- Once you have Lunar IPS, a Clean version of whatever ROM Base the ROM Hack uses and said Hack's.IPS Patch, you'll have to do the following: 1) Open Lunar IPS 2) Click on 'Apply IPS Patch'.
- Use Floating IPS to apply a BPS patch to a clean ROM of the game that it is a hack of. Here is a tutorial on how to apply and play BPS patches. The purpose of this site is not to distribute copyrighted material, but to honor one of our favourite games.
A lot of people have asked me, ‘Isn’t rom hacking illegal?’ Short answer — no. Long answer… if you distribute a pre-patched ROM with your mod installed then you’re also distributing a copyrighted game. This is where things get sketchy. To avoid allegations of distributing a copyrighted game to people who don’t already own that game, modders turn their original work into patches that ROM owners can inject into a copy of their original game.
Roms are illegal to download and since thess hacks are built upon specific roms the creators can legally send their patch in an ips file. Then you can patch your copy of the rom with the ips file and play the game. Use the sidebar to find patching prgrams like lunar ips level 2. OS X: UPS, IPS, BDF, BSDIFF. For OS X I highly recommend MultiPatch. For Linux I recommend using tsukuyomiv01.7z by byuu. Use this PERL script ips.pl. Ips.pl rom.sfc patch.ips Or you can use Lunar IPS by FuSoYa via WINE. Linux, OS X: BDF, BSDIFF. But, of course, you need actual games to play on the emulator. Nintendo has made this very hard, as of late. They’ve threatened legal action against many ROM hosting sites and had their games taken down. Even if you do manage to find a (sketchy) site that still has ROMs available for downloading, technically you’re breaking the law.
I’m going to assume that anyone reading this article came here to learn how to patch a romhack they just downloaded so lets jump right in!
First off, Windows users will need to download and extract Flips (Floating IPS). Mac users should download and extract MultiPatch instead. I’ll be using FlipsI for this tutorial but MultiPatch will function basically identically aside from a few wording differences.
Second, launch flips.exe and a small window with four different options should pop up. Select [Apply Patch] and an explorer window should appear asking you to locate the .bps patch file of the mod you downloaded. For this tutorial, The Legend of Zelda: Dawn & Dusk which I already have downloaded. Once you find this file, double click on it and our next browser should greet us.
Next, we need to browse to our unmodified copy of Ocarina of Time. Two things to be mindful of here:
- Make sure the rom you’ve selected is in .z64 format. This is the most common file type for Nintendo 64 roms but a few variations exist that aren’t compatible with Flips or many other rom hacking tools.
- Check any documentation written by the modder whose patch your downloading to find out which region or version your rom must be. Most rom hacks require the v1.0 North American build of a game but it’s always a good idea to double check.
The patch for Dawn & Dusk uses v1.2 of Ocarina of Time as its base so I went out of my way to ensure that the rom I selected said, ‘LOZ Ocarina of Time (U) (V1.2).z64′ to fit all the mod’s’ requirements.
Finally, we need to find a suitable output location for our patched ROM. I’ve got a folder specifically for Legend of Zelda romhacks as I find keeping mods in my vanilla folder leads to excessive crowding and difficulty navigating to the desired vanilla rom on certain occasions.
Once we’ve picked a destination, name our romhack something unique.
If everything went according to plan, a window should have just popped up telling us that our new file was patched successfully! Congratulations, you’re ready to play! If you’d like, tweet at @SheeshFr and let me know what romhack you’re playing! 😀
If, however, you didn’t get a success screen at the end, I’ve got an FAQ for you below that will hopefully help you resolve any problems.
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FAQ:
Q: I downloadedmy patch but itsays .zip/.rar/.xdelta at the end, not .bps. How comes?
A: If it’s the first two, then you need to extract the contents of this file. Above, I mentioned using WinRAR or PeaZip. Do this then come back if there was a .bps patch file. If there’s a .xdelta file instead, read my other tutorial for that process.
Q: I downloaded a romhack but it’s already in .z64 format. Do I need to patch it?
A: No, you downloaded a pre-patched rom. You should be able to boot it up like normal.
Q: My rom isn’t a .z64file. If I rename it to .z64, will this process still work?
A: No, a .z64 file is written differently than an .n64 or .v64 file. If you simply rename the extension, you’re going to get an error when patching and it won’t boot properly either.
Q: I did everything right but when I boot up the file in my emulator, I get an error. What gives?
A: There’s a very good chance the romhack requires 8MB of RAM to be toggled in your emulator. Go into your emulator’s settings and try changing the default memory size to 8MB. If your emulator doesn’t have this menu, boot up the game again (despite a crash), navigate to Rom Settings and change Memory Size to 8MB. You might need to reload your emulator after changing property.
How To Run Ips Roms
Q: Where can I learn about great ROM hacks?
A: I’m so glad you asked! Keep reading Sheesh Forreal, follow me on Twitter @SheeshFr, or just join some gaming Discords. You’ll definitely get a hold of some new games this way!
This guide should help you in your goal of patching your ROM. This guide is applicable to most ROMs and patches but makes some assumptions about the patches and ROMs used:
- The patches are from superfamicom.org as these are tested and prepared to work with unheadered ROMs.
- The ROMs have no header.
- ROMs have the extension of
.sfc, not.smc,.swcor.fig.
How to Remove a ROM Header
To remove a ROM header, it's probably easiest for you to remove the header using NSRT, as well as verifying it is the correct region, version or any other specifics about the ROM. First make sure the sure in the NSRT Preferences → Headers section Remove Headers is selected, click Apply and OK. Rescan the ROM you wish to patch and it should now be header free.
How to Apply the ROM Patch ##{how-to-apply-patch}
The patches come in various formats, UPS, IPS, BPS and BDF which is short for BSDIFF. There are numerous ways to apply patches, and I will touch on just a few of them.
OS X: UPS, IPS, BDF, BSDIFF
For OS X I highly recommend MultiPatch.
Linux: UPS
For Linux I recommend using tsukuyomi_v01.7z by byuu.
Linux: IPS
Use this PERL script ips.pl.
Or you can use Lunar IPS by FuSoYa via WINE.
Linux, OS X: BDF, BSDIFF
For BDF / BSDIFF patches you can install bsdiff form source through Homebrew on OS X and should be available already on Linux, then you can run the command:
Windows: UPS
For Windows I recommend using tsukuyomi_v01.7z by byuu.
How To Play Ips Roms On Ds
Windows: IPS
How To Run Ips Files
For Windows I recommend using Lunar IPS by FuSoYa.