Alternative Managers
There are a few different popular ROM managers that have similar features:
| Feature | igir | RomVault | clrmamepro | RomCenter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| App: still in development | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❓ |
| App: OS compatibility | ✅ anything Node.js supports | ⚠️ Windows, Linux via Mono | ⚠️ Windows, macOS & Linux via Wine | ❌ Windows only |
| App: UI or CLI | CLI only by design | Separate UI & CLI versions | UI only | UI only |
| App: required setup steps | ✅ no setup required | ⚠️ if specifying DAT & ROM dirs | ❌ requires "profile" setup per DAT | ❌ requires per-DAT DB setup |
| App: open source | ✅ GPL | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| DATs: supported formats | Logiqx XML, MAME ListXML, MAME Software List, CMPro, HTGD SMDB (DATs docs) | Logiqx XML, MAME ListXML, CMPro, RomCenter, HTGD SMDB | Logiqx XML, MAME ListXML, MAME Software List, CMPro | Logiqx XML, CMPro, RomCenter |
| DATs: process multiple at once | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ via the batcher | ❌ |
| DATs: infer parent/clone info | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| DATs: built-in download manager | ❌ | ⚠️ via DatVault | ❌ | ❌ |
| DATs: supports DAT URLs | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| DATs: create from files (dir2dat) | ✅ dir2dat docs | ❓ | ✅ | ❌ |
| DATs: fixdat creation | ✅ Fixdat docs | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| DATs: combine multiple | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ROM Scanning: parallel scanning | ✅ | ❌ | ❓ | ❓ |
| ROM Scanning: scanning exclusions | ✅ | ❌ | ❓ | ❓ |
| ROM Scanning: quick scanning | ✅ matching docs | ✅ | ⚠️ by default | ❓ |
| ROM Scanning: scan/checksum caching | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| ROMs: checksum matching strategies | ✅ CRC32+size, MD5, SHA1, SHA256 | ⚠️ CRC32+size, MD5, SHA1 | ⚠️ CRC32+size, MD5, SHA1 | ❓ |
| ROMs: header detection | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ via supplemental XMLs | ⚠️ via plugins |
| ROMs: header removal | ✅ automatic and forced | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ROMs: automatic extension correction | ✅ output writing docs | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ROMs: patching support | ✅ patching docs | ⚠️ SNES SuperDAT | ❌ | ❌ |
| Arcade: supported merge types | ✅ full non-merged, non-merged, split, merged (arcade docs) | ⚠️ full non-merged, split, merged | ✅ full non-merged, non-merged, split, merged | ⚠️ full non-merged, split, merged |
| Arcade: CHD disk inclusion | ✅ by default, can be turned off (arcade docs) | ✅ by default, can be turned off | ❓ | ❓ |
| Arcade: sample inclusion | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❓ |
| Archives: extraction formats | ✅ many formats (reading archives docs) | ⚠️ .zip, .7z (natively) |
✅ .zip, .7z (via 7z), .rar (via rar) |
⚠️ .zip, .7z |
Archives: .chd support |
⚠️ via chdman1 (bundled) |
✅ v1-5 natively | ⚠️ via chdman1 |
⚠️ v1-4 natively |
Archives: .cso & .zso support |
⚠️ via maxcso (bundled) |
❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Archives: .nkit.iso support |
⚠️ matching but no extraction/inflation (GameCube docs) | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Archives: creation formats | ❌ .zip only by design (writing archives docs) |
⚠️ .zip (TorrentZip), .7z (RV7Z) |
✅ .zip, .7z, .rar |
⚠️ .zip, .7z |
| Archives: contents checksums | ✅ when needed (reading archives docs) | ⚠️ requires "files only" mode | ⚠️ if DAT has forcepacking=unzip | ❓ |
| Archives: automatic extension correction | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Filtering: region, language, type, etc. | ✅ many options | ❌ | ❌ only 1G1R options | ⚠️ only at DB setup |
| Filtering: 1G1R support | ✅ many options | ❌ | ⚠️ region & language only | ⚠️ only at DB setup |
| Reports: report-only mode | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Reports: easily parseable | ✅ CSV | ⚠️ newline-separated "full" & "fix" reports | ⚠️ newline-separated "have" & "miss" lists | ⚠️ newline-separated "have" & "miss" lists |
| Output: file link support | ✅ hard & symbolic links | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Output: separate input & output dirs | ✅ | ⚠️ yes but files are always moved | ❌ | ❌ |
| Output: subdirectory customization | ✅ many options | ⚠️ depends on DAT organization | ❌ | ❌ |
| Output: create single archive for DAT | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
1 requires you to install SDL2 manually, see the chdman-js README.
Note
Just like Igir, other ROM managers that are in active development are likely to release new features often. The above table is not guaranteed to be perfectly up-to-date, it is just a best effort.
Other alternative ROM managers can be found in a number of other wikis, such as: