Taz Wanted — Setup Guide

What you need

• Archipelago 0.6.4 or newer

• PCSX2 2.0 or newer, with PINE enabled

• Your own dump of Taz: Wanted (USA) (En,Fr,De,Es,It), SLUS-20236, in either of the two forms a PS2 disc is normally kept in:

  | | | |---|---| | .bin | 746,983,440 bytes, MODE2/2352 — a raw dump, usually with a .cue | | .iso | 650,434,560 bytes — the same disc with the per-sector error correction stripped, which is what "convert to ISO" tools produce |

  Both work and both are checked by hash. Whichever you give it, you get the same patched disc back in the same form. Nothing here is distributed with the game; you patch a copy of your own disc.

• The .apTAZ file from your room's page on the Archipelago server. It arrives named P1_YourName_<room>.apTAZ. It is about a kilobyte — it holds your seed's settings, not the game.

Enabling PINE in PCSX2

Settings → Advanced → tick Enable PINE, and leave the slot at 28011. The client talks to the emulator through it; nothing works without it.

The first time: double-click your .apTAZ

That is the whole setup. The Taz Wanted Client opens and asks you two questions, once ever:

1. Where is PCSX2? Point it at pcsx2-qt.exe.
2. Where is your Taz Wanted dump? Point it at your own .bin or .iso.

If you pick the wrong file it says so on the spot — it names both hashes and, since it can see the size, what kind of wrong it is: a different revision or region, an image of some other disc, or not a disc image at all. Every address this patcher writes was measured out of one revision, so a different disc would produce an image that boots and is quietly wrong. It is refused rather than patched.

Then it patches — about thirty seconds, with a progress bar — and writes two files beside your .apTAZ:

    P1_YourName_<room>.apTAZ     what you downloaded
    P1_YourName_<room>.bin       your playable disc
    P1_YourName_<room>.cue       so PCSX2 knows what it is looking at

If you gave it an .iso, you get P1_YourName_<room>.iso instead and no .cue — PCSX2 mounts one directly, and a .cue describing it as MODE2/2352 would be describing it wrongly.

Your original dump is never modified. PCSX2 then starts on the patched image by itself.

⚠ Connect BEFORE you choose English

This is the one rule. The moment the game starts, connect the client to your room and slot — before you touch the Choose Language screen.

Connecting after that screen means the client has already missed its chance to set your slot up, and the run has to be restarted from a cold boot. The client says this in red every time it starts a game, and shouts if it catches you at the main menu still unconnected.

Playing again later

Two ways, and they are the same game either way:

• Double-click the same .apTAZ. The patched .bin is already sitting next to it, so nothing is patched again and you are asked nothing — it just launches PCSX2 on it.
• Or do it by hand. Launch Taz Wanted Client from the Archipelago launcher and load your patched .bin in PCSX2 yourself. Handy if you keep PCSX2 open, or want the game running before the client is.

Either way, connect before the language screen.

If you delete the patched .bin, double-clicking the .apTAZ simply builds it again — and you will not be asked for PCSX2 or your dump a second time, because those answers are kept in host.yaml.

Before you start a file

Set the difficulty to match your yaml. The client warns you if they disagree, but by then some checks may already be unreachable.

Then start a new file — any of the three slots works. The client writes nothing until a save file is loaded, so it is safe to leave running at the title screen.

Boot from cold, not from a save state

A save state made on a different build of the disc restores the old archive directory, the old executable and the old sound contents over your patched image. Start the game normally; save files are fine, save states carried across a re-patch are not.

What the patch actually changes

• The main menu wears an Archipelago logo, so you can tell at a glance that you launched the right image.
• If your yaml randomises costumes, each level's booth hands out the costume your seed assigned it — model, animations, voice and all — with no loading stutter, because the work was done on the disc rather than in RAM.
• Every costume's special attack works on whatever level it lands on. The DJ's sound waves and the Adventurer's flying hat are built into the game per-level, so early builds had six pairings where the attack silently did nothing and the seed simply avoided them. It does not have to any more — all eleven costumes work on all eleven levels, and the same goes for Completely Random seeds that hand the same costume to several levels at once.

Everything else is the game you already own.

Commands

Typed into the client:

Command	What it does
/taz	Mode, locations sent, unlocks, and what the goal still needs
/goal	In Open, each goal condition and how far along it is. In Linear, every poster gate and which ones are open
/difficulty	What the game is set to versus what your yaml expects
/deathlink	Turn DeathLink on or off, overriding the yaml
/resync	Rebuild everything from the server's item list

/resync is rarely needed — the client does it on connect — but it is the fix if the game ever looks out of step with what you own.

Game modes

Open shuffles level access into the multiworld. Every level, boss, costume and bonus game is an item, and you choose what the goal requires: Wanted Posters, boss defeats, the Hindenbird's own unlock, or any combination.

Linear leaves the game's own progression alone. Levels unlock as they normally would, but each boss is gated behind a number of Wanted Posters. Costumes and bonus games are still shuffled.

Things worth knowing

• Levels you have not unlocked read LOCKED on the hub signs.
• A boss gate tells you what you are still missing.
• In Linear, reaching a poster gate opens the boss the next time the hub loads — enter a level and come back, and the door will be open. The same is true of any boss whose unlock arrives while you are already standing in its hub; the door tells you to reload when that happens.
• The Hindenbird shows your remaining goal while you are standing in Tazland.
• When you qualify for the Hindenbird, the game says YOU'RE IN GO MODE! — once, on screen, the moment the last requirement lands.
• If you qualify while you are already standing in Tazland, the arena door was built before you did and is still shut. The Hindenbird's line changes to Reload Hub to face Tweety to say so — step into any level and come back, and it opens. Qualifying anywhere else means the Tazland you walk into next is already built with the door open, and you will not see the message.
• Bonus games need their unlock, whatever your sandwich count says.
• Phone booths refuse you until the matching costume arrives.

If something goes wrong

• "Unable to reach PCSX2" — PINE is not on, or another tool is holding the same slot. Close any other PCSX2 scripts and retry.
• You picked the wrong file for PCSX2 or your dump — open host.yaml, delete the offending line under tazwanted_options, and the client will ask again next time.
• Diagnostics — logs/Taz Diagnostics.txt, rewritten each session. It is always on, and it is the first thing to read if a run goes strange.