Software & Apps File Types What Is an EMI File? How to Open, Edit, & Convert EMI Files By Tim Fisher General Manager, VP, Lifewire.com Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire. our editorial process Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Tim Fisher Updated March 26, 2020 File Types Design Cryptocurrency MS Office Windows Linux Google Drive Apps File Types Backup & Utilities View More Tweet Share Email A file with the EMI file extension is a Pocket Tanks Emitter file used by the Pocket Tanks game. The game is a redesigned version of Scorched Tanks, both of which were created by Michael P. Welch from BlitWise Productions. Pocket Tanks is a 1–2 person game that involves using tanks to shoot explosives across the map in order to attack the opponent. The purpose of EMI files within the game isn't clear, but we suspect they have something to do with storing weapon data. Two EMI files are included with Pocket Tanks upon installation. One is called default.emi and is located at the root of the program's installation directory. The other is emitter.emi and is stored in the \weapdata\ folder. Pocket Tanks. Although it's definitely possible that you're trying to open an EMI file, it's much more likely that you're after information on opening a file of a similar extension. See the section at the bottom of this page for more on that. EMI also stands for electromagnetic interference, external memory interface, and enhanced multilayer image, but none of those concepts are related to files that end in the .EMI suffix. How to Open an EMI File EMI files are used by the game Pocket Tanks but aren't meant to be opened using the program interface. They're instead just program files that the game can use when it needs to. If your EMI file has nothing to do with Pocket Tanks, try opening the file with a text editor like Notepad++. What this will do is let you open the EMI file as a text document. If the file is 100 percent text, then what you have is simply a text file that you can read with the text editor. If only some of the text is readable, see if you can find a word or two that can help you understand what format the EMI file is in or what program was used to make it. If you find that an application on your PC does try to open the EMI file but it's the wrong application or you'd rather have another installed program open EMI files, see our How to Change the Default Program for a Specific File Extension guide for making that change in Windows. How to Convert an EMI File Most file types can be converted using a free file converter, but EMI files are an exception because they're simply not as popular as other files like MP3s, PDFs, etc. The program that opens a file can sometimes be used to convert the same file to a new format, but that's hardly the case with games, especially Pocket Tanks since there's no way for you to manually open the EMI file in the program. Still Can't Open the File? EMI files are rare, so chances are you don't really have one but instead are working with a file that looks like the file extension says EMI. For example, it just so happens that EMI and EML are very close in spelling, but the first uses an uppercase "i" and the second uses an uppercase "L." If what you really have is an EML file, trying to use it with the Pocket Tanks game won't get you anywhere. EML files are E-Mail Message files, so you can open one with Microsoft Outlook and probably some other email clients. The EMI file extension is also similar in spelling to ELM and EMZ, but again, neither of those formats are the same as a Pocket Tanks Emitter file, so they won't work with Pocket Tanks and neither will EMI files work in the programs that open ELM and EMZ files. The basic idea here is that if you don't really have an EMI file, re-read the extension and research what you see so that you can learn more about the file's real format and see which programs or converters are available for it.