Igir vs Skraper

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.

Skraper is a free, non-commercial, non-profit application that adds metadata and media to retro-gaming software. It uses the community-fed ScreenScraper.fr database for artwork, screenshots, flyers, 3D boxes, and verified text information. The site advertises support for more than 200 systems and hundreds of thousands of media items and records. Skraper can provide EmulationStation metadata through Recalbox and RetroPie and fill LaunchBox game lists and images. Listed capabilities include game maps, manuals, Pad-2-Keyboard, Tips & Tricks, archive side-file filtering, and file renaming. A local cache, optimization, and multithreading reduce bandwidth use and increase speed. XML mixes can combine remote and local resources with positioning, resizing, rotation, color filters, and text or image layers. Windows may require .NET Framework 4.8.1. Linux requires the latest mono-complete package, with WINE kept up to date recommended. There is no native macOS build. ScreenScraper.fr anonymously records ROM or game names and checksums, which may be validated and added to its database.