Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your NARC file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert NARC to another file type
To convert NARC archives to another format, you need NARC Explorer or other Game software.
Convert a file to NARC
To convert other file formats to the "Nintendo DS Game Archive" file type, you need software like NARC Explorer or a similar tool.
About NARC files
A .NARC file is a proprietary Nintendo Archive container file used exclusively to package game data for the Nintendo DS (NDS) system. Much like a standard ZIP file, it bundles numerous individual game assets - such as 3D level geometry, 2D sprites, audio tracks, and localized game text - into a single, organized package that the game engine can load efficiently. Because this format is tied specifically to Nintendo hardware, specialized ROM hacking utilities are required to handle it. Tools like NARC Explorer, Tahaxan, or NDS Editor are the primary applications used by modders to explore or modify these archives. The biggest challenge with the .NARC format is its proprietary nature. It is essentially a closed black box encoded with Nintendo's internal specifications. Standard unarchiving utilities like WinRAR, WinZip, or 7-Zip cannot read or extract them natively. Furthermore, any attempt to modify and repack a .NARC file must adhere to strict size limitations and proprietary compression algorithms to prevent the modified game ROM from crashing on native hardware or emulators. To work with these game assets, you must extract the .NARC file into an open archive format like a standard ZIP folder or raw BIN files. Once extracted, the individual game components can be viewed, edited, or converted. This file format is notoriously difficult to open or convert because only the original Nintendo DS hardware or specialized reverse-engineering software can properly read the data structure. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion to common archive standards may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your NARC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert NARC file to EXE, ISO, BIN, CUE, PAK, WAD, PK3, PK4, BSP, MAP, SAV or DAT, you can use NARC Explorer or similar software from the "Game Data Archive" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MOD, BIN, CFG, SCX, DAT, MPQ, LOG, CUE, INI, EXE, SCM or ISO files to NARC, try NARC Explorer or another comparable tool in the "Game Data Archive" category.
The NARC Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our NARC converter.