[vile] How to convert \?nn strings to characters?

[Chris G]

I have a number of files created a long time ago which have 'extended
ASCII' characters in them which are encoded in a way that vile doesn't
understand (at least the way I have it set up it doesn't).

They appear as follows in vile and xvile:-

    \?B1       \?B9      \?A1

the four character sequence above is what vile/xvile shows for a single byte
of my files.  Is there any way I can get vile/xvile to recognise and display
these characters and/or a way to get the files saved in a more currently 
recognised
encoding.  All my current systems use a UTF-8 locale. 

-- 
Chris Green