Another reason to use some sort of resource file is that it can take a lot less time to install on a users machine (assuming you are installing from a CD) as you get one long sustained transfer instead of a thousand seeks and a thousand short transfers that generally make the CD skip all over the place. I''m just mentioning this because of a game that I just worked on where the developers shipped about 3000 seperate 2-16k files, and it takes FOREVER to install, and it''s really not that large.
Another benifit is that when you are creating your install, it''s much easier to be sure you didn''t forget a file (though you might have forgotten to put it in your resource file).
One other thing (it''s the last, I swear it) is that you can use numeric ID''s instead of filenames (if you roll your own resource file), and then you don''t have all those filenames littering your code and taking up space. Of course, you have to make sure the ID''s match...
Mark Fassett
Laughing Dragon Entertainment
http://www.laughing-dragon.com