How do I hear/extract .dat audio files?

[The Dying Informant]

Hi. Yes I'm sure this has been asked before, but I searched and I didn't find a suitable answer.

I want to hear and extract audio files from a game I bought and installed. The files are in a .dat extension. They are huge files (1 gig each), and that is because there should be many files in them (strange that they aren't folders, but obviously the developer didn't intend on this being a moddable game). I am going to use the sounds for my personal use only. I will not use it for illegal things - I never do such things. I want to get access to all the voices in the game and I THINK I know what files they are, but all the game's data files are all called .dat, but I don't need to get to the visuals or anything like that.

If you want to know what game I'm talking about, its Metal Gear Solid 2 for the PC. I want to know how to view and extract these files. I already tried Winzip, Winrar, Pakscape, and Windows Media player, but none of them recognise it. The files that I THINK are what have all the voices in the game are vox.dat, demo.dat and codec.dat, but I'm not certain.

If you can help me, please do. I know .dat is a non-standard format which can be difficult to open, but I hope by knowing they are audio and that they are from the game MGS2, someone here can help me figure out how to get to them.

Again, since I know Konami probably chose this format for a reason (as apposed to .pk3 for instance), they don't want the game to be altered. And I won't. And I won't share the files (or what I will make out of the files) with anyone else. It's for personal use. I bought the game, and the files take up alot of HD space, so I don't see why I shouldn't have access to them.

[The Dying Informant]

I suppose no one knows the answer then. Or this isn't the right site to ask at. Well, I can't find a way to access these audio .dat files in any place, at any time....

I want to do this so badly, but I can't find ANY PLACE that is appropriate to ask for help online. Maybe I am just the WORST SEARCHER EVER. Yeah I think so. Also all search engines suck, yes, even Google. You hope you can magically figure out the winning combination of words that will create the phrase that will find the site you need.