Lunar IPS vs MultiPatch

Lunar IPS is a free Windows utility for creating and applying IPS patches, intended as a lightweight replacement for the SNESTool DOS program. It supports full run-length encoding and decoding, and can expand or truncate files. Its encoder produces IPS files no larger than those created with SNESTool and avoids the rare 0x454F46 EOF offset issue attributed to SNESTool’s encoder. Applying a patch can generate a ROMFileName.log file. Lunar IPS can register the .IPS file type in Windows, allowing a patch to be opened by double-clicking and then associated with a file to modify. IPS patching supports files up to 16 MB because the format uses 24-bit addressing, although an IPS file itself can be any size. Logging and file-registration settings are stored in the Windows registry. Version 1.03 is listed, updated February 2, 2022. The archive is 172K zipped or 437K unzipped, with command-line support and several listed language versions.

MultiPatch is a free macOS application for applying and creating file patches. It applies BPS, IPS, UPS, PPF, XDelta, BSDiff, and RUP (Ninja2) patches, and creates BPS, IPS, PPF, XDelta, and BSDiff patches. To apply one, users can select a patch file or drag it onto the application window, then choose the target file and where to save the result. The application identifies the format from the patch file extension, so that extension must be correct. BPS creation offers Linear and Delta modes: Delta patches are usually smaller, but take longer and require more memory. Creating UPS and Ninja2 patches is not supported. The maker says patching is built into the application rather than handled by external tools. Version 2.0 requires macOS 10.9 or later; older releases are available for Mac OS X 10.4 through 10.8. A separate basic command-line version can apply or create patches for scripts or terminal use. The application is GPL-licensed, while the bundled patching libraries have their own licenses.