PatcherFE v1.0 Released - for applying patches to Mame binaries

[headkaze]

PatcherFE v1.0 - for applying patches to Mame binaries

This program is for distributing patches for Mame (eg. skip disclaimer / hiscore / no loading screens etc.). This means you can distribute patches for Mame executables instead of diff files used for compiling.

How does it work? It uses two utilities called bsdiff and bspatch to create a binary patch file. The patch file is then zipped up along with a batch file called APPLYPATCH.BAT that you extract to your Mame folder and run.

The patches will have to be applied to the official Mame releases from mame.net so that the patch can be applied to the same version on the target machine. In other words you have to have the same Mame binary to which the patch was applied to. So for example the Pentium Pro optimized version will require a separate patch to the standard version.

The resulting zipped patch file with skip disclaimer and no loading screen patches applied is less than 1 MB (Note: Mame's original size is 28.8 MB). Unfortunately it's still half a meg over what can be posted on the forum, so you will still need to host the patches on a server somewhere.

This should make things a little easier for distributing patches for people who don't know how to compile Mame.

I'm not sure if anyone will find it useful, but I'm posting it here anyway. You will need .NET 2.0 installed to run this application.

Comments or bug reports are welcome.

[fatfingers]

I'm a compiler junkie, but cool!

 

[gonzo90017]

I'm thinking this won't work for older versions say 37b16?

[headkaze]

I'm thinking this won't work for older versions say 37b16?

It will work with any version actually, but you do have to find a place that hosts the original binary for people to patch. There are a few sites that host old versions of Mame I believe.

You can't patch version 0117 then try and apply it to a binary that is 37b16, it won't work. It checks the original file using MD5 anyway, so it won't even attempt to apply the patch on a file that is not the same as what the original patch was created with.