Read it here!
- https://files.catbox.moe/l9cmlm.pdf
- https://wormhole.app/kzyPEq#WjEU7pMIH135gRwobOX68A (24 hours, but faster)
- magnet:?xt=urn:btih:4ebc47225c6c2b0d99738dcfb3165f4d247686f7&dn=RetroTorrents%3A%20A%20Detailed%20White%20Paper.pdf
A few socials and spaces
- Rentry page: https://rentry.co/RetroTorrents
- Lemmy Community page: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/c/RetroTorrents
- Bsky page: https://bsky.app/profile/retrotorrents.bsky.social
Trigger warning: something might not be accurate or outside your tastes, but that is the magic of me and my friend (Bolívar) spending months on a document and marketing strategies.
For the longest time we have wondered one thing with ROM sites, why don’t they use torrents? Is is that difficult?
“Hosting torrents is a total PITA. It’s not worth it” - ████
So, we did some research around them and file formats that emulators use like CHD, RVZ and WUX for a few months and may have found a way to preserve retro video games efficiently and perfectly. But truth be told, we don’t know if this idea is perfect or has something missing.
We have looked a bit about shadow libraries, but that will come when the site would be ready to deploy.
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https://annas-archive.org/blog/blog-how-to-become-a-pirate-archivist.html
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https://annas-archive.org/blog/how-to-run-a-shadow-library.html
Currently, we are just experimenting the data with this, since it’s free for testing.
Overall, we thought that the wake-up call on video game preservation should start sooner, rather than later. Also, thanks for reading this far!
Did you look at existing retro gaming torrent sites?
We did…It’s complicated!
https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/ROM_%26_ISO_sites#BitTorrent
We have found the torrents from the Reddit user r/1G1R to be a great choice, but some of these collections use a file format that does not work on an emulator. For example, the “1G1R - Redump - Sony - PlayStation” torrent has ROM files stored in a .7z archive (does not work with DuckStation). That is Game Over for those that want to download, play and archive every game at the same time. :(
Wait, you just need to open the 7z file and duckstation can read that.
I know that inherently being the new kid on the block means outreach and building trust but advertising what is essentially an illegal platform feels very much like a honey pot to me. I hope I’m wrong, as game preservation is incredibly important. Something just feels off about this project.
Yeah, we know that being “illegal” puts us in a bad light, perhaps we can embrace it. And apologies for the bad impression! This is the first time we want something as big as the lair, and we know that messing it up would ruin the movement. :)
It may be worth your time to have a chat with the veilid devs about using the veilid protocol to host all the files.
veilid
Interesting, it sounds like I2P. I will send them an email about it! :)
Here are more details written by people smarter than me: https://veilid.com/how-it-works/
Check out their discord!




