flips.rs vs Floating IPS (Flips)

flips.rs is a free, open-source Rust bindings library for Flips, the Floating IPS patcher. It applies UPS, IPS, and BPS patches, creates IPS and BPS patches, studies IPS patches, and reads BPS metadata. Although the README discusses video game cartridge ROM patching, the API can apply patches to arbitrary sources. The project says Flips creates small BPS and IPS files among widely used patchers. The crate supports no_std when its default std feature is disabled. It uses crc32fast instead of Flips’ naive CRC32 algorithm for BPS and UPS patch creation and application. Checksum verification is supported. Version 0.2.1 is listed, with flips-sys 0.2.1 as a dependency, and Martin Larralde as author. The library is licensed under GNU GPL version 3.0. Distribution links point to crates.io and docs.rs. The listed platform is Linux, and the plan is free.

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.