International Patching System
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The International Patching System (commonly called "IPS") is an old file format that became a standard to patching various files near 16 megabytes in size with an unlimited amount of 1–65,535 byte clusters and RLE. Its fame was gained for patching translations to video game ROMs. (see ROM hacking)
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[edit] History
The creation of IPS is unknown, but the file format it had was considered to be malformed. It had no version number designated in the structure, allowing no future emendation without disorder amongst the software supporting the file. More problems that arose were: 1. the original files ended with the three bytes: EOF, which soon became excluded by future software that generated IPS files; 2. the future RLE addition; 3. the limit to only being able to patch 16 MB files. These three problems actually made most of the software that applied patches not function correctly. Despite all this, the file was still used as the standard for small patches.
[edit] RLE Addition
This addition isn't believed to be created by the original creators; but it allowed run-length encoding and it was supported.
[edit] Obsolescence
This format is still used today for small patches — however, as ROMs became larger in size, this file became very useless, leading to quite a few file formats being created — such as NINJA and PPF ("PlayStation Patch Format"). PPF is still used today, particularly to patch large files such as ISO images.
