Alternative Managers
There are a few different popular ROM managers that have similar features:
| Feature | igir | clrmamepro | RomVault | RomCenter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code: still in development | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❓ |
| Code: open source | ✅ GPL | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| App: OS compatibility | ✅ anything Node.js supports | ⚠️ Windows, macOS & Linux via Wine | ⚠️ Windows, Linux via Mono | ❌ Windows only |
| App: UI or CLI | CLI only by design | UI only | Separate UI & CLI versions | UI only |
| App: required setup steps | ✅ no setup required | ❌ requires "profile" setup per DAT | ⚠️ if specifying DAT & ROM dirs | ❌ requires per-DAT DB setup |
| DATs: supported formats | Logiqx XML, MAME ListXML, CMPro, HTGD SMDB (DATs docs) | Logiqx XML, MAME ListXML, CMPro | Logiqx XML, MAME ListXML, CMPro, RomCenter, HTGD SMDB | 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 | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Archives: extraction formats | ✅ many formats (reading archives docs) | ✅ .zip, .7z, .rar |
⚠️ .zip, .7z |
⚠️ .zip, .7z |
| Archives: creation formats | ❌ .zip only by design (writing archives docs) |
✅ .zip, .7z, .rar |
⚠️ .zip (TorrentZip), .7z |
⚠️ .zip, .7z |
| ROMs: DAT matching strategies | ✅ CRC32+size, MD5, SHA1, SHA256 | ⚠️ CRC32+size, MD5, SHA1 | ⚠️ CRC32+size, MD5, SHA1 | ❓ |
| ROMs: CHD scanning | ❌ | ⚠️ via chdman | ✅ v1-5 natively | ⚠️ v1-4 natively |
| ROMs: scan/checksum caching | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| ROMs: header parsing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ via plugins |
| ROMs: header removal | ✅ automatic and forced | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ROMs: supported merge types | ✅ full non-merged, non-merged, split, merged | ✅ full non-merged, non-merged, split, merged | ⚠️ full non-merged, split, merged | ⚠️ full non-merged, split, merged |
| ROMs: patching support | ✅ patching docs | ❌ | ⚠️ SNES SuperDAT | ❌ |
| 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 "have" & "miss" lists | ⚠️ newline-separated "full" & "fix" reports | ⚠️ 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 | ✅ | ❌ | ⚠️ depends on DAT organization | ❌ |
| Output: create single archive for DAT | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
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: