Retro game translation and modification community 'ROMHacking.net' ends 20-year history due to internal problems
ROMHacking.net, a fan community for hacking, modifying and sharing old game ROMs, announced that it would be closing on August 1, 2024. However, there are contradictions between the founder's explanation for the closure and the explanation of the volunteer team who tried to keep the site alive, and the truth remains unclear.
Romhacking.net - Home
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ROMHacking.net is a 20-year-old site for hacking game ROMs, and the data it has made public includes translated versions of games that only exist in Japanese, as well as color versions of games that are originally black and white.
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by allieween
ROMHacking.net founder Nightcrawler announced the closure in a blog post on August 1, stating, 'This has been a great site for nearly 20 years, but for a variety of reasons, I have decided it is time to close. The site has accomplished almost everything it set out to do and more. Without a doubt, this site has changed ROM hacking forever, and its legacy will remain unfading.'
According to Nightcrawler, ROMHacking.net had originally grown too quickly and become too large to continue, and the burden of legal action against copyright infringement was also increasing.
So Nightcrawler decided to close the site around the end of 2023, but suddenly received an offer from within the community to keep the site running. Although he was skeptical of the intentions, Nightcrawler thought it would be better for the community, so he entrusted the operation of the site to them, but then trouble arose.
The specific details of the trouble were not mentioned, but Nightcrawler said, 'I discovered the most dishonest and hateful group. They were scheming to leak my personal information and make me into a bomb-practice target. I have discussed this with my family and have decided to immediately stop operating all related sites,' explaining that the cause was personal attacks by the new operating group.
While there has been a lot of sympathy for Nightcrawler, a longtime member of the community who was forced to shut down due to personal attacks, Gideon Zhi, a long-time member of the site, disputes Nightcrawler's explanation.
Alright, I think I've condensed my thoughts. There's a lot here, so, thread incoming:
— Gideon Zhi (@GideonZhi) August 2, 2024
Zhi said Nightcrawler set unrealistic conditions for a successor to the site and did not actively seek someone who could meet those conditions. Nightcrawler also reversed efforts to streamline operations by migrating the site's backend to a more modern file service like Amazon Web Services S3 at the last minute, which caused a rift in the cooperation between the volunteer team and Nightcrawler.
Zhi denies that the volunteer team exposed Nightcrawler's personal information. Snarf, an administrator of the former official Discord server from which Nightcrawler declared severing ties, also said, 'There has been a strained relationship between the site staff and Discord staff for some time, and Discord staff have been exploring options for moving forward, including severing ties with the existing site and its owner. However, we are deeply troubled and disappointed by these accusations of personal information leaks and the suggestion of blackmail. We categorically deny these allegations.'
With the nature of the problem still a mystery, ROMHacking.net has effectively disappeared. From now on, all sections of the site will be read-only, and all databases and downloads will be made publicly available through the Internet Archive.
romhacking.net-20240801 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/romhacking.net-20240801
'I'd like to thank all of the many staff and community members who have kept the gears turning and the lights on over the years. I'm proud of all we've accomplished together here,' Nightcrawler concluded in his final blog post.
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