Resource Files

What is the best way to incorporate resource files into one''s game? I''m thinking that there must be some way to use existing archiving file formats and libraries such as tar, bzip2, gzip, or zip. There are also tons of file formats designed specifically for use as game resource files. What are your experiences with such file formats? I imagine the optimal file format would allow for compression of the entire file and extraction and decompression of a single file from the archive. It would be nice if there was a way to overload the standard C file io functions (fread, etc) so that they will transparently load from the resource file or the file system depending on where the file is located (that would make development much easier). What are your thoughts? Thanks for the help.