Applying ROM Patches

Generally, all consoles with interchangeable games have community-made ROM patches or hacks available. These can be applied to the source ROMs using different tools depending on the game console.

Many ROM hacks can be found on ROMhacking.net.

IPS Patches

International Patching System (IPS) patches are very simple patches that do not have any safety checks to ensure that you are patching the correct file. They are limited to 16MB patches.

1. Download Lunar IPS, extract it, and launch it.
2. If the patch was distributed as a .zip, .rar, or .7z file; extract the .ips file out of it.
3. Click "Apply IPS Patch" and choose the .ips file.
4. Select your game ROM. If all goes well, it will give you a success message.

BPS Patches

Beat Protocol System (BPS) patches are more advanced and offer checks that the input file is the correct target file.

1. Download Beat v1, extract it, and launch it.
2. If the patch was distributed as a .zip, .rar, or .7z file; extract the .bps or .bpm file out of it.
3. Click the "Apply Patch" button and select a .bps or .bpm file.
4. Select your game ROM.
5. Select where to save the patched ROM and give it a unique name.

PPF Patches

PlayStation Patch Format (PPF) patches are generally for PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, but also exist for other systems such as N64. PPF-O-Matic is the most widely used tool to apply these patches.

You will need a single .bin or .iso file for your game. Multi-track games must be combined using Binmerge.

1. Make a backup copy of your .bin file in another folder, as PPF-O-MATIC will patch the .bin without making a backup.
2. If the patch was distributed as a .zip, .rar, or .7z file; extract the .ppf file out of it.
3. Download PPF-O-MATIC and launch it.
4. Click the Save icon next to the "ISO File" field and choose the .bin or .iso file you wish to patch.
5. Click the Save icon next to the "Patch" field and choose the .ppf file you wish to apply.
6. Click "Apply" and the patch should successfully apply.

xdelta Patches

"xdelta" patches are general patches used on many systems. Originally a command line tool, there are now GUIs to handle ROM patching.

1. If the patch was distributed as a .zip, .rar, or .7z file; extract the .xdelta file out of it.
2. Download Delta Patcher and launch it.
3. Click the folder icon next to the "Original file" field and choose the ROM file you wish to patch.
4. Click the folder icon next to the "XDelta patch" field and choose the .xdelta file you wish to apply.
5. Click "Apply patch" and the patch should successfully apply.

Troubleshooting

• The most common cause of failed ROM patching is that the game ROM is the wrong version of the game. Check if your game has multiple revisions.
• If a game checksum or hash value is provided with the hack, check that your ROM file's hash matches it.