WAV audio format.

An XA file is a disc image saved in the eXtended Architecture (XA) format. It contains a copy of a CD-ROM saved in the Mode 2 layout, which includes a 16-byte header and compressed video and audio data organized into tracks that support 2336 bytes of data per sector.

Philips, Sony, and Microsoft introduced the XA format in 1988 to improve the CD-ROM standard. The CD-i storage format later replaced XA in the early-1990s.

One of the main aspects of XA is that it stores data sectors in a different layout than the Yellow Book CD-ROM standard. An aspect of the different structure is that it makes error correction code storage optional, resulting in the storage of more video data.

You can open an XA file with GEAR Software GEAR PRO (Windows) and EZB Systems UltraISO (Windows). To open an XA file with GEAR PRO to burn to a CD, follow these steps:

1. Select Open external physical image in the GEAR Project panel
2. Click Open
3. Select Open physical image