Yaz0

Yaz0 is a compression format designed by Nintendo for use in game development. It is found in many Nintendo titles from the early 2000s (ie. Mario Kart Wii, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Super Mario Sunshine, etc...) and is often used to compress an archive file (like RARC) containing model and texture files. It is a form of RLE, or run-length encoding (A lossless data compression method) and usually shows up in .szs files. Compressed files can be easily identified in a hex editor, as the first 4 bytes of the header read "Yaz0", in ASCII.

Tools that handle Yaz0 compressed files

 * Szs tools by thakis (Encoder by shevious/daegunlee)
 * Wiimms SZS Tools, by Wiimm
 * Wexos's Toolbox
 * A python library for Yaz0 Dec/Enc by AboodXD