Delta Patcher vs Floating IPS (Flips)

Delta Patcher is a free desktop application for creating and applying xdelta patches to files on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Create mode records the differences between an original and modified file in a new patch. Apply mode takes the original file expected by that patch and its matching .xdelta file to produce a patched output. The application includes the xdelta3 engine, so a separate command-line installation is not needed. Checksum validation can flag a source file that does not match, and users may preserve a backup of the original. Creation settings include compression level, secondary compression, source window, checksum, and an optional description. Version 3.1.5 added support for files larger than 4 GB. Delta Patcher is open source under GPL-2.0. Downloads are ZIP archives hosted on GitHub, with no separate installer. The project directs users to GitHub for issues, discussions, source code, and releases.

Floating IPS (Flips) patches IPS and BPS files. It provides Windows and GTK+ graphical interfaces, command-line support, and a command-line-only build, and is listed for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The GUI can apply multiple patches to the same ROM and create multiple resulting ROMs. For BPS patches, it can remember earlier ROM choices and reuse one when it determines that it matches. The GUI can also launch another program after patching, allowing an emulator to start after a BPS file is patched. The project says Flips creates very small IPS patches and the smallest BPS patches of any known tool, and that it is faster than comparable creators. It is free and licensed under GNU General Public License version 3.0 or higher. The project is in maintenance mode: bug reports and pull requests will be read, but feature requests are unlikely to be implemented. GitHub marks the repository archived and read-only since May 21, 2025. Releases are automated for each commit, with an erratic schedule that can include identical releases.