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Over the years, there have been a multitude of websites that were dedicated to retro gaming and emulation, and ROMhacking.net is towards the top of that list. For almost 20 years, the website has been pivotal at bringing together the hacking and translating communities, giving new life to older games, and making foreign games understandable in other languages. Sadly, it seems this will be coming to an end, and it's a shame to see it.
Before going into the story, SteamDeckHQ does NOT condone piracy or illegally downloading games. We do support emulation, and believe this is more akin to modding games over downloading illegal copies of them.
In an announcement posted to the website by Nightcrawler, the founder of ROMhacking.net, they go over some of their accomplishments with the site, but unfortunately, it has to end. They were looking for a successor as the site grew, which became extremely challenging to sustain due to the insane popularity, but they couldn't. This led to the current decision to close any future submissions except for news stories. All current sections of the site will be read-only, the forum will remain up, and current downloads and images will be available. Any Twitter or discord affiliations have ended and no longer reflect the website or Nightcrawler themselves, and the site's database has been released to the Internet Archive.
On top of this, Nightcrawler levied some heavy allegations against individuals who offered to help with the site. While they thought it would be a good step forward, it turned out to be very malicious. They allege that their personal details had been given out and that they had planned to completely cut them out of the project. They have cut all ties with these individuals and have denounced his behavior completely. There was no indication of who these individuals were.
It’s been a good near 20 year run, but for various reasons it’s time to wind things down. The site achieved almost everything it set out to do, and far exceeded it. We joined hacking and translation communities together for the first time ever. We outlasted and eclipsed ROM hacking sites that came before us. We brought ROM hacking from niche and fragmented to global and centralized. We assembled the largest force of ROM hackers on the planet. We brought learning resources and accessibility to a much wider range of people. We made major progress legitimizing and pulling ROM hacking from underground dark web type material to something much more accepted by the mainstream. We paved a much easier path for all of those that will come after us. No doubt, this site changed ROM hacking forever. It will leave behind the legacy of those accomplishments to remember.
Things sure have changed since the beginning days. I miss the times when I was able to interact with a smaller group of supportive people to collaborate with rather than the entire world. Having gone from an unknown fledgling site to an infinitely growing and globally known one made sustainability very challenging. The site became so busy with 24/7 use, endless queues, and an endless inbox. It’s a very different world than it was in 2005. Copyright pressures increased dramatically with takedowns and legal burden. The site shifted from serving mostly contributing humans to bots and overzealous people abusing resources. They drowned everybody else out. The need for the site has lessened over time. There are now many options for community discussions, open source projects, and file storage across the Internet. For a while, I was looking to find a successor within the circles of site supporters. I asked several potential people, but the stars did not align.
I was finally looking to wind things down at the end of last year. I wanted to provide the site database and file archive to the general public. At that time, an internal group suddenly emerged with an offer to help continue the site. I questioned their intentions, but I thought it could prove to be a more community friendly path forward. However, it turned out to be the opposite. We had a rocky phase 1, moving the downloads into their possession. When I went to startup phase 2, I discovered a most dishonest and hate filled group. I learned that I had been dehumanized for a very long time. My personal details had been given out. Secret deceitful plots had been made to cut me out, and drop a bomb like I am a target to destroy. My family has seen this and after discussion, we are immediately ceasing all related site operations. We are cutting ties to Discord and Twitter social media outlets, and will have no further contact with these individuals. Lines were crossed. I had hoped this community especially would have learned from what happened to Near. This behavior is not OK for handling disagreements, miscommunication, anger, or anything else.
We have released the site database (sans account and/or profile information) as well as all of the files and images to the Internet Archive. In summary:
- Internet Archive of Database and Download Files
- All Submissions other than News are permanently closed.
- All sections of the site will remain up as read only.
- Downloads and images will be available for as long as DarkSol, FCAndChill Calico will allow.
- Forum will remain up
- Twitter and Discord affiliations have ended. Anything further from these outlets do NOT represent myself or ROMhacking.net.
I look forward to seeing what projects will emerge with the site data for the next generation. From what I have seen, it may be a good time to start an open source initiative for a new site. I’d love to hear about what projects you are working on!
I thank all of the many staff and community members whom kept the wheels turning and the lights on over the years. I am proud of our many accomplishments here together. I will carry forward remembering the good times, laughing about the bad times, and knowing she was right for the time, but time has a way of moving on.
This is ROMhacking.net as we knew her signing off…
Nightcrawler - Founder of ROMhacking.net
However, these allegations may have been discussing individuals from the Discord staff. In a post on the ex-official discord server for ROMhacking, one of the admins, snarf, addressed this news and specifically mentioned a part of the announcement that talked about these allegations in the announcements channel:
It's a shame the website is closing, but it's very worrying if these allegations are true. Regardless, it's safe to say the relationship between the website staff and Discord/Twitter staff has been degrading, but for it to get to this point is heartbreaking. While we don't know the truth, we do hope for the best for everyone involved.
ROMhacking.net is an amazing resource and website. While it may be ending, and we are sad to see it go, we can't help but appreciate its significance in the emulation space. Thank you, Nightcrawler and the ROMhacking staff, for all of your work, and we can't wait to see what is next for this scene!
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That's not cool. You can't just give up on a site that has made romhacking cool. Stop being a quitter and keep up with your romhacking needs. Do you know how this is going to affect everybody?