ARC (File Format)

ARC files are archives that store information about files and directories, and are used to organize assets within the games. While the file extension is .arc, the FourCC for the format is RARC. Following other observed naming conventions, the addition of R to the beginning of the FourCC suggests that the format was refactored at some point from an earlier version.

ARC is used in nearly every first-party Nintendo game in the GameCube era, including The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Luigi's Mansion typically used YAY0-compressed archives with the extension .szp, and Super Mario Sunshine used YAZ0-compressed archives with the extension .szs.