PatchMyROM

IPS Patcher

IPS is the oldest patch format still in everyday use. If your file ends in .ips, this tool applies it locally — no installer, no command line.

IPS

Classic byte-diff format

Where IPS Still Shows Up

IPS predates almost every other patch format in this space, and it's still the default output for a lot of hacking tools simply because it's easy to implement. You'll run into it most on SNES, NES, and Game Boy projects, plus smaller GBA hacks that never grew past its size ceiling. Bigger, actively updated hacks tend to move on once they need more space or want the patch to verify itself.

Step-by-Step

1

Get a clean base ROM

IPS patches are built against one exact ROM file. A ROM that's already been trained, randomized, or patched with something else won't work.

2

Download the .ips file

Get it from the hack's official page. IPS patches are small — usually a few kilobytes to a couple of megabytes.

3

Open the patcher and select both files

Drop in your ROM and the .ips patch. The format is detected automatically from the file header, so there's nothing to configure.

4

Download the patched ROM

The output is generated locally and named after your original file. Load it straight into your emulator.

Patch an IPS file now

Mistakes That Break IPS Patches

Patching a ROM that's already modified

Cheats, previous patches, or randomizer output all change the underlying bytes IPS expects. Start from an untouched backup every time.

Assuming a silent success means it worked

IPS has no way to verify it's touching the right file. If the output looks wrong, the ROM was wrong — not the patcher.

Using a ROM larger than IPS can address

IPS offsets are 3 bytes wide, capping addressable space at 16MB. Some later, larger hacks moved to BPS specifically to avoid this.

Troubleshooting

Graphics are garbled or the game won't boot

This is the classic sign of a wrong-ROM IPS patch. Since IPS can't check checksums, it happily overwrites bytes at the wrong offsets. Re-check the exact ROM revision the patch expects.

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The patched file is identical to the original

Usually means the patch was applied to a copy that didn't match at all, and the patcher's underlying logic rejected changes silently in an emulator-specific way, or the wrong file was selected as the ROM.

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"ROM too large" type errors

IPS can't address past 16MB. If your base ROM is unusually large for its platform, confirm you're not accidentally using a padded or header-attached dump.

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FAQ

International Patching System. It dates back to the early SNES fan-translation scene and became the de facto standard long before any formal spec existed.
Yes, especially for smaller projects and older platforms. Larger, actively developed hacks increasingly move to BPS once they outgrow IPS's size limit or want built-in verification.
IPS never had checksum verification designed into it. There's no field in the format that records what ROM it expects, so nothing can cross-check it before applying.
No. Its 3-byte offsets top out at 16MB, which rules out anything from the DS era onward. Those platforms use xdelta instead.

Related Guides

ROM PatcherPatch a ROM file directly in your browser.Patch Formats ExplainedIPS vs UPS vs BPS vs xdelta — which one do you need?GBA ROM PatcherPatch Game Boy Advance ROMs — IPS, UPS, and BPS all apply here.SNES ROM PatcherIPS is still the most common format for SNES translation patches.

Got a ROM and an .ips file ready? Nothing leaves your device — the patch runs entirely in this browser tab.

Open the ROM Patcher

Looking for the full picture? See how IPS compares to UPS, BPS, and xdelta.

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