Extracting data from games

Whats the best way to go about ripping data from games, mainly sprites and sounds, backgrounds, everything really. I can’t seem to find any good sprites on the web, but they had to come from the original game (off the disk) some how, some way. So I figure if they can do it I can do it to, just gotta figure out how first… And thats where I’m hoping ya’ll can help me, are there any good programs for this kind of thing? Also if you guys know of any good good source for GOOD and COMPLETE sprites, don’t be scared to put 'em down.
Thanks in advance ya’ll.[/b]

A lot of games already come with development tools. Unreal is a good example. From that you can view all of the content and save them in different formats.

So, the best way to do it would be to use the software that actually comes with the game. After than you’d have to do a Google search to look for programs other people have written that will do what you want.