Igir vs ROM Manager

Igir is a free ROM collection manager for scanning, organizing, filtering, patching, and reporting on game files. It can find DATs, ROMs, and ROM patches, including files inside archives, then organize ROMs with consistent names. Users can filter duplicates and unwanted ROMs, create multi-disc playlists, and apply patches in batches. Reports can show which ROMs are present or missing for each console, and Igir can generate fixdats for missing ROMs. For arcade collections, it can build or rebuild MAME sets by un-merging, splitting, or merging them. Documentation includes configuration guides for tools such as Batocera, LaunchBox, RetroArch, OpenEmu, and RomM. Igir runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and other operating systems supported by Node.js. It is available as a downloadable executable or through npm, Homebrew, and Scoop. Every installation option requires a baseline understanding of command-line interfaces. The project describes its defaults as non-destructive and says it does not make network requests beyond those requested by the user, including usage or telemetry requests. Igir is licensed under GNU GPL version 3.

ROM Manager is free, MIT-licensed software for organizing and converting retro console game ROMs. Its pipeline extracts archives, renames files using known game codes, converts ISO or WBFS images to CHD or RVZ, and cleans up files. It can create missing cue sheets for BIN tracks. Interfaces include a command-line tool, Python API facade, MCP server, and optional agent server with an AG-UI web interface. CLI and MCP tools can manage a self-hosted RomM library through its REST API using Basic or OAuth2 authentication. MCP tools cover conversion, game-code lookup and naming, and RomM resource groups, with environment toggles controlling domains. The server supports stdio, Streamable HTTP, and SSE transports; authentication is configurable, with none as the local default. Local conversion needs no service URL or credentials, while RomM access requires server details and credentials or a token. Conversion depends on external chdman and dolphin-tool binaries; extraction uses 7z or optional backends. Destructive cleanup can remove source files, so backups are advised.