SARC (File Format)

SARC Files are uncompressed archive files used in Wii U applications and games, including Mario Kart 8. They are similar to the U8 (ARC) files found in GameCube and Wii games.

File Format

The file begins with a 16 bytes long header, and is followed by a file system and a list of filenames that are included in the archive. All values are big endian.

Header

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	4	0x53415243 ("SARC") file identifier.
0x04	4	Unknown. Always 0x0014feff?
0x08	4	Total archive file size.
0x0c	4	Offset for beginning of data.
0x10	End of header

File Table

Header

Offset	Type	Description
0x00	4	0x53464154 ("SFAT") file identifier.
0x04	2	Unknown. Always 0x000c?
0x06	2	Amount of nodes.
0x08	4	Unknown. Always 0x00000065?
0x0c	End of header

Node

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	4	unknown
0x04	1	Unknown. Always 0x01?
0x05	3	Offset of string table entry, relative to the end of the file name table header, divided by 4.
0x08	4	Beginning of node file data relative to the starting offset specified in the SARC header.
0x0c	4	End of node file data relative to the starting offset specified in the SARC header.
0x10	End of node

File Name Table

The header is immediately followed by 4-byte aligned null-terminated strings that represent the filenames of the packed files.

Header

Offset	Type	Description
0x00	4	0x53464e54 ("SFNT") file identifier.
0x04	4	Unknown. Always 0x00080000?
0x08	End of header

File Data

The data begins at the variable value specified in the SARC header. There is padding between the files for 256-byte (0x100) alignment.

Tools

The following tool can extract SARC files:

• SARCUnpack from the CWRT package, by Celcodioc