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Patching, Playing and Creating .bps Patches

FundamentalBPS PatchesEmulatorsTool-Specific

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What's a .bps file?

A .bps file is short for Binary Patching System, a file in which all the edits to a ROM are stored. It does not store the original, unmodified content of a ROM. By using .bps files, we're technically not redistrubuting Nintendo's copyrighted material from the original SMW ROM.

.bps files are the format required to upload Super Mario World ROM hacks anywhere on SMW Central.





Where do I find a .bps patch?

You will find .bps files everywhere around this community, from betas or demos to entirely new SMW ROM hack experiences. All hacks hosted in the SMW Hacks Section are in this format.





How do I apply a .bps patch?

What you will need:

- An unmodified, "clean" Super Mario World ROM. If you are unsure whether your ROM is clean, run it through ROMclean!
- Floating IPS (FLIPS) - this guide will refer to Floating IPS as FLIPS throughout
- An emulator, we recommend the accurate emulators in the tool section; bsnes, Snes9x, ZMZ. In this guide we will be using Snes9X
- The .bps patch of the ROM hack you want to play! I will use the VLDC9 hack as an example.

After downloading the necessary files, place them in your desired folder(s). For simplicity, I'll be putting FLIPS, Snes9x and a clean Super Mario World ROM in the same folder. You can put the .bps patch anywhere, including in the same folder, it's not important to keep it once we have patched it.


Here's an example of these files:




Now, to start things off you will need to open Flips. It should look like this:



Click on the aptly named Apply Patch button to open our first file browser window, asking you to select the patches you want to use. Look for and either double click the .bps patch you want or select it and click open. In this case: VLDC9.bps.

Then, FLIPS will open another file browser, asking you to select your unmodified Super Mario World ROM (in this case: Super Mario World (U) [!].smc). There are some settings which will allow you to only have to do that this one time which will be covered at the end.

If you're given an error message here, that means your Super Mario World ROM may not be clean. If that's the case try running the ROM file through ROMclean hosted in the tool section. If that still doesn't work, download another SMW ROM from an alternate source.

If your ROM is clean, one final window will open, this will be to save your modified ROM file for the hack you want to play. Select your location and save it. You're done! Your patched ROM should now be exactly where you saved it.


Optionally when FLIPS is open, click on Settings. There are a few things we can set up to make .bps patches a breeze to use later on.



Firstly, click on the Assign file types button. This will make all .bps patches open with FLIPS in the future, meaning you can simply double click them to begin the patching process.

Secondly, tick the box that says Enable automatic ROM selector. What this does is allow FLIPS to remember where your original, clean Super Mario World ROM is located after you've selected it once, which we will do in a little bit.

Lastly, click on Select emulator at the top. This will open a file browser window asking you for the emulator you wish to use. Navigate to the folder you saved Snes9x in (or the emulator you chose) and double click it. If you placed your emulator and FLIPS in the same folder, the file browser will open in just the right place. These three settings will only work as long as you do not relocate FLIPS, your emulator, or your clean SMW ROM.

An optional step you can make is to change the action to do when opening a .bps file from Create ROM to Run in emulator. If you only plan to play hacks after patching select Run in emulator. This way, you will be able to double click .bps files and instantly play them in your emulator in the future! If you don't want to run the emulator right away, keep it on Create ROM.





How do I play the patched ROM?

If you already know how to play ROMs with an emulator, you can skip this part! If this is your first time, I'll explain it to you:


Loading the ROM
We're going to use Snes9x in this example, an emulator for SNES games. It's able to play any SNES game commercially sold and has no issues playing ROM hacks - as long as everything is patched correctly.

If you have chosen the Run in emulator option in FLIPS, Snes9x should open the hack immediately when you double click any .bps patch. Skip to Controller Mapping in that case.

If you have chosen Create ROM in FLIPS, start by opening an instance of Snes9x. In the menu at the top of the window that will open, select File → Load Game..., as seen here:



This will open a file browser. Navigate to the folder you saved your patched ROM to earlier and double click it to open it.
If patched correctly, the game should start running. If the game doesn't start, either the .bps was broken, or the ROM you used wasn't clean, refer back to the How do I apply a .bps patch? section.

All the hacks hosted in our Hacks Section are verified to run without issue when patched to a clean SMW ROM!


Controller Mapping
Now, if you want to change the controller mapping: In Snes9x, click on Input → Input Configuration... (or simply press Alt + F7, as a handy shortcut).

In this window, choose which controller you wish to configure using the dropdown in the top left labelled Controller and click on the boxes below to change the respectively mapped keys. Most game pads will work out of the box for this.

Press OK when you've got it all setup and you're done.





How do I create a .bps file?

You will need to create a .bps patch to upload your hack to SMW Central. You will need your modified ROM you wish to create a patch of, and a clean SMW ROM.

Open up FLIPS, and click on Create Patch. After that, you will be lead through a series of file browsing windows to locate the following files:

- In the first one, select your unmodified SMW ROM.
- In the second one, your modified ROM.
- In the third and final one, give your .bps patch a name and choose a folder to save it to.

Your .bps patch should now be exactly where you saved it!

However, before uploading your hack to SMWC's Hack Section, or posting it in the forums, be sure to test patching your new .bps patch to ensure it works.





Update 15th June 2020: Tutorial has been reworded a little to be less "wordy", and now the video from the Essential Tutorial's list is now embeded into it!
heyyyy, that's pretty good. this will help a lot of people, really simple yet informative #smw{:TUP:}

small detail but you can use multiple patches at the same time, something you can maybe add to here?
Why did we switch from IPS to BPS?
Currently working on:
Super Kekcroc World 4 (lol jk)
Because IPS sux
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
Originally posted by Knucklesfan
Why did we switch from IPS to BPS?

Another reason being because some don't create IPS patches right and it ends up having an entire ROM hosted on the site, provided the large filesize isn't detected.
Hi, I'm a signature!
Hack Thread
Hack Testing Status: Available.
Layout by Koopster.
What version of Flips is that? My version doesn't have a settings option... figures. #smw{<_<}
That screenshot applies to every single one of them. Are you sure you're not using Lunar?
<blm> zsnes users are the flatearthers of emulation
Originally posted by Alcaro
That screenshot applies to every single one of them. Are you sure you're not using Lunar?



Yes, I am sure. Lunar isn't even downloaded on my PC. This version doesn't have the version code in the title on the program's window. But in the info, it says it is V1.02

I'm I outdated? I would hope so. Thanks for replying quickly!
Thanks comrade :)

EDIT: everything is working now, thank you all for the inductions and
assists!
Guys,I have a problem...
Super Mario 64 hacks,I do like I did on SNES emulator,but Project 64 doesn't seem to be able to read hacks that I patch with this program...
what should I do to run Mario 64 hacks??
Okay, I had a clean SMW ROM, it worked the first time then it didn't work after that, can somebody please help me#smw{:|}
Originally posted by Graser
Okay, I had a clean SMW ROM, it worked the first time then it didn't work after that, can somebody please help me#smw{:|}

By "it worked the first time then it didn't work after that", do you mean you applied a patch on your clean ROM, tested it successfully, then tried applying a patch (be it the same or another one) on it again ? Because in that case, it's normal your ROM doesn't work anymore: You can only apply a patch on a clean ROM once. After, the ROM isn't clean anymore and any other modification might very well corrupt it.
#smw{:|}wow
Thanks! I'm gonna try that on my hack. #smrpg{y}

 

Minecraft is a ripoff of Minecraft.

I can't get flips to run on mac ( any help with that?) Also I've tried running a BPS patch file through multi patch with no luck. This is all very new to me so i apologize if there is an obvious answer that I'm just overlooking. Thanks
I just joined SMW central and it is a pleasure to be here. But anyways is there a way to apply bps patches on an android device?
Welcome to the site! There's an online version, so that will probably work.


 
Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it. It worked. I'm playing Super Wakana Land.
I just come here after I found the hacked rom somewhere and I played it on my switch. it was very cool rom. I wonder if anyone ever got bps files working on their switch. I want to play hacked roms on my switch. I do have a way to play roms on my switch. I use retroarch.


update: it look like retroarch do support bps patches!
https://docs.libretro.com/guides/softpatching/
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FundamentalBPS PatchesEmulatorsTool-Specific