diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomGame.cs b/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomGame.cs
index 48b4dbee24..c436e99a43 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomGame.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Client.Common/RomGame.cs
@@ -114,18 +114,29 @@ namespace BizHawk.Client.Common
 			if (patch is null) return;
 			using var patchFile = new HawkFile(patch);
 			patchFile.BindFirstOf(".ips");
+			if (!patchFile.IsBound) patchFile.BindFirstOf(".bps");
 			if (!patchFile.IsBound) return;
 			var patchBytes = patchFile.GetStream().ReadAllBytes();
 			if (BPSPatcher.IsIPSFile(patchBytes))
 			{
 				RomData = BPSPatcher.Patch(RomData, new BPSPatcher.IPSPayload(patchBytes));
 			}
+			else if (BPSPatcher.IsBPSFile(patchBytes, out var patchStruct))
+			{
+				var ignoreBaseChecksum = true; //TODO check base checksum and ask user before continuing
+				RomData = BPSPatcher.Patch(StripSNESDumpHeader(RomData), patchStruct, out var checksumsMatch);
+				if (!checksumsMatch && !ignoreBaseChecksum) throw new Exception("BPS patch didn't produce the expected output");
+			}
 			else
 			{
 				throw new Exception("doesn't appear to be a BPS or IPS patch");
 			}
 		}
 
+		/// <remarks>https://snes.nesdev.org/wiki/ROM_file_formats#Detecting_Headered_ROM</remarks>
+		private static ReadOnlySpan<byte> StripSNESDumpHeader(ReadOnlySpan<byte> rom)
+			=> rom.Length % 512 is 0 ? rom : rom.Slice(start: 512);
+
 		private static byte[] DeInterleaveSMD(byte[] source)
 		{
 			// SMD files are interleaved in pages of 16k, with the first 8k containing all
diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Common/BPSPatcher.cs b/src/BizHawk.Common/BPSPatcher.cs
index 5486029abc..556f9a2a9f 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Common/BPSPatcher.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Common/BPSPatcher.cs
@@ -3,10 +3,117 @@ using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Diagnostics;
 using System.Text;
 
+using BizHawk.Common.BufferExtensions;
+using BizHawk.Common.CollectionExtensions;
+
 namespace BizHawk.Common
 {
 	public static class BPSPatcher
 	{
+		/// <remarks>
+		/// constructor assumes valid header/footer<br/>
+		/// https://github.com/Alcaro/Flips/blob/master/bps_spec.md
+		/// </remarks>
+		/// <seealso cref="IsBPSFile"/>
+		public readonly ref struct BPSPayload
+		{
+			internal static readonly byte[] HEADER = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("BPS1");
+
+			public static int DecodeVarInt(ReadOnlySpan<byte> data, ref int i)
+			{
+				// no idea how this works or what it will do if a varint is too large, I just copied from the spec --yoshi
+				// also casting to int (for use with Span) so the max is even smaller
+				ulong num = 0, mul = 1;
+				while (true)
+				{
+					var x = data[i++];
+					num += (x & 0b0111_1111UL) * mul;
+					if ((x & 0b1000_0000UL) is not 0UL) break;
+					mul <<= 7;
+					num += mul;
+				}
+				return (int) num;
+			}
+
+			private readonly ReadOnlySpan<byte> _data;
+
+			private readonly bool _isValid;
+
+			private readonly ReadOnlySpan<byte> _sourceChecksum;
+
+			private readonly int _sourceSize;
+
+			private readonly ReadOnlySpan<byte> _targetChecksum;
+
+			public readonly int TargetSize;
+
+			internal readonly ReadOnlySpan<byte> PatchChecksum;
+
+			/// <remarks>assumes valid header/footer</remarks>
+			/// <seealso cref="IsBPSFile"/>
+			public BPSPayload(ReadOnlySpan<byte> dataWithHeader)
+			{
+				_isValid = true;
+				var i = 4;
+				_sourceSize = DecodeVarInt(dataWithHeader, ref i);
+				TargetSize = DecodeVarInt(dataWithHeader, ref i);
+				var metadataSize = DecodeVarInt(dataWithHeader, ref i);
+				if (metadataSize is not 0)
+				{
+					Console.WriteLine($"ignoring {metadataSize} bytes of .bps metadata");
+					i += metadataSize;
+				}
+				_data = dataWithHeader.Slice(start: i, length: dataWithHeader.Length - 12 - i);
+				_sourceChecksum = dataWithHeader.Slice(start: dataWithHeader.Length - 12, length: 4);
+				_targetChecksum = dataWithHeader.Slice(start: dataWithHeader.Length - 8, length: 4);
+				PatchChecksum = dataWithHeader.Slice(start: dataWithHeader.Length - 4, length: 4);
+			}
+
+			/// <returns><see langword="true"/> iff checksums of base rom and result both matched</returns>
+			public bool DoPatch(ReadOnlySpan<byte> baseRom, Span<byte> target)
+			{
+				if (!_isValid) throw new InvalidOperationException(ERR_MSG_UNINIT);
+				if (target.Length != TargetSize) throw new ArgumentException(message: $"target buffer too {(target.Length < TargetSize ? "small" : "large")}", paramName: nameof(target));
+				if (baseRom.Length != _sourceSize) throw new ArgumentException(message: $"target buffer too {(baseRom.Length < _sourceSize ? "small" : "large")}", paramName: nameof(baseRom));
+				var checksumsMatch = CheckCRC(data: baseRom, reversedChecksum: _sourceChecksum);
+				var outputOffset = 0;
+				var sourceRelOffset = 0;
+				var targetRelOffset = 0;
+				var i = 0;
+				while (i < _data.Length)
+				{
+					var actionAndLength = DecodeVarInt(_data, ref i);
+					var length = (actionAndLength >> 2) + 1;
+					switch (actionAndLength & 0b11)
+					{
+						case 0b00: // SourceRead
+							while (length-- is not 0)
+							{
+								target[outputOffset] = baseRom[outputOffset];
+								outputOffset++;
+							}
+							break;
+						case 0b01: // TargetRead
+							while (length-- is not 0) target[outputOffset++] = _data[i++];
+							break;
+						case 0b10: // SourceCopy
+							var offset = DecodeVarInt(_data, ref i);
+							if ((offset & 1) is 0) sourceRelOffset += offset >> 1;
+							else sourceRelOffset -= offset >> 1;
+							while (length-- is not 0) target[outputOffset++] = baseRom[sourceRelOffset++];
+							break;
+						case 0b11: // TargetCopy
+							var offset1 = DecodeVarInt(_data, ref i);
+							if ((offset1 & 1) is 0) targetRelOffset += offset1 >> 1;
+							else targetRelOffset -= offset1 >> 1;
+							while (length-- is not 0) target[outputOffset++] = target[targetRelOffset++];
+							break;
+					}
+				}
+				return checksumsMatch && CheckCRC(data: target, reversedChecksum: _targetChecksum);
+			}
+		}
+
 		/// <remarks>
 		/// constructor assumes valid header/footer<br/>
 		/// https://zerosoft.zophar.net/ips.php
@@ -100,6 +207,22 @@ namespace BizHawk.Common
 
 		private const string ERR_MSG_UNINIT = "uninitialised struct";
 
+		private static bool CheckCRC(ReadOnlySpan<byte> data, ReadOnlySpan<byte> reversedChecksum)
+			=> ((ReadOnlySpan<byte>) CRC32Checksum.Compute(data)).ReversedSequenceEqual(reversedChecksum);
+
+		public static bool IsBPSFile(ReadOnlySpan<byte> dataWithHeader, out BPSPayload patchStruct)
+		{
+			patchStruct = default;
+			const int MIN_VALID_BPS_SIZE = 20;
+			if (dataWithHeader.Length < MIN_VALID_BPS_SIZE
+				|| !dataWithHeader.Slice(start: 0, length: 4).SequenceEqual(BPSPayload.HEADER))
+			{
+				return false;
+			}
+			patchStruct = new(dataWithHeader);
+			return CheckCRC(data: dataWithHeader.Slice(start: 0, length: dataWithHeader.Length - 4), reversedChecksum: patchStruct.PatchChecksum);
+		}
+
 		public static bool IsIPSFile(ReadOnlySpan<byte> dataWithHeader)
 		{
 			const int MIN_VALID_IPS_SIZE = 8;
@@ -108,6 +231,14 @@ namespace BizHawk.Common
 				&& dataWithHeader.Slice(start: dataWithHeader.Length - 3, length: 3).SequenceEqual(IPSPayload.FOOTER);
 		}
 
+		/// <remarks>always allocates a new array</remarks>
+		public static byte[] Patch(ReadOnlySpan<byte> baseRom, BPSPayload patch, out bool checksumsMatch)
+		{
+			var target = new byte[patch.TargetSize];
+			checksumsMatch = patch.DoPatch(baseRom: baseRom, target: target);
+			return target;
+		}
+
 		/// <remarks>may patch in place, returning <paramref name="baseRom"/>, or allocate a new array</remarks>
 		public static byte[] Patch(byte[] baseRom, IPSPayload patch)
 		{
diff --git a/src/BizHawk.Common/Extensions/CollectionExtensions.cs b/src/BizHawk.Common/Extensions/CollectionExtensions.cs
index 4c03641450..7016bb666a 100644
--- a/src/BizHawk.Common/Extensions/CollectionExtensions.cs
+++ b/src/BizHawk.Common/Extensions/CollectionExtensions.cs
@@ -223,6 +223,21 @@ namespace BizHawk.Common.CollectionExtensions
 		private static T ReturnSelf<T>(this T self)
 			=> self;
 
+		public static bool ReversedSequenceEqual<T>(this ReadOnlySpan<T> a, ReadOnlySpan<T> b)
+			where T : IEquatable<T>
+		{
+			var len = a.Length;
+			if (len != b.Length) return false;
+			if (len is 0) return true;
+			var i = 0;
+			while (i < len)
+			{
+				if (!a[i].Equals(b[len - 1 - i])) return false;
+				i++;
+			}
+			return true;
+		}
+
 		public static bool IsSortedAsc<T>(this IReadOnlyList<T> list)
 			where T : IComparable<T>
 		{