What is a .IPS file?
IPS is a patch file that modifies a game ROM, widely used in ROM hacking and translations.
- Did you know
- The simple IPS patch format has powered fan translations and ROM hacks since the early 1990s. (approximate)
- IPS stands for “International Patching System”, and its patches begin with the marker “PATCH” and end with an “EOF” marker.
- Because IPS uses three-byte offsets it cannot patch beyond about 16 MiB, and it carries no checksum to confirm the right file was patched.
- What Analyser reads
- Inspect game ROMs, patches and engine assets: iNES/NES2.0, Game Boy/Color/Advance, SNES, Nintendo DS/DSi, Nintendo 64, and Sega Genesis ROM headers (title, mapper, region, checksum); IPS/BPS/UPS/PPF patches; Doom WAD lumps; Minecraft NBT/schematics and Bedrock bundles; Aseprite sprites; Godot .pck; Quake/id Tech PAK/PK3; Source BSP/VPK/VTF/VMT; KTX/KTX2 textures; Tiled maps; LÖVE games; PICO-8 carts - plus MPQ, 3DS/Switch and Ren’Py/RPG Maker identification.
- Depth of analysis
- .IPS is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .IPS file
- Drag a .IPS file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.