Does anyone know what format the files within the .pak files in the sprites folder of mcgold are in? they are some graphics format but none of the common ones that I know.

This is one step to figuring out how to make new mechs for that game. Though the source code isnt available, but at least some things could be modified for more fun and balanced gameplay.

Well it seems I was wrong about them being a graphical format at all.. running a file header analyser program, showed the extracted files from all the .pak archives to be Mac OS X Mach-O 32 bit Intel Executable...

So if this analyser program called trid is accurate then they are Macintosh applications containing the graphical data on the mechs. It should say PowerPc Executable I would think since this game is from 1998. Hmmm...

Somehow the Game is able to read the graphical data within the executables despite it being in Mac format?

I don't have any macintosh available to test this. If someone has both a pc and a mac then you could extract the files from the .paks using cmunsta's pakextract.exe program with any file extension. Then transfer the files over to the mac, and rename the extensions to the mach-O executable format. Then try to run the program and see what happens?

Strange if this is true that they used macintosh applications to make a game only for pc?

sorry that this answer is been so long in the making but...

http://ppc.warhawkenterprises.com/1.html

This guy has somehow extracted the animations from MCG (well thats what it looks like or somehow he screen captured his way to get the animations)

Maybe you could contact him and ask him what he did

http://naiyion.deviantart.com/

You can probably contact him at his deviantart account
or try his email on warhawkppc

Cheers