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The game modification site ROMhacking.net, home to nearly 20 years worth of ROM hacks and community projects, has decided to close its doors as of August 1st, 2024. This sudden change comes after an increase in bot activity, content takedowns, and hostility with those involved with the site's operations and ownership.

The website's database, including all ROM hacks and other content uploaded to the site, has been preserved on archive.org. In addition, the site will remain up in a read-only state.

Source

 

[Tofu_mommy]

And as it turns out, there's someone else active on YouTube who didn't like this website. The reason: the patches hosted there do not work for them.

Since you've been fairly active here, can you explain your grievances with the website?

 

[grandosegood]

And as it turns out, there's someone else active on YouTube who didn't like this website. The reason: the patches hosted there do not work for them.

i have only encountered a few patches on there that do not work, and that was due to the dev not updating it, or using a hard-to-find rom. many of the great patches, such as redux versions of alttp and super metroid, greatly improved what were already amazing games, and i was able to first discover them at RHDN. i'm sorry if some people were rude to you, but that's literally half of the internet, so you can't let that ruin the fun experiences ahead. many of the people here at gbatemp have been nothing but kind, and it is a loss to the gaming community for such a site like RHDN to shut down, flaws and all

 

[Egoistamamono]

I've opened the sites yesterday (31 July) and hope some new ROM hacks or translation project was released. But, at the morning I received the message. I really sad for this news.

 

[SDA]

Since you've been fairly active here, can you explain your grievances with the website?

Other than what I said before, another reason why I hated RHDN was their strict rules. I submitted a bunch of translations and hacks there and none of them was uploaded there without being rejected at least once or twice. Pretty annoying, if you ask me.

And one user also made a "hate" review mentioning me after I wrote a negative review on a Mega Man Zero hack.

 

[TheNintendoEnthusiast]

I was not expecting this. I feel like I see an announcement of a site closing before it actually happens! Maybe I missed that memo somewhere along the road.

It's sad to see it go, I am glad there was an initiative to get the files/hacks on archive.org.

 

[Augusto101]

The data is the important thing so basically no problem...

 

[gaga941021]

Atleast all the files and hacks were archived so they dont get lost to time

It will definitely gets taken down.

 

[Tofu_mommy]

It will definitely gets taken down.

Host your own backups then. Patches by themselves are probably on the fairly safe end of things, as they don't contain the actual game data.

 

[gaga941021]

Host your own backups then. Patches by themselves are probably on the fairly safe end of things, as they don't contain the actual game data.

Why would I want backups of these, tho?

 

[Tofu_mommy]

So they don't become lost media? You're worried about the patches getting lost, right?

 

[ILuvGames]

Well, here's the owner of romhacks official reply.

https://romhacks.org/news/about-the-drama-with-rhdn/

 

[OilFreak]

There is no alternative to romhacking.net in my heart. The layout of the site is perfected to make everything you want to access immediately accessible. The sheer amount of content was astounding. The people on the forums are genuinley some of the smartest computer geeks out there.
I'm genuinely devastated by this. Romhacking.org is not an alternative to me simply because it doesn't have the uber-refined layout that romhacking.net does, nor does it have the 20 years of romhacking history
It's not like you can just make a new site for romhacks with all of the old rhdn content on it, as I imagine there might be some backlash to that. Even if a true successor comes forth, I'll always have to check both rhdn and that successor to find romhacks now.

 

[dh3lix-pooch]

Legendary site has a place in my heart forever!

Post automatically merged: Aug 2, 2024

Well, here's the owner of romhacks official reply.

https://romhacks.org/news/about-the-drama-with-rhdn/

Sad that also ego of some ppl seem to have accellerated the downfall here. Not blaming RHDO tho.

 

[LNLenost]

Freeing up 20 gbs on my laptop was useful then, I already backupped the archive from archive.org

 

[captainpringles]

This is so frustrating. The Internet just keeps on getting worse and worse thanks to massive corporations that don't care about normal people. I hate how everything is getting consolidated on these massive platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Discord. I miss the old Internet.

 

[Marc_LFD]

And as it turns out, there's someone else active on YouTube who didn't like this website. The reason: the patches hosted there do not work for them.

Sounds like he/she didn't do it correctly.

Dude, don't hate on this website it's just uncalled for. I kind of despise Reddit/Twitter, but I'm not going around saying how much it sucks.

 

[shadow1w2]

Couldnt beleive it when I saw it.
It's been around so long.
It has been a great resource all over, forums, tools and the works.
Least it's getting archived and we have alternatives already but it just won't be the same.

Projects on Reddit/Discord are doomed to be lost eventually so really don't know why anyone uses those that way they just aren't made for it.
To be ibscure sure but it's still a little wonky.

Hopefully the community will stay strong moving forward despite this big loss.

 

[HUNTERFOX]

Sad to see it go, but I no longer need it as I have all of my roms I need or wanted, in it's own desktop folder.

 

[Bladexdsl]

gameinformer just shut down too

 

[LumInvader]

Atleast all the files and hacks were archived so they dont get lost to time

I just checked out the Archive.org upload. It's a zero effort shitpost. Finding specific hacks for specific games is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Also, since much of the ROMhacking archive is crammed into a single page, you must wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And if you wait long enough, maybe you can get the entire indecipherable shitpost to load.

Check it out for yourselves:

https://ia601400.us.archive.org/vie...ems/romhacking.net-20240801/rhdn_20240801.zip

The proper format for archived ROMhacks should look similar to this:

• Secret of Mana (USA) (SoM Plus v1.02-Tomm) (CRC32 D0176B24).zip
• Super Mario Kart (USA) (Horizons v1.3-gridatttack) (CRC32 CD80DB86).zip
• Super Punch-Out!! (USA) (Stage Select v1.0-bankbank) (CRC32 E2F92F84).zip

ROM title + ROMhack title + version number + author + ROM CRC32. Screenshots\NFO files should be included within the zip.

Nobody knew about the decision to kill ROMhacking.net except Nightcrawler's inner circle. A huge middle finger to the ROMhacking community. Not only to the end users, but to the contributors who've poured hundreds to thousands of hours into their projects.

I'm surprised Romhacking lasted as long as it did with Nightcrawler in charge. Old heads may remember back when he was charging people for his the Ys: Ark of Napishtim PC translation, then refused to finish it after someone leaked it. Everyone who paid got stiffed. Which was funny coming from the guy who once ran a PC-Engine piracy group named RIGG. A pirate screaming about someone pirating his stuff.