Editing Paired ARC+DIR file

Pikmin 1 has a very stupid ARC format that isn't compatible with LunaBoy's RARC tools and makes everyone very sad.

However, that doesn't mean that it is difficult to understand-- quite the contrary.

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==The Basics==
A lot of this is currently theory and unprofessional sounding, but hear me out.
The developers of Pikmin, unsure of how big of a game they were going to make, made a very simple compression script for their files.  This script would take a directory or subdirectory in <code>root\datadir</code> and create a compressed copy of all the files in <code>root\datadir\archives</code>.  This is the ARC file, it is named after the lowest directory accessed, and simply put, it is every file in that directory smushed together with loads of <code>0xCCCC</code> between them to differentiate.

How many sets of <code>0xCCCC</code>?  I don't know yet.

Anyway, this isn't all their script would do.  It would also create a partner '''DIR''' file describing the directory path, treating datadir as the root, to each file that was stored in the ARC.  It's sort of like emulating the directory path I think, plus it tells us the order of the files in the ARC file.

[[File:DIR_file_documentation.png]]


==The bloody hell are you getting on about?==
So I have been trying to get Beady Long Legs to leave its arena on console.  I specify "on console" because I have been able to get him to leave his arena in the Windows x86 debugger for 6 1/2 months, but no matter what I did, the edits I did to the files on PC didn't change anything on console.  Well, today I was finally able to get BLL OoA on console/Dolphin by editing the archived version of bosses\kumo\parms.bin that is stored within archives\bosses.arc.  Using bosses.dir as a guide, I was able to locate the archived copy of the parameters file, edit it, and run it on console/Dolphin.  [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXJFQKinoBM You can watch it here.]  The next step is to take what I've described and make a tool, right?  I don't know any good programming languages, and if I'm the one making the tool, get ready to wait another 6 1/2 months.


==Summary==
Why haven't we figured out this format yet we have carbon copies of every file in every ARC present on the disc.  Someone make an unpacker+packer so we can hack this gaem pls and thank.

[[Category:Pikmin]]
[[Category:File formats]]