Talk:ROM & ISO sites

It seems that archive.org ROMs are now "restricted," even when logging in. Any suggestions?

- It seems you can still download the files by appending the filename at the end of the URL (ie https://archive.org/download/No-Intro-Collection_2016-09-06/Atari-2600.zip)

I'm confused. Which page is the real one?

There is no "fake" page, both are real. Read the introduction. One is linked to on the main page and the imageboard, the other one has no links here on this wiki pointing to it other than external links and gets lots of outside attention. We should have removed it, but it was only a source of headaches. There were some aggressive outside attention coming here complaining about when the old page was edited/moved/deleted/not updated fast enough, considerably limiting what could be done with it.

The other page hotlinked elsewhere in extremely high visibility places was restored to its former state (that even meant the older links to portalroms, and btw chaosgames still works and none of the sites are malware... yet, the one complaining about k73 was a dumbass because it was a chinese site) to keep them quiet, with more simplified information added since it was clearly newbies coming there. However, that also means it gets more outside attention and thus more copyright hound attention like those hired to scour forums for Nintendo rom links to get the links taken down, or to vandalize that page here and remove its contents completely (happened a few times here). I and some archivists complained about that and were told by outsiders coming here to complain about the page edits it's natural for archives to get taken down and we should keep doing it, that's the nature of it. The dead links you see on the other page simply mean that the current link for that set is dead and you need to provide a better link for it instead of removing that whole page.

Hence why, I recommend against deleting that other outside facing page, which is still helpful for all parties involved and avoids unnecessary drama, and regulars here know about this situation. That page is under a lot of attention, but not all systems are affected by that, and the ones affected are not all taken down. It's thus still useful. That page's problems are mainly how frequently it is maintained. That said, I have no time to maintain it and fix the broken links fast enough as they get taken down. Editing the other page seems far more manageable and... stable for the lack of a better term. You did well as a first step in taking over maintaining the public page, but you shouldn't just delete the links, but track down the releases in paradisedome and get the latest links and replace deleted links with those. Have a good day. Dipswitch (talk) 00:39, 11 March 2018 (EST)

As you sure know, Wii U USB Helper is discontinued, so the "NUS Downloaders (PC)" section of this article needs a new example of a tool to download the games. Thank you for your work! --83.43.111.152 04:24, 16 May 2018 (EDT)

Could you please add links to the Redump PAL versions of GameCube? --83.43.111.152 04:24, 16 May 2018 (EDT)

Can't get https://a0.ww.np.dl.playstation.net/tpl/np/{game_id}/{game_id}-ver.xml game update url to work. Any other alternatives?

Archive.org wants [email protected] verified. You won't be logging in until you do that, methinks.

[email protected] no longer works at all.

Just create your own account. --LilShootDawg (talk) 08:07, 5 March 2019 (EST)

Nah.

I put Smokemonster's ROM Packs at the top of the archive.org list because it's a set of very conveniently organized ROMs that I feel a lot of people would enjoy. Feel free to move it if needed. --Syboxez

Why 2 pages?

Why are there two pages for ROM and ISO sites? (Example this one doesn't have emuparadise and the other one does.) --The man formerly known as LilShootDawg (talk) 07:50, 23 August 2018 (EDT)

Different formatting?

There seems to be a lot of links, do you think it would be better to start using a table format or would that be too difficult/useless? I was thinking maybe something like this:

URL	Platform(s)	Notes
Atarimania	Atari 2600	Contains a complete Atari 2600 ROM set.
Gamulator	Retro	Small website where you can download all sort of retro console ROM's and ISO's.
Pokemonlog	Pokemon ROMs & ROM Hacks	Small website where you can get the latest Pokemon ROM's and Pokemon rom hacks.
...	...	...

It's debatable if a "platforms" category would be necessary as a lot of the times sites contain a variety of platforms and usually the notes would say what ones are included/excluded, but if it were to work it would be generally classified under these three options:

• Retro - mainly consoles from up to fifth-generation
• Modern - mainly consoles greater than fifth-generation
• Varies - the "catch-all" group that doesn't have a distinct timeline

Anything else do you guys think should be added to the table? --Skylark (talk) 20:16, 25 February 2019 (EST)

Maybe something like this:

URL	Reg. Required?	Rate Limited?	Content	Notes
Romulation	Yes	Yes	Various	Useful for Wii, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 etc, maybe no-intro rips. (account required - use bugmenot or make one with a temp email account) (Many games (including most Nintendo titles) have been DMCA'd as of January 2017)
CoolROM.com	No	No	Up to 6th-gen.	Has ROMs and ISOs for various systems spanning from Atari 2600 to PS2. No Nintendo system content whatsoever.
...	...	...	...	...

This way, the "platforms" can be left a little more freeform and it'll be easier to clean the page up a bit. Making it sortable would also be ideal. -Azure Fang (talk) 23:00, 31 March 2019 (EDT)

I'm going to start converting the list to a table sometime this week and see how it looks since nobody seems opposed to it.--Skylark (talk) 06:01, 22 December 2019 (CET)

Ratings for different sites

I'm thinking about a rating system for sites by using circles. Maybe something like this:

Name	Content	Registration Required?	Rate Limited?	Rating	Notes
RomStation	Various	Yes	Yes	⚫️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️	~30KB/s for free accounts. Run by shady peoples. Needs extra proprietary spyware software to download games. Has netplay. Downloads are limited and you often have to wait in a queue. Premium subscription unlocks Full Speed download and without queue. The PS1/DC/PSP part is full of bad dumps.

modern iOS apps source (iOS 7-to-17)

https://decrypt.day/ is the best source for iOS 7-to-17 ROMs.