I have several old Panorama database files (v6 and older). None of them will open with Pan X. The error explanation is something like “it’s not your fault. Hunter fn press OK to return to finder”. I noticed that none of the old files show an extension in the about screen, but do show Panorama database in the finder list and have a Pan icon. Is there anything that I can do to open these database files?
Panorama X can’t open Panorama 6.0 files. You have to convert your file to Panorama X.
Manually add a .pan extension to your file, drag it on to a PX icon and save it with whatever name you want.
The error message you are seeing is not a Panorama X error message. That message can only occur from Panorama 6. In other words, it sounds like these files may be corrupted, since they can’t be opened in Panorama 6. If they won’t open in Panorama 6, most likely they can’t be opened in Panorama X either.
Technical note: Internally, Panorama 6 has code that “hunts” for specific sections within the database, for example there are sections that contain the list of fields, a section for each field attribute (type, width, etc.), sections for each form, etc. If this “hunter” code can’t find a required section within the database, the Hunter error appears. For example, obviously Panorama can’t open a database if it can’t find the list of fields. Whenever this error occurs, it means the internal structure of the database is badly damaged. This message was really for internal use during our debugging, and not meant for customers to see. Panorama X can encounter the same problem if a file is corrupted, but it produces a more sensible error message when it does.
I’m not sure what you mean by “about screen”, but Panorama X does require that all files have an extension. Panorama 6 filenames must end in .pan or Panorama X won’t recognize them. So if you have a database file called Contacts, you must change it to Contacts.pan. This help page explains this:
However, this doesn’t sound like the problem you are encountering. If a database file doesn’t end in .pan, Panorama X simply doesn’t recognize it at all. There is no error message, Panorama X will simply ignore the file if you try to open it.
v6 and older
Panorama X cannot open databases saved in Panorama 5.5 or earlier. If you have an older database, you must first open it in Panorama 6, then save it with the .pan extension.
As long as the database was most recently saved in Panorama 6, you’ll be ok.
Perhaps what you mean is that Panorama X can’t open Panorama 6 files that don’t have the .pan extension. If the file does have the .pan extension, Panorama X can open it just fine, and it automatically converts the database into the new Panorama X format
That is indeed what I meant but I would argue on semantic grounds that opening a file and converting to a different app is not the same as just opening. Regardless, I’m sure that William is now much better equipped to deal with his current difficulties 
Thank you Michael and Jim for the assistance. Yes, I’m now much better equipped to open my old files. In fact, I have successfully done so. I was surprised that some of my pan databases have a creation date of 1992! (and I’m delighted to be such a long-standing Panorama user/customer).