I use my own wadext tool, to first unpack the entire WAD and then pick out the stuff I want. It will normally convert all sounds to WAV unless you specify a different option. Navigate to 'File', and choose 'Open Folder'. Select the folder where your Wad file (s) reside. Upon clicking OK, you should now see the game (s) you have.

Extracting Sprites From WAD Files
To provide the participants in the Indie Game Jam with a lot of prepared content for their experiemental games, we used sprites extracted from the WAD files of Doom, Doom engine games like Hexen and Heretic, and various Doom Total Conversions (TCs). While the source code to the IGJ games is under the GPL, the sprites are copyrighted by their respective owners.

How to Open DLL Files. The Dynamic Link Library, or DLL file, is a mainstay of traditional Windows programming. These files are used by programs to gain additional functionality and libraries without having to have them built-in to the. This is a simple command line tool that will extract an entire WAD into a mostly PK3-compatible folder structure, it will also decompile all TEXTUREx, ANIMATED and SWITCHES lumps into readable and reusable text lumps (ANIMDEFS and TEXTURES, respectively.) Most of the file formats used with ZDoom will be detected and get a proper extension applied.

A list of the WADs used by the games is available here.

If you are developing a game with the IGJ source and would like to use sprites from a specific WAD file, or if you just want to play a game that uses sprites from a WAD that we didn't pre-extract, read on. It isn't hard to extract the sprites, but there are a number of steps in the process.

Overview
A WAD file is a binary file containing all of the data for a Doom-style game, including the sprites, music, levels, and whatnot. We're only interested in the sprites for the Indie Game Jam.

There are a number of tools available for extracting (or 'ripping') sprites from WAD files. We use an open source tool called deutex, and we've modified it slightly (to output a uniform transparent color, for the curious...the source is available in the CVS tree, along with the source to the other tools used below).

In addition to deutex, we use a perl script (and another helper executable) to drive deutex and put the sprites in the right place for the IGJ games, and to generate the dudes.html thumbnail preview page. You can use this page to choose which sprites to use if you're creating a new game.

Details

Install ActivePerl. ActivePerl is a high quality and free perl implementation from ActiveState. Make sure perl.exe is registered to execute .pl files, or is in your path. This should be the default, but you might need to restart, or refresh your path.
Download and unzip wadrip.zip into your IGJ game root directory (the directory with the game executable in it, or the directory with the main source code in it).
Create a wads and a sprites directory in this main directory, if they don't already exist.
Copy the WADs you want to rip into the wads subdirectory.
Download the Doom Shareware archive and extract the doom1.wad file into the wads directory. Rename doom1.wad to doom.wad in the wads directory. (deutex requires an original WAD file to extract certain information while ripping sprites)
Execute util_ripwads.pl in the main directory. If you've installed perl correctly, you should be able to double-click on the file, or run 'perl util_ripwads.pl' from a command prompt in that directory. This should enumerate through *.wad in your wads directory, ripping the sprites into the sprites directory, and creating a dudes.html in the main directory with thumbnails of all the sprites.

You should now be ready to use the sprites, or to play a game that required the sprites.

How to decompress a file in Windows.
Decompress a file in MS-DOS or the Windows command line.
How to decompress a compressed file in Linux and Unix.

How to decompress a file in Windows

Before extracting the data from a compressed file, you must first determine the compressed file type. On an IBM compatible computer running Windows, this can be determined by the file extension. Most compressed files are either .ZIP, .RAR, .GZ, or .TGZ files. Below are examples of what some of the different compressed icons look like in Microsoft Windows.

Once the compressed file type is determined, use the appropriate program. For example, many users use WinZip and Pkzip to extract ZIP files and WinRAR to extract RAR files in Windows. However, we recommend Windows users use 7-Zip since this program is free, open source, and supports all major compressed file formats.

Note

7-Zip is capable of opening most of the more common types of compressed files, including .ZIP, .GZ, .TAR, .WIM , and .XZ

Tip

If you are using MicrosoftWindows XP, Vista, 7, or later, your computer should already be cable of extracting the contents of ZIP files.

Tip

If you do not want to or cannot install a program on your computer, you can also compress and decompress files online.

Once a compression program is installed on the computer, you can extract the contents from the compressed file. Below are some basic steps on how you can extract files.

Tip

If you are extracting a file in e-mail, save the file to a folder on the computer first.

In Microsoft Windows, locate the compressed file and right-click it. A menu should open that gives you the options to 'Extract' or Extract all' the file. Click one of these options to extract the file. A window should open with additional options, such as the location to where you want to extract the files. If you have installed 7-Zip, click 7-Zip and then Extract to 'xxxx,' where xxxx is the name of the compressed file.

Caution

When extracting the files, pay attention to where you are extracting the files. Extracting the files to the incorrect location, such as the desktop, can extract multiple files to the desktop.

How To Extract Doom Wad Files

If the compressed file is for a program installation, open the folder containing the extracted files and run the setup to start the installation process.

Decompress a file in MS-DOS or the Windows command line

MS-DOS users need to extract the files using the command line. We recommend users use the pkzip and pkunzip utilities to compress and uncompress their files. Additional help and information about how files can be extracted from the command line is available on our PKZIP and PKUNZIP page.

How to decompress a compressed file in Linux and Unix

Unlike other operating systems, almost all variants of Linux and Unix come pre-installed with some form of command capable of compressing and uncompressing files. Linux and Unix users are likely to be dealing with file extensions such as .TAR, TGZ, .Z or .TAR.GZ. See the below Linux and Unix command pages for additional information about the commands used to create compressed files and to uncompress files.

How To Extract Wad Files

Additional information

How To Extract Wad Files

See the compress definition for further information and related links.