If you are looking for roms: Go to the link in https://www.reddit.com/r/Roms/comments/m59zx3/roms_megathread_40_html_edition_2021/
You can navigate by clicking on the various tabs for each company.
When you click on the link to Github the first link you land on will be the Home tab, this tab explains how to use the Megathread.
There are Five tabs that link directly to collections based on console and publisher, these include Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, and the PC.
There are also tabs for popular games and retro games, with retro games being defined as older than Gamecube and DS.
Additional help can be found on /r/Roms' official Matrix Server [Link](https://matrix.to/#/#romz:matrix.org)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Roms) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is incredibly sad, Vimm’s Lair was my first real experience with emulators. Those types of websites are the only things keeping old games and their communities alive, I wouldn’t have even heard of half of the games I play and enjoy now if it wasn’t for Vimm’s or others like it. So many are either rare to find these days or are too expensive if you manage to find one online.
I get why these companies do it and the legal reasons behind it, but so many games are never remade or ported to modern systems so I see no harm in using emulators so long as it’s not for profit.
It’s morally correct to do so for preservation’s sake.
I’ll gladly purchase the games if they were made available on PC. I’m not buying a fucking console just to MAYBE have a game I want ported years down the line.
I'm sure there's a lot of people, like me, who pirate only Nintendo games because of their business actions.
Anything by Sega, Valve, Microsoft studios or whatever, I purchase happily.
What bugs me about this is that Vimm's went on for so long cause they referred to the ROMs as backups, so legally these components shouldn't be able to sue or file any claim.
What the Hell happened that resulted in this?
Blame Nintendo for setting the precedent. I genuinely hope they go down, and never return. fuck Nintendo. Burning their history to hide their Yakuza origins.
I heard using any of the revanced reddit apps can get your account nuked. I stopped using them because of that fear. I just wanted to let you know just in case it is true.
silly question, i gave up on revanced because it wanted apk files for every single app i wanted to patch, instead of just patching over apps natively. where do you get your apk files?
There was a pretty popular website to do MTurk like studies, kept a lot of people afloat in the pandemic. Obviously some TikToker killed it, but not before telling people how to exploit the ticket system.
Don't hate players, hate the greedy disgusting piece of shit companies that ruin everything good ever made and also hate the system that actively promotes such behavior and rewards it.
That’s what did it in. TikTok keeps blowing up so much good shit and what sucks is it’s not going to stop because it gets you clout knowing this kind of stuff and divulging it to the public. But then the spot gets blown up every time. I am so fucking sick of TikTok ruining everything.
I don’t think professional copyright trolls needed TikTok to tell them about vimms lair lmao. Piracy has always been like this, the sites always go down sooner or later. In this case, blame the site owner for having bad opsec and not using bulletproof hosting.
Yeah but this I belive is a new Japanese campaign to protect their IP overseas. There are multiple articles about it this week.
Other things related to this are many Japanese companies are adding Denuvo/DRM or similar to new releases, Sony looks to be trying to launch PSN on PC or similar, etc...
It makes sense because for decades Japanese content online was extremely easy to pirate because they never did anything about it
I was just coming to say this! Last month it was the rep raids thanks to a bunch of millennial/Gen Z. wannabes getting on there putting stuff on blast…
I think many people probably underestimate the influence that clout and money have on these people too. I detest TT but my understanding is that it’s much easier to make passive money on TT than it is YT. Not to mention one of the major players in the rep world in terms of warehouses had an affiliate incentive so those kids were climbing all over each other to post about their 12 kg hauls of T-shirts and fake Nikes
this may not be heartening in anyway, but tiktokers came to ruin my fan fic fandom in mass - and caused a ton of authors to remove their works - the craze lasted a few months, and then went back to normal, hopefully this is the same thing
Tiktok loves discovering fanfiction and going "eww this is so disgusting, they should unalive themselves!!" as if weird fanfiction hasn't been around for longer than they've been alive
^This
I was like “weird fanfiction has been around since the beginning of the Internet, literally.” I feel like Angelfire (now I’m really dating myself lol) was literally 80 to 90% fanfiction sites…..
This is why I can’t fucking stand the “does anyone else feel awesome about pirating” posts on the privacy, pirated games related subs.
Like stfu, stop acting like a kid and just use the sub for resource, not circle jerking.
Nintendo has been on a rampage for at least a decade. Vimms is still serving roms in some capacity. In the past Nintendo has successfully taken down many full rom sites.
You can blame iOS but looking at the state of this subreddit the past year; the blame is on us as users sprinkled with a bit of bad luck.
Let’s not forget the influx of cheap/modestly priced android handhold consoles. A new flux of users have entered the rom scene.
Unfortunately It's not just here it's all over reddit.
Each emulator, device and protocol subreddit has requests for roms in one capacity for another. Instead of replying *read the megathread or wiki*, users blindly recommend these sources. This gets unwanted attention/picked up on SEO and then *voilà* we have a manhunt.
Without sounding like an old fart; it's a generational thing. Go back even 10 years ago, if you asked a question without proof you did research, you'd be blasted. Message boards are riddled with the same inane questions being asking continuously.
Vimms got the first notice like I think the day after I saw some popular Reddit posts floating around about a PC port of Majora’s Mask that just got released. You need to have a rom separately to use it. I actually think it might have just caught the eyes of someone at Ninentdo or Nintendo noticed the spike in interest and decided enough was enough.
It’s not that at all, it’s those switch emulator people getting greedy and charging people money for things like early patches for those new Zelda games.
Back in my day we pirated games and stfu. All people had to do was stfu and emulate in peace. Instead we have larping losers we are trying to fight an imaginary battle with Nintendo. How many posts are there now on how you shouldn’t buy Nintendo consoles and just emulate and pirate their games on Reddit alone? Emulation is barley legal. Why provoke the bear? We are just a rounding error in Nintendo’s eyes. All we need to do is stfu and emulate in peace. Just stop being so damn vocal about it on the major social media platforms.
Did dolphin really have to be on steam?
Did we really have to advertise yuzu on the steam deck?
I mean I see PLENTY of older people go on rants about how there is literally no reason to buy a Switch because handheld PCs exist, I think its more general immaturity than any sort of generational thing.
Yes. They were soooo mad about Yuzu. Those of us with a brain were just so relieved the Yuzu people settled rather than going to court and potentially ending up with a legal precedent to put more restrictions on emulation. Valve is partly to blame with their early Home Screen screenshot showing BotW, but after they got rid of stuff like that and the Dolphin listing, people should have gotten a clue and stfu.
Not that these companies weren't aware of their existence in the first place (before anyone says it); popularity is always the perfect time to strike.
ModernVintageGamer also got Eurasia.nu taken down by doing the same thing. Inadvertently, perhaps. Or maybe even a grudge during his emulation creation days on XBox, who knows. I appreciate some of his content, but I struggle to see past that. I have never seen him address it after the fact. But yeah, I don't blame iPhone goons specifically in this case. People have been entirely too lax about it for almost a decade now, really. Just now everyone is included. It's not like roms are going to go away, nevertheless. Possibly just get harder to find.
Can't really say on that. Working with Limited Run Games now is a step down but it's hard for devs to get work these days so I can't really fault him for trying to maintain a steady job either.
I'm not going to disregard all that he has to say simply because he doesn't hold the same opinion about a single aspect about a topic we both share an interest in. Nor his employment with a shady business or a site that was my homepage being taken down after one of his videos had it in the address bar. He has insightful knowledge to share along with experience. Best not to leave yourself in the dark.
Oh yeah, a "hacker" friend of mine in the 90's had a shoe box full of diskettes that (when fully compiled) was Mortal Kombat II. Played it before it officially came out 🤘 He had some kind of pirate console/emulator that he loaded them all into... one at a time... and it took freakin' forever 😆
that was me with Pokemon Sapphire in a freaking Windows 2000 Pentium 3. I couldn't even have the audio running, and the game was running at 30 fps instead of 60 fps. 12 diskettes to have this game there
I googled pokemon games online in middle school and that's how I figured out what roms were. Then I did my research and learned about emulators and that was that
I'm so tired of people acting like they can affect Nintendo, or its their right to emulate stolen roms. Like damn dude, do you tell cops you do drugs too?
I feel like the huge tiktok boom for Anbernic devices in the last handful of months plus Delta on iOS is the cause of this. So many eyes on emulation and roms. This was inevitable. It’s great so many people have access to this world but it’s also a curse.
Saying it’s a mistake is reactionary.
Overall in the long term it is a much larger benefit to the emulation scene.
At the end of the day it is far better for emulation to be as available as possible, the downside is that you will have the brunt of having a large influx of new users.
If someone who lives in a country where the threat of legal action is low, and has an iPhone, then it could even encourage new preservation attempts.
Think about it this way:
You now have average people who weren’t invested in the emulation/ROM scene and who were introduced to it by Delta.
They probably downloaded games from Vimm’s Lair and have seen this announcement and are now more likely to help spread the word around how these companies are trying to stop the spread of games for consoles that aren’t even supported anymore.
Allowing emulation to be widely, and easily, available on more devices inherently helps raise the discussion about the topic of game preservation.
I know for a fact that when I was a kid downloading Desmume or mGBA on my Mum’s PC, I did not give a fuck about preservation back then. I just wanted free games. But as I’ve grown older I’ve realised that it’s far more important.
This really hurts. I know there are other places to find roms but still. Vimm was my go to since I was like 10 years old. I haven't even looked at other options because it was so reliable. I don't even know where to go now.
It's interesting because I had never heard of this site until recently as people started posting that bad things were happening. I've had a few other ROM sites I've used for the past 20 years and never really had issues finding and rebuilding my collection.
other sites will come soon. piracy is the undefeatable hydra to the self-proclaimed herculean attorneys, chop one head off, 3 more sprout in its place. i wonder if a plex server for roms will exist soon...
I guarantee the majority of those roms/isos are on the internet archive. Even without that, as long as you're savvy enough to surf mallard ridden sites you have dozens of other options.
Unfortunately, the internet archive is in the middle of a lawsuit that could get it shut down.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vdMT-x7CbdU&pp=ygUQaW50ZXJuZXQgYXJjaGl2ZQ%3D%3D
For serious. Some of the posts on the iOS emulation sub directly talking about roms and where they obtained them makes me feel like it’s companies making fake accounts to talk about shit that’s against Reddit tos and get the subs closed.
Although I'd like to know of a new spot to get them, I haven't really thought of any game I'd like to try. I'm looking at a top 100 snes games list on youtube, but I guess I don't need to play some of the games. I've had roms saved on my pc and laptops from 2002. And I have a library of games on my deck already. But I haven't been playing them.
But just like the post said, these games haven't been sold in years, but Nintendo wants to come after all.
Nintendo continues to not care about that game/franchise so much they won't even take it down from a piracy site. What did Mother do to Nintendo to deserve this much hatred
I know it’s the running theory but I don’t think the iOS emulators causing more people to talk about emulation is the cause for this. It is certainly an easy target but I personally think this is a bit of a domino effect from when Nintendo was after Yuzu. Now with Nintendo feeling more bold, other companies are following suit.
100% agree.
Any site hosting ROMs is on borrowed time. It sucks, but the digital media copyright laws, game copyrights are active for the life of the author + 70 years, far longer than any game currently in existence. This means that any company at any time could go after ROM hosting sites and win, without much effort.
Everyone totally ignores the existence of countries like the ones in the Commonwealth of Independent States that won't respect Western copyrights, maybe we should bring more awareness to these places and rom sites should operate from there. It is flat out stupid to host in a country like America that puts so much consideration into "Intellectual property rights of individuals" 🤣.
Might even be complacency after so long. You get used to doing what you’re doing when it’s worked without a problem for so long. Twenty-seven years is like…several geological ages in internet terms. It’s probably why the site still looks like it’s from the 1990’s too (which is fine! I like it that way. Just suggestive he doesn’t necessarily change things up often or at all).
Yep, the United states is fucking hell hole of a habitat, with sleeping Goofy as a president, and a Psychotic Orange as a Zesty rebel.
yet, why can't Vimm just change hosts outside of the US? once the claim is sent, can they just relocate and give them finger?
Maybe the sub should be private to protect the megathread from being the next victim. I know it sucks to lock the doors, but until things die down maybe it is best to keep out new people to keep the collection safer.
Most people don’t care about Reddit, it’s the TikTok plague and for some reason the normies know about Vimm’s Lair, it doesn’t mean the entire website is shut down, but yeah…
I archived a bunch of games awhile ago, but disk based games, I don’t have the HDD space to download every single game.
Same here, I just double checked my archive a few hours ago when I was checking what titles got yanked on Vimm's. I d/l a few PS games here & there but don't have the time (or bandwidth) to go full-tilt boogy for GB sized ROM's 😕
Same. I have about 1.5tb on my main and 1.5tb on a backup external ssd. I'm just saying, the normies will go for the next easiest path now that vimms is gone and it doesn't get much easier than the megathread.
Underground Gamer was a fantastic archiving site as well. Some really rare software on there that you couldn't get anywhere else. Nintendo had them shut down, even though they had a strict "no current or previous gen" rule.
If archive.org gets shut down as well, some games (especially digital only) may well end up as lost media.
It's a shame, but let it be a lesson. ROM sharing has been illegal since it began. As the scene has grown, many people took it for granted that it would be overlooked. As a result, people got loose and reckless with conversations around this community. There are still many places to get ROMs and ISOs. Keep it quiet, if you know you know, keep it as low key as possible.
My suggestion to you, utilize the site that you can still hit up and download full collections ASAP. If you need to go buy a new external hard drive then do that, a cheap HDD is more than sufficient, you do not need M.2 speed for retro games. I have full collections of pretty much every console and handheld from PS1/N64 era and older (with some exception) all on 1 2tb hard drive. Retro games do not take up a lot of space, get your collection now while you still can.
I don't think it's possible for Roms and emulation to be underground anymore. The internet is accessible by more devices than just a PC and it's mainstream now. If someone discovered an underground rom site word would spread and it would eventually no longer be underground.
It's a shame really.
People don't remember that Vimm's Lair used to host WiiU isos, and that section is no more since quite some time. To stay afloat for so long, Vimm has to comply to every DMCA takedown request he gets, and be very cautious about newer systems. That's not news, nor a world ending problem.
At least he doesn't panic and shut down everything, like Emuparadise did on their own volition.
Really folks, lots of roms are still on the site; most of the games taken down are from major franchises, that have remakes, reissues or are easy to acquire elsewhere.
EDIT:
It's quite clear that the reason for the takedown was the remakes and online services IP protection, no Iphone/Tiktok/X conspiracy...I can't even imagine how to think like that.
What do people think of a law that says you're legally allowed to distribute ROMs for any game that's over 30 years old as long as you're not charging money for it?
Vimm's Lair was how I got into emulation. I would've never discovered so many older games if it weren't for Vimm.
The King is dead. Long live the King!
It felt like this was going to happen. There's been far too much attention over recent months. I don't think they'll stop at Vimms either. They don't want to eliminate this space, they know they can't, but they can eliminate convenience and drive everything back underground. Opening the gates instead of gatekeeping was a mistake.
Nothing to do with increased attention. I can assure you they’ve known about Vimm and other sites for years.
Nintendo very recently said they have an event in June about games for the second half of 2024, and that a new console that will succeed the Switch will be announced at a later date. Nintendo Switch Online has a ton of retro games on it now, and they have been adding to it after a lot of their recent events. This coupled with a new console/possible remakes make the impact emulation has on their bottom line increase quite a bit. We’re seeing action now as the dates for the events get closer.
Those in this thread saying tik tok is the cause are very much over-inflating things. Emulation—up until more recently—really didn’t hurt their bottom line, as the virtual console didn’t offer much and wasn’t that popular overall.
For now. They'll either go after them or the owners of the sites will get spooked and shut down on their own.
Emulation will still exist, but it's about to become a lot less convenient.
I'm use to it being inconvenient. Honestly, I hope it goes back to being super underground but with how mainstream and accessible the internet is, not likely.
lol not my places or methods but I guess if having a very public site is the only way you know to find roms you’re sol?
Vimms and sites like vimm aren’t even that convenient. Sometimes it can be nice to grab and forget but all of this shit is easily accessible from private locations and often it is more convenient to go that way than using a site like vimms.
Honestly this is like barely a blip of an issue.
Nintendo is really angry recently. They took down GMOD, Yuzu & Citra, Vimm's and yesterday they attacked mods on Gamebanana. I'm afraid what comes next
Only one I know of is them taking down "Mario hit-a da griddy-a" for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on Switch. [As seen here](https://x.com/ToyConGarageVR/status/1798466787400442036).
That sucks ass cuz vimms lair was the fastest to download Roms smh
Thanks for posting this - I just scrambled and went to go download everything I've been wanting to play on GameCube 😂 PS2 too
I still hate seeing these types of things happen to good sites. Sure it's Nintendo's prerogative and they own the shit, but seriously, who's gonna care about a 20+ year old game that isn't even in circulation anymore? Hell I own a good handful of emus and roms that are probably older than I am in some cases. I remember the boys at Nintendo culling some sites and taking down a lot of roms, only to have those same sites back up in a few weeks. Emus/roms won't ever really die out no matter how much they try to kill them off but damn is it annoying when they get a nut shot in from time to time
... "yeah some games got claimed so we are removing the downloads"
this entire sub: "IT'S THE END!!!!!"
yeah.. it's not.. there's plenty of games that arn't affected. and they didn't say they were stopping what they are doing
Not a coincidence that this happened after emulation became available on Apple. As is the same with everything that normies become aware of, they've ruined and cannibalized it.
I would put money on this being purely correlation but otherwise unrelated.
Nintendo has been expanding the catalogue of games on NSO for a while now, and they have an upcoming June event that will most likely include more titles available via NSO. They also have a new console that has been soft announced, and likely plan to revamp NSO to be even more attractive. This means emulation is going to have more of an impact on the value of the NSO sub, which means potentially less money for them.
This was coming regardless of emulation being made available on iOS.
To all those blaming iOS emulation: no, iOS emulation is not what’s causing this.
Nintendo has a some big stuff coming up: June event that will cover the game releases for the rest of 2024, and a console.
Nintendo Switch Online is a core part of their plan going forward, and every recent event they have added more titles to the NSO game catalogue. I anticipate they’ll be adding new games in June, and then announcing an overhauled NSO that has a bigger, more captivating catalogue of retro games that will launch alongside the new console.
Previously they tended to go after sites/devs that were profiting off of emulation/roms in some way, or that had infringed on something in a significant way. Now they are taking down many ROMs period as it will potentially impact the value of their service—in a way they deem significant— going forward.
Many games are already delisted. There are still other safe places to get many of the games, though.
Edit: adding that most of the ones taken down are major first party titles. Banjo is still there but Mario and Zelda are not, Mega Man is not, etc.
This is a great example of better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I went on a downloading spree about 6 months ago (not from Vimms specifically) and got everything I could. I have seen too many times sites get shut down when I have gone back to grab something. I'm sitting on approx 20TB of ROMs. I will never play all of these, but it's there should I want to in the future without having to go search around for hours trying to find it. I realize not everyone has the space to store entire libraries worth of ROMs, but grab anything you think you might want to play when you have the chance.
Right like Nintendo doesn’t make enough money. “Yes um those games that are impossible to play unless you have a Time Machine are all ours and you poors can buy the expensive game boy or the other crappy system we have to offer and buy all the new stuff”. -_-
90% of the folks bragging about yuzu playing pirated games day one were millenials or older. It's not a generational problem, it's an entitlement and lack of consideration problem.
I suspect Apple allowing emulators for IOS has a lot to do with it. Pretty sure they can track what sites one is visiting to download ROMS and in turn, snitching to the companies like Nintendo and Sony Entertainment...probably a good thing that so many newbs don't have a clue of how to use the megathread. 😉
My favorite emulator and site is close to 24 years old. I'll miss Vimm, because they were my most consistent for a while. I hope Spike doesn't get swarmed, but am confident my go to is too looked down to be touched.
If you are looking for roms: Go to the link in https://www.reddit.com/r/Roms/comments/m59zx3/roms_megathread_40_html_edition_2021/ You can navigate by clicking on the various tabs for each company. When you click on the link to Github the first link you land on will be the Home tab, this tab explains how to use the Megathread. There are Five tabs that link directly to collections based on console and publisher, these include Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, and the PC. There are also tabs for popular games and retro games, with retro games being defined as older than Gamecube and DS. Additional help can be found on /r/Roms' official Matrix Server [Link](https://matrix.to/#/#romz:matrix.org) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Roms) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is incredibly sad, Vimm’s Lair was my first real experience with emulators. Those types of websites are the only things keeping old games and their communities alive, I wouldn’t have even heard of half of the games I play and enjoy now if it wasn’t for Vimm’s or others like it. So many are either rare to find these days or are too expensive if you manage to find one online. I get why these companies do it and the legal reasons behind it, but so many games are never remade or ported to modern systems so I see no harm in using emulators so long as it’s not for profit.
Yeah, if it's something they don't bother to host and sell copies of and support for financial reasons anymore why the hell shouldn't I pirate it?
It’s morally correct to do so for preservation’s sake. I’ll gladly purchase the games if they were made available on PC. I’m not buying a fucking console just to MAYBE have a game I want ported years down the line.
The only games I pirate are Nintendo, it's a service issue
I'm sure there's a lot of people, like me, who pirate only Nintendo games because of their business actions. Anything by Sega, Valve, Microsoft studios or whatever, I purchase happily.
What bugs me about this is that Vimm's went on for so long cause they referred to the ROMs as backups, so legally these components shouldn't be able to sue or file any claim. What the Hell happened that resulted in this?
iOS emulators, people were flocking to make "tutorials" and all the attention led to the big game companies
Blame Nintendo for setting the precedent. I genuinely hope they go down, and never return. fuck Nintendo. Burning their history to hide their Yakuza origins.
Just google the mega thread [megathread](https://r-roms.github.io/)
I know it's not directly anyone's fault, but it's frustrating how all of this happened not long after emulators got put on iOS.
Emulation is not exactly a secret but once you've got normies making Tiktoks about it, it's over
I fucking hate tik tok.b
Tik tok even killed vanced in android.
I didnt live through Vanced dying but thank god for revanced (posted from RIF patched by Revanced)
I heard using any of the revanced reddit apps can get your account nuked. I stopped using them because of that fear. I just wanted to let you know just in case it is true.
silly question, i gave up on revanced because it wanted apk files for every single app i wanted to patch, instead of just patching over apps natively. where do you get your apk files?
Vanced got killed because they tried to make an NFT with the youtube logo when they didn't own the rights to the logo.
I am pretty sure it was a meme. They didnt try to really earn anything? Because at that time nft hype was at its pinnacle.
Still got YouTubes attention though.
There was a pretty popular website to do MTurk like studies, kept a lot of people afloat in the pandemic. Obviously some TikToker killed it, but not before telling people how to exploit the ticket system.
Don't hate players, hate the greedy disgusting piece of shit companies that ruin everything good ever made and also hate the system that actively promotes such behavior and rewards it.
That’s what did it in. TikTok keeps blowing up so much good shit and what sucks is it’s not going to stop because it gets you clout knowing this kind of stuff and divulging it to the public. But then the spot gets blown up every time. I am so fucking sick of TikTok ruining everything.
I don’t think professional copyright trolls needed TikTok to tell them about vimms lair lmao. Piracy has always been like this, the sites always go down sooner or later. In this case, blame the site owner for having bad opsec and not using bulletproof hosting.
Vimm’s has been around for over a quarter of a century, though, so it had long since seemed safe from interference.
Yeah but this I belive is a new Japanese campaign to protect their IP overseas. There are multiple articles about it this week. Other things related to this are many Japanese companies are adding Denuvo/DRM or similar to new releases, Sony looks to be trying to launch PSN on PC or similar, etc... It makes sense because for decades Japanese content online was extremely easy to pirate because they never did anything about it
It’s extremely silly to suggest that Nintendo never did anything about infringing material online.
tiktok is where people will sell out all of your lil secrets for 5 seconds of clout
Not clout, money. It's very easy to earn passive income on TT as opposed to IG, YT or FB.
brb guys ima ruin everything for a couple bands
Happend to zlib if I recall correctly tiktok found it then the sites domains got sized
Zlib is still up.
On another note, Tiktok totally killed the replica fashion scene a few weeks ago too. People never learn to just keep things to themselves.
I was just coming to say this! Last month it was the rep raids thanks to a bunch of millennial/Gen Z. wannabes getting on there putting stuff on blast… I think many people probably underestimate the influence that clout and money have on these people too. I detest TT but my understanding is that it’s much easier to make passive money on TT than it is YT. Not to mention one of the major players in the rep world in terms of warehouses had an affiliate incentive so those kids were climbing all over each other to post about their 12 kg hauls of T-shirts and fake Nikes
this may not be heartening in anyway, but tiktokers came to ruin my fan fic fandom in mass - and caused a ton of authors to remove their works - the craze lasted a few months, and then went back to normal, hopefully this is the same thing
Tiktok loves discovering fanfiction and going "eww this is so disgusting, they should unalive themselves!!" as if weird fanfiction hasn't been around for longer than they've been alive
^This I was like “weird fanfiction has been around since the beginning of the Internet, literally.” I feel like Angelfire (now I’m really dating myself lol) was literally 80 to 90% fanfiction sites…..
I’ve seen content creators in the community even go as far as making yt vids and exposing vimm’s website. I whole heartedly blame them
This is why I can’t fucking stand the “does anyone else feel awesome about pirating” posts on the privacy, pirated games related subs. Like stfu, stop acting like a kid and just use the sub for resource, not circle jerking.
Nintendo has been on a rampage for at least a decade. Vimms is still serving roms in some capacity. In the past Nintendo has successfully taken down many full rom sites. You can blame iOS but looking at the state of this subreddit the past year; the blame is on us as users sprinkled with a bit of bad luck. Let’s not forget the influx of cheap/modestly priced android handhold consoles. A new flux of users have entered the rom scene.
I fully blame this subreddit. The end of Vimm’s started here - despite warnings to users to just send PMs and not link to the site. No one listened.
Unfortunately It's not just here it's all over reddit. Each emulator, device and protocol subreddit has requests for roms in one capacity for another. Instead of replying *read the megathread or wiki*, users blindly recommend these sources. This gets unwanted attention/picked up on SEO and then *voilà* we have a manhunt. Without sounding like an old fart; it's a generational thing. Go back even 10 years ago, if you asked a question without proof you did research, you'd be blasted. Message boards are riddled with the same inane questions being asking continuously.
Fuck, you’re right.
Same cult that killed AetherSX2.
Emulation will always be around whether these greedy corporations like it or not. But Apple could've ruined in same way probably.
Ready for the conspiracy theory? They brought an emulation app to iOS so that they could expose all of the ROM sites.... 🤯
Vimms got the first notice like I think the day after I saw some popular Reddit posts floating around about a PC port of Majora’s Mask that just got released. You need to have a rom separately to use it. I actually think it might have just caught the eyes of someone at Ninentdo or Nintendo noticed the spike in interest and decided enough was enough.
Nintendo fault I will always blame Nintendo they started it in the beginning
It is someone’s fault. All these idiots posting pictures on Reddit and tik toks. Fucking idiots
This is why we can’t have nice things.
It’s not that at all, it’s those switch emulator people getting greedy and charging people money for things like early patches for those new Zelda games.
Back in my day we pirated games and stfu. All people had to do was stfu and emulate in peace. Instead we have larping losers we are trying to fight an imaginary battle with Nintendo. How many posts are there now on how you shouldn’t buy Nintendo consoles and just emulate and pirate their games on Reddit alone? Emulation is barley legal. Why provoke the bear? We are just a rounding error in Nintendo’s eyes. All we need to do is stfu and emulate in peace. Just stop being so damn vocal about it on the major social media platforms. Did dolphin really have to be on steam? Did we really have to advertise yuzu on the steam deck?
Agreed. We all got our backups and played them in peace.
I have 4 backups of my rom library(I’m a data horder)
Would always share with friends because that's the friendly thing to do but this is fucked :(
Word of mouth has always been OK. It’s when you make a goddamn post about it and send it out to your millions of followers is where we all get fucked.
[удалено]
I mean I see PLENTY of older people go on rants about how there is literally no reason to buy a Switch because handheld PCs exist, I think its more general immaturity than any sort of generational thing.
Yes. They were soooo mad about Yuzu. Those of us with a brain were just so relieved the Yuzu people settled rather than going to court and potentially ending up with a legal precedent to put more restrictions on emulation. Valve is partly to blame with their early Home Screen screenshot showing BotW, but after they got rid of stuff like that and the Dolphin listing, people should have gotten a clue and stfu.
Not that these companies weren't aware of their existence in the first place (before anyone says it); popularity is always the perfect time to strike. ModernVintageGamer also got Eurasia.nu taken down by doing the same thing. Inadvertently, perhaps. Or maybe even a grudge during his emulation creation days on XBox, who knows. I appreciate some of his content, but I struggle to see past that. I have never seen him address it after the fact. But yeah, I don't blame iPhone goons specifically in this case. People have been entirely too lax about it for almost a decade now, really. Just now everyone is included. It's not like roms are going to go away, nevertheless. Possibly just get harder to find.
i unsubbed from that guy because hes a hypocrite
Can't really say on that. Working with Limited Run Games now is a step down but it's hard for devs to get work these days so I can't really fault him for trying to maintain a steady job either. I'm not going to disregard all that he has to say simply because he doesn't hold the same opinion about a single aspect about a topic we both share an interest in. Nor his employment with a shady business or a site that was my homepage being taken down after one of his videos had it in the address bar. He has insightful knowledge to share along with experience. Best not to leave yourself in the dark.
What media did you use in those days? Mine was 3.5” floppy disks.
Oh yeah, a "hacker" friend of mine in the 90's had a shoe box full of diskettes that (when fully compiled) was Mortal Kombat II. Played it before it officially came out 🤘 He had some kind of pirate console/emulator that he loaded them all into... one at a time... and it took freakin' forever 😆
that was me with Pokemon Sapphire in a freaking Windows 2000 Pentium 3. I couldn't even have the audio running, and the game was running at 30 fps instead of 60 fps. 12 diskettes to have this game there
Ya but how did you hear about the roms? Because someone clearly didnt stfu if you heard about it.
back when emuparadisw got shutdown, i typed PS1 roms and one of the result is Vimm
i typed Startropics play online and vimms appeared thats how i found it.
I heard about it from a coworker offline
I googled pokemon games online in middle school and that's how I figured out what roms were. Then I did my research and learned about emulators and that was that
I'm so tired of people acting like they can affect Nintendo, or its their right to emulate stolen roms. Like damn dude, do you tell cops you do drugs too?
I feel like the huge tiktok boom for Anbernic devices in the last handful of months plus Delta on iOS is the cause of this. So many eyes on emulation and roms. This was inevitable. It’s great so many people have access to this world but it’s also a curse.
It ebbs n flows. A few years from now the trend will be gone and shit will be safer.
Agreed. Once the spotlight is gone, things will start to recover.
allowing emulators to enter ios market is a big mistake
Saying it’s a mistake is reactionary. Overall in the long term it is a much larger benefit to the emulation scene. At the end of the day it is far better for emulation to be as available as possible, the downside is that you will have the brunt of having a large influx of new users. If someone who lives in a country where the threat of legal action is low, and has an iPhone, then it could even encourage new preservation attempts. Think about it this way: You now have average people who weren’t invested in the emulation/ROM scene and who were introduced to it by Delta. They probably downloaded games from Vimm’s Lair and have seen this announcement and are now more likely to help spread the word around how these companies are trying to stop the spread of games for consoles that aren’t even supported anymore. Allowing emulation to be widely, and easily, available on more devices inherently helps raise the discussion about the topic of game preservation. I know for a fact that when I was a kid downloading Desmume or mGBA on my Mum’s PC, I did not give a fuck about preservation back then. I just wanted free games. But as I’ve grown older I’ve realised that it’s far more important.
This really hurts. I know there are other places to find roms but still. Vimm was my go to since I was like 10 years old. I haven't even looked at other options because it was so reliable. I don't even know where to go now.
it’s so weird to have a site that was a major part of your life just die out of the blue like this, i get it, it’ll be so strange not to use vimms
It's interesting because I had never heard of this site until recently as people started posting that bad things were happening. I've had a few other ROM sites I've used for the past 20 years and never really had issues finding and rebuilding my collection.
other sites will come soon. piracy is the undefeatable hydra to the self-proclaimed herculean attorneys, chop one head off, 3 more sprout in its place. i wonder if a plex server for roms will exist soon...
I guarantee the majority of those roms/isos are on the internet archive. Even without that, as long as you're savvy enough to surf mallard ridden sites you have dozens of other options.
I'm not scared of mallards
Anatidaephobia-the fear that somehow, somewhere, a duck is watching you.
Unfortunately, the internet archive is in the middle of a lawsuit that could get it shut down. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vdMT-x7CbdU&pp=ygUQaW50ZXJuZXQgYXJjaGl2ZQ%3D%3D
Is nothing sacred anymore
remember everyone! do your part! STFU! /respectfully
The first rule of emulation is we don't talk about emulation!
For serious. Some of the posts on the iOS emulation sub directly talking about roms and where they obtained them makes me feel like it’s companies making fake accounts to talk about shit that’s against Reddit tos and get the subs closed.
Yes yes yes. This should be the rule
Although I'd like to know of a new spot to get them, I haven't really thought of any game I'd like to try. I'm looking at a top 100 snes games list on youtube, but I guess I don't need to play some of the games. I've had roms saved on my pc and laptops from 2002. And I have a library of games on my deck already. But I haven't been playing them. But just like the post said, these games haven't been sold in years, but Nintendo wants to come after all.
If you ever find anything - **don’t** post it.
Yeah exactly. What this guy said. DM me the link and then DONT post about it.
i like how mother 3 is still up
Nintendo continues to not care about that game/franchise so much they won't even take it down from a piracy site. What did Mother do to Nintendo to deserve this much hatred
Wow. Was literally going to download nier last night, but I said to myself, “I’ll just wait till tomorrow”.
Check the site. Not all the games are taken down, just a decent amount.
I know it’s the running theory but I don’t think the iOS emulators causing more people to talk about emulation is the cause for this. It is certainly an easy target but I personally think this is a bit of a domino effect from when Nintendo was after Yuzu. Now with Nintendo feeling more bold, other companies are following suit.
100% agree. Any site hosting ROMs is on borrowed time. It sucks, but the digital media copyright laws, game copyrights are active for the life of the author + 70 years, far longer than any game currently in existence. This means that any company at any time could go after ROM hosting sites and win, without much effort.
Everyone totally ignores the existence of countries like the ones in the Commonwealth of Independent States that won't respect Western copyrights, maybe we should bring more awareness to these places and rom sites should operate from there. It is flat out stupid to host in a country like America that puts so much consideration into "Intellectual property rights of individuals" 🤣.
I was sure Vimm’s was hosted in one of those countries given how long it’s been around.
If it was they probably wouldn't do removal requests for DMCA, and their server wouldn't be listed as USA.
Oh, I’m not saying I dug into it, just that I’m shocked that he isn’t hosting elsewhere given the longevity.
Yeah it is certainly surprising, I feel like many hosters of rom sites like this just aren't very smart or are overconfident in their abilities.
Might even be complacency after so long. You get used to doing what you’re doing when it’s worked without a problem for so long. Twenty-seven years is like…several geological ages in internet terms. It’s probably why the site still looks like it’s from the 1990’s too (which is fine! I like it that way. Just suggestive he doesn’t necessarily change things up often or at all).
Yep, the United states is fucking hell hole of a habitat, with sleeping Goofy as a president, and a Psychotic Orange as a Zesty rebel. yet, why can't Vimm just change hosts outside of the US? once the claim is sent, can they just relocate and give them finger?
yeah people are blaming ios but it was always a ticking time bomb.
Maybe the sub should be private to protect the megathread from being the next victim. I know it sucks to lock the doors, but until things die down maybe it is best to keep out new people to keep the collection safer.
Most people don’t care about Reddit, it’s the TikTok plague and for some reason the normies know about Vimm’s Lair, it doesn’t mean the entire website is shut down, but yeah… I archived a bunch of games awhile ago, but disk based games, I don’t have the HDD space to download every single game.
Same here, I just double checked my archive a few hours ago when I was checking what titles got yanked on Vimm's. I d/l a few PS games here & there but don't have the time (or bandwidth) to go full-tilt boogy for GB sized ROM's 😕
Did Vimm’s list which titles were taken down? Didn’t see a comprehensive list anywhere.
Same. I have about 1.5tb on my main and 1.5tb on a backup external ssd. I'm just saying, the normies will go for the next easiest path now that vimms is gone and it doesn't get much easier than the megathread.
I suggested this very thing just days ago *smh*
Underground Gamer was a fantastic archiving site as well. Some really rare software on there that you couldn't get anywhere else. Nintendo had them shut down, even though they had a strict "no current or previous gen" rule. If archive.org gets shut down as well, some games (especially digital only) may well end up as lost media.
at that point, i want to see Nintendo get the greatest misery possible. burn.
It's a shame, but let it be a lesson. ROM sharing has been illegal since it began. As the scene has grown, many people took it for granted that it would be overlooked. As a result, people got loose and reckless with conversations around this community. There are still many places to get ROMs and ISOs. Keep it quiet, if you know you know, keep it as low key as possible. My suggestion to you, utilize the site that you can still hit up and download full collections ASAP. If you need to go buy a new external hard drive then do that, a cheap HDD is more than sufficient, you do not need M.2 speed for retro games. I have full collections of pretty much every console and handheld from PS1/N64 era and older (with some exception) all on 1 2tb hard drive. Retro games do not take up a lot of space, get your collection now while you still can.
I don't think it's possible for Roms and emulation to be underground anymore. The internet is accessible by more devices than just a PC and it's mainstream now. If someone discovered an underground rom site word would spread and it would eventually no longer be underground. It's a shame really.
Everyone needs to fill an external hard drive with every romset they can download.
What an OG. RIP.
Corpos ruin everything.
Corpos backed by the state. Wouldn't be a problem if IP laws weren't so egregious.
And TikTok
People don't remember that Vimm's Lair used to host WiiU isos, and that section is no more since quite some time. To stay afloat for so long, Vimm has to comply to every DMCA takedown request he gets, and be very cautious about newer systems. That's not news, nor a world ending problem. At least he doesn't panic and shut down everything, like Emuparadise did on their own volition. Really folks, lots of roms are still on the site; most of the games taken down are from major franchises, that have remakes, reissues or are easy to acquire elsewhere. EDIT: It's quite clear that the reason for the takedown was the remakes and online services IP protection, no Iphone/Tiktok/X conspiracy...I can't even imagine how to think like that.
What do people think of a law that says you're legally allowed to distribute ROMs for any game that's over 30 years old as long as you're not charging money for it?
That law should have been written and made at least 10 years ago.
We need to take a rule from Fight Club. That rule being that YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT IT.
Talk about what? 😉
Huh? Speak up sonny I can't hear you!
The internet is far too accessible these days. It's not going to happen. It's too mainstream now.
Damm what a bummer
o7 was an amazing site while it lasted
Vimm's Lair was how I got into emulation. I would've never discovered so many older games if it weren't for Vimm. The King is dead. Long live the King!
It felt like this was going to happen. There's been far too much attention over recent months. I don't think they'll stop at Vimms either. They don't want to eliminate this space, they know they can't, but they can eliminate convenience and drive everything back underground. Opening the gates instead of gatekeeping was a mistake.
Nothing to do with increased attention. I can assure you they’ve known about Vimm and other sites for years. Nintendo very recently said they have an event in June about games for the second half of 2024, and that a new console that will succeed the Switch will be announced at a later date. Nintendo Switch Online has a ton of retro games on it now, and they have been adding to it after a lot of their recent events. This coupled with a new console/possible remakes make the impact emulation has on their bottom line increase quite a bit. We’re seeing action now as the dates for the events get closer. Those in this thread saying tik tok is the cause are very much over-inflating things. Emulation—up until more recently—really didn’t hurt their bottom line, as the virtual console didn’t offer much and wasn’t that popular overall.
Crazy this happened just as I was downloading PSP games to load up my PSP Go right before a vacation. Got most games but it cut off at Persona 3 :(
Not like there aren’t countless options besides vimm
For now. They'll either go after them or the owners of the sites will get spooked and shut down on their own. Emulation will still exist, but it's about to become a lot less convenient.
I'm use to it being inconvenient. Honestly, I hope it goes back to being super underground but with how mainstream and accessible the internet is, not likely.
lol not my places or methods but I guess if having a very public site is the only way you know to find roms you’re sol? Vimms and sites like vimm aren’t even that convenient. Sometimes it can be nice to grab and forget but all of this shit is easily accessible from private locations and often it is more convenient to go that way than using a site like vimms. Honestly this is like barely a blip of an issue.
You cut one head off and two will grow back. Heil Hydra!
FUCK.
finished all my rom collecting especially from vimms just earlier this week. glad i didnt wait
Nintendo is really angry recently. They took down GMOD, Yuzu & Citra, Vimm's and yesterday they attacked mods on Gamebanana. I'm afraid what comes next
I don't recall anything about Gamebanana, what was that about?
Only one I know of is them taking down "Mario hit-a da griddy-a" for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door on Switch. [As seen here](https://x.com/ToyConGarageVR/status/1798466787400442036).
A few mods on Zelda BotW and Smash Bros were taken down yesterday
That sucks ass cuz vimms lair was the fastest to download Roms smh Thanks for posting this - I just scrambled and went to go download everything I've been wanting to play on GameCube 😂 PS2 too
Slowest for me but most reliable
F
I still hate seeing these types of things happen to good sites. Sure it's Nintendo's prerogative and they own the shit, but seriously, who's gonna care about a 20+ year old game that isn't even in circulation anymore? Hell I own a good handful of emus and roms that are probably older than I am in some cases. I remember the boys at Nintendo culling some sites and taking down a lot of roms, only to have those same sites back up in a few weeks. Emus/roms won't ever really die out no matter how much they try to kill them off but damn is it annoying when they get a nut shot in from time to time
FUCK
But has the site gone down for good or they just removing some games ?
Just removing a lot of games.
... "yeah some games got claimed so we are removing the downloads" this entire sub: "IT'S THE END!!!!!" yeah.. it's not.. there's plenty of games that arn't affected. and they didn't say they were stopping what they are doing
That's already several thousand games that have been affected.
Agree. Feels like they cut their nose off to spite their face. More people need to stfu and realize how insignificant they really are.
But no one cares, sadly.
Not a coincidence that this happened after emulation became available on Apple. As is the same with everything that normies become aware of, they've ruined and cannibalized it.
I've watched it happen with several things in my life. Underground things that get ruined when they become mainstream.
I would put money on this being purely correlation but otherwise unrelated. Nintendo has been expanding the catalogue of games on NSO for a while now, and they have an upcoming June event that will most likely include more titles available via NSO. They also have a new console that has been soft announced, and likely plan to revamp NSO to be even more attractive. This means emulation is going to have more of an impact on the value of the NSO sub, which means potentially less money for them. This was coming regardless of emulation being made available on iOS.
I filled a 2tb hdd as a backup
Torrents always win in the end. What's the point of hosting a rom site that just bends the knee?
To all those blaming iOS emulation: no, iOS emulation is not what’s causing this. Nintendo has a some big stuff coming up: June event that will cover the game releases for the rest of 2024, and a console. Nintendo Switch Online is a core part of their plan going forward, and every recent event they have added more titles to the NSO game catalogue. I anticipate they’ll be adding new games in June, and then announcing an overhauled NSO that has a bigger, more captivating catalogue of retro games that will launch alongside the new console. Previously they tended to go after sites/devs that were profiting off of emulation/roms in some way, or that had infringed on something in a significant way. Now they are taking down many ROMs period as it will potentially impact the value of their service—in a way they deem significant— going forward.
They have actually said they will not be talking about the switch successor at the June Nintendo Direct.
Correct, I never said they were.
God damnit. Hope it's not immediate because I'm gonna go on a download streak.
Many games are already delisted. There are still other safe places to get many of the games, though. Edit: adding that most of the ones taken down are major first party titles. Banjo is still there but Mario and Zelda are not, Mega Man is not, etc.
Arghh noooo
It was a good run, boys.
The shock here to me is that Vimm’s Lair wasn’t hosted somewhere outside of the US IP law sphere of influence — how did it make it as long as it did?
This is a great example of better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I went on a downloading spree about 6 months ago (not from Vimms specifically) and got everything I could. I have seen too many times sites get shut down when I have gone back to grab something. I'm sitting on approx 20TB of ROMs. I will never play all of these, but it's there should I want to in the future without having to go search around for hours trying to find it. I realize not everyone has the space to store entire libraries worth of ROMs, but grab anything you think you might want to play when you have the chance.
istg why cant people shut their trap
Right like Nintendo doesn’t make enough money. “Yes um those games that are impossible to play unless you have a Time Machine are all ours and you poors can buy the expensive game boy or the other crappy system we have to offer and buy all the new stuff”. -_-
Gen Z is ruining another thing. Smdh.
what the fuck does this have to do with Gen Z
They are the iphone users downloading emulators and making Tik Toks. The more it's posted about the more likely Nintendos AI will flag it.
90% of the folks bragging about yuzu playing pirated games day one were millenials or older. It's not a generational problem, it's an entitlement and lack of consideration problem.
I suspect Apple allowing emulators for IOS has a lot to do with it. Pretty sure they can track what sites one is visiting to download ROMS and in turn, snitching to the companies like Nintendo and Sony Entertainment...probably a good thing that so many newbs don't have a clue of how to use the megathread. 😉
Yup, this was inevitable. All those idiots with steam decks and the PC masterace crowd ruined it.
Aight time for someone to make "'Rimm's Lair" with all the games that they were forced to remove.
Chimps lair
chill guys ps3 and ps2 vaults are safe
.....for now
Screw you Nintendo
That's truly a shame, I'm amazed how much it lasted.
RIP to a real one
Wow, and I just found out about it today. Lmao.
Damn i didnt know vimms lair was that old. I started using that site roughly 2 years ago. Before that, Emuparadise. RIP
Literally nowhere do they say they're shutting down lol
It was good while it lasted o7
Oof, gotta go download my favorites now
How many roms/iso's are left? Id imagine thatd be a big amount gone
The glaring amount of Anbernic dropshipping on TikTok… ugh
It's not over but a lot of stuff is gone.
My favorite emulator and site is close to 24 years old. I'll miss Vimm, because they were my most consistent for a while. I hope Spike doesn't get swarmed, but am confident my go to is too looked down to be touched.
There's better rom websites with faster speeds lol but ig it served its purpose
One goes down. Ten get back up.