Unofficial patch

Article summary

An unofficial patch, a.k.a. community patch and fan patch, is a software update created by a third party, such as a user community, without the involvement of whoever is considered the official maintainer of the software (i.e. original developer). An unofficial patch generally does not change the intended use of the software, in contrast to other third-party adaptions such as mods or cracks. An unofficial patch is typically intended to repair bugs and provide new capabilities such as support for newer operating systems, increased display resolutions and new display formats. While unofficial patches are most common for the PC platform, they can also be found for console games e.g. in context of the emulation community. A fan translation is an unofficial patch that adds natural language support to software. Fan translations are most common for Japanese role-playing games which are often not localized for Western markets. A slipstream like patch combines multiple official patches into one unofficial update package as a convenience to users when individual patches are only available online or as small incremental updates.…

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