Gaseous vs ROMSorter

Gaseous Server is a free, open-source self-hosted server for managing ROMs and game titles with basic in-browser emulation. It uses multiple sources to identify games and provide metadata. ROM management supports platforms listed by IGDB, while the built-in emulator covers a documented subset including Game Boy, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Super Nintendo. Installation options include Docker, source, Unraid, and a Windows MSI package. Windows installation is described as experimental. Setup requires MariaDB 11.1.2 or MySQL Server 8+ and FFmpeg; an IGDB API key is optional when using the Hasheous proxy. From version 2.0, authentication includes passwords, two-factor authentication, and OAuth2/OIDC, with Google, Microsoft, and custom OIDC providers documented. The project uses the AGPL-3.0 license and links to Discord for community support. Maintainers recommend avoiding internet exposure when remote access is unnecessary and state that exposure is at the user’s own risk. The free plan is a self-hosted server, so the operator supplies the database and FFmpeg.

ROMSorter detects and renames ROMs and other games, with tools for archives, duplicates and file checks. It can zip files, convert supported archive formats by extracting and recompressing them, or unpack archives into a folder. Identical files can be moved into a subfolder named after the original file. A catalog stores file names and hashes for later checks that files have not changed. The program can create DAT files for other ROM manager apps and rename single-file games using a supplied DAT file. It converts BIN/CUE or ISO files to CHD and can extract CHD back to BIN/CUE using chdman. Other tools include building one-game, one-ROM sets from Parent/Clone DAT files with region priorities, sorting Everdrive folders by starting letter, generating M3U playlists, and batch IPS/BPS patching. The current ROMSorter release is for Win-x64 only; its Librarian command-line companion is available across platforms. Both require .NET 6. Linux and Mac Librarian users need an appropriate MAME chdman build for CHD commands. It is free, MIT licensed and provided without warranty.