Creating IPS Patches

Recently, I saw a topic asking how to create IPS patches, and it occurred to me that other people might have the same question. They might also be too shy to ask how to create an IPS patch, so I?ve written this tutorial/document/FAQ/whatever you wanna call it.

First, make sure your ROMs? checksums are correct. You can fix them using ESE II. Supposedly, ESE causes problems (ROM expansion), but I haven?t noticed that...maybe that problem was fixed for ESE II (hence, the link only to ESE II).


Using StealthPatch:

1) Open the program, click ?File,? and then ?Create IPS Patch.?

2) Select the original, unmodified ROM...you do have one, don?t you?

3) Now, when prompted, select the altered/hacked ROM.

4) Once you do that, you?ll be prompted to give your patch (*.ips) file a name. Do that, being sure to add ?.ips? to the end of the filename (this isn?t automatic, for some reason) and, if all goes well, you?ll see ?Patching complete!?


Using IPS XP (must right-click and choose ?Save Target As...?; you?ll need these VB runtimes if you don?t have them already, too):

1) Open the program and click ?Select the source file(s)? under ?Create Ips Patch.?

2) Select your file.

3) Click ?Select the target file? and select the altered/hacked ROM.

4) Click ?Create Ips Patch? and type in your desired filename, but without ?.ips? at the end of it, and you?re done. The IPS file will be in the same directory as the altered/hacked ROM. Note: for some reason, the patches created with this program have much, much smaller filesizes than StealthPatch?s, yet they appear to work just as well.


Using SegaTool (must right-click and choose ?Save Target As...?; this is a DOS program, which supposedly won?t run on Windows XP):

1) Select ?Create ips? and use the arrow keys to navigate through the directory tree to the original ROM; when you?ve found it, highlight it and hit Enter. Remember: as this is a DOS program, file and folder names will only have a maximum of 8 characters. Pressing the left arrow key goes one directory higher, and pressing the right arrow key will enter the currently highlighted directory.

2) Go through the same process to navigate to the altered/hacked ROM.

3) Highlight it, and hit Enter. Your patch file will have the same filename as the altered/hacked ROM, except with the .ips extension. Note that this will overwrite any IPS files with the same name in that directory.


Thus ends this little tutorial/FAQ. Most of this stuff is self-explanatory (to me, at least), but sometimes a little help is needed; a ?nudge in the right direction,? so to speak. If you need info about applying patches, however, give this topic a look.