How to patch SNES ROMs
Version 1.0

by Mnrogar


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- Introduction to emulators and ROMs -
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To play SNES games on your computer you need 2 things: an emulator and a ROM. The emulator is a program, the equivalent of a console (a SNES in this case), while the ROM (a file with a .smc extension) is a copy of the game itself. You use them the same way you would open a document in Word; you run the emulator and load (open) the ROM through the emulator.

I suggest either Snes9x or Zsnes which are good SNES emulators that can be found at www.zophar.net . Most ROMs are illegal so you'll have to find them yourself.

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- Introduction to patches -
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While you can play the original game with an emulator there are "patches" available that can modify the game itself (the ROM) to give you a different playing experience; ranging from translations to added monsters to overall increased difficulty of the game. 

There are two ways to apply a patch to an SNES ROM a temporary one and a permanent one. Note that for the permanent way your ROM will be modified permanently so you may want to make a copy prior to patching.

To apply a patch you first need the patch itself which is a .ips file. SNES ROMs have a .smc extension while the save files have a .srm extension. Save states are emulator specific so their extensions will vary.

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- How to apply a patch -
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- Auto apply -

The simple way. Recent versions of Snes9x and Zsnes (possibly other emulators as well) will automatically apply a patch to a ROM if both are in the same folder. For it to work though they need to be named the same except for the extension. 

So suppose your ROM is ff3.smc and the patch you want to apply to it is monster.ips you'll need to rename the patch to ff3.ips. Then make sure ff3.smc and your newly renamed ff3.ips are in the same folder.

Once this is done and you run the game the emulator will detect the patch and automatically apply it to the ROM of the same name. You can then simply remove the patch from the folder and play the game normally again if you wish.


- Permanent apply -

This method is a little more involved since it'll require you to get a program to apply the patch to the ROM. I recommend Snestool (NOT Snes9x tool which is a different program that doesn't apply patches) available from www.zophar.net

What you need to do once you have the program is tell it to use your .ips patch and apply it to your .smc ROM. With this method it doesn't matter where the files are and they do not need to be named the same.

In SnesTool: 
- select "Use IPS"
- find and select your .ips file on your computer. Use the right/left arrows to navigate through folders and the enter key to select files. To change drives simply type the letter of the drive you wish to go to.
- find and select your .smc file on your computer.
Your .smc file is patched.

Note: To create a patch simply select "create IPS" instead, then select an unchanged ROM followed by the modified ROM. The patch created will contain the differences between those 2 ROMs so that when you apply it to another unchanged ROM it will get the same changes as the first modified ROM.


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- Copyright -
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This document may not be used and/or reproduced, in part or in it's entirety,  on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without the author's advance explicit written permission.
This document is for personal use only.

This document is Copyright 2003 Mnrogar (king_bahamut@hotmail.com)
All rights reserved