mirror
Click the tabs on the top of the webpage and look for your console to find your ROMs.

Inspired by that thread from the other day. I hope this thread inspires anyone who wanted to get into retro games to consider emulation instead of 5000$ scalped disks and consoles. This site maybe doesn't have the fastest downloads but it makes emulation sooo easy for anyone hesitating!

Edit: thanks eveyone for the links!

More ROMs!
https://www.myabandonware.com/
https://vimm.net/
For PC games!
https://gog-games.com/
For Flash games!
https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Want to shout out https://vimm.net/ and archive.org too for anyone's piracy needs for console, there's also https://gog-games.com/ for PC as well.

  • Yanhanderiljumyasten [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Been playing Advance Wars 1 and 2 emulated on the bus for the past week. Played through Earthbound on my phone too. Roms are pog :kitsupogi:

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      :matt: We all carry portable computers that are more than capable of emulating a bunch of old systems and have very well developed emulators available on them

      :monke-rage: TOUCH SCREEN CONTROLS

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I have a GPD XD plus handheld that's kind of like a DS. Really good clicky buttons and even analog sticks. It even closes. I got it on ebay for $120.

        I've fooled around with a Steam Deck too and they're pretty great for emulating. Hoping to get one soon.

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          A Steam Deck would be total overkill for my purposes

          I'd want something sleek that can play games from before the PS2 generation

          PS2 and above I'd rather just play on my PC on a big screen anyway

          • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            Your best bet there is one of those Chinese handhelds made in Shenzhen, like the ones made by ANBERNIC or GPD. There's actually a kind of renaissance right now of handheld emulation machines running Android or some derivative and it's awesome. A coworker of mine has a RG351MP and it's cool as heck, runs everything up to PS1 games, but kind of lags on big files. Does 2D stuff SNES, GBA, etc perfectly.

            China is contributing to the future of retro gaming :china:

          • NephewAlphaBravo [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            2 years ago

            How far back? A used PS Vita will run you about $100 and only starts to choke on emulation well into the N64/Dreamcast era.

      • Yanhanderiljumyasten [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Well, there's a reason why my phone emulated games are all turn based or just reading like in Ace Attorney, no chance in hell I'd be able to play supah Mario worl with touch screen :monke-beepboop:

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I tried just that. Sure you can connect a DS4 to your phone but that's not really portable anymore now is it

          • ssjmarx [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Could you connect a single Switch joycon? Those could do anything that doesn't require two joysticks.

            • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Don't have one of those. You'd still essentially have a very small portable combined television and console instead of a handheld

      • CheGueBeara [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Emulator-focused portable consoles based on SBCs are becoming a thing and have real buttons and probably soon touch screens. Folks are combining the world's of raspberry pis and vast production capacity in China. It's pretty neat.

        I don't have one yet but they look cool.

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Chinese emulator devices have been a thing for a while now but it is my understanding that they have only recently become actually decent.

          Here's one I linked above

          https://www.goretroid.com/products/retroid-pocket-3-handheld-retro-gaming-system

          Some of them even run Linux instead of Android

          • CheGueBeara [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Oh nice that looks fun. I'm holding out for something that can replace a DS. Doesn't need 2 screens necessarily but being able to place the two views into one screen while still having controls would be perf.

            • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
              ·
              2 years ago

              Not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that's a feature in every DS emulator. The relatively big screen for the price class with this one would probably help in that respect

              • CheGueBeara [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                That's true though the stacking will probably leave a lot of blank space with a horizontal 16:9 screen. To properly fit side by side you'd want an 8:9 ratio, but DS screens were 4:3. Stacked horizontally they'll add up to 8:3, so 24:9, leaving about 1/3 of the screen space blank. Stacking vertically would use the screen better but then you'd need to hold the thing on its side.

                It's honestly probably fine though I dunno.

        • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          From personal experience, the RasPi 4 is capable of emulating N64 games smoothly with a modest overclock (i.e. you just need to put it in a case with a fan). Raspberry Pis are hard to get right now (at MSRP) so I'm fucking around with an Orange Pi 4 instead. It seems to have more severe overheating problems though. Currently, I'm trying to design a custom case for it, but I will also need to figure out how to build LibreELEC with some proprietary blob drivers for the WiFi/Bluetooth.

          • CheGueBeara [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Nice! I got a Quartz64 to screw around with for similar reasons (can't find raspberry pi 4s anywhere) but it's in the early stages of Linux kernel support.

        • ssjmarx [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I still use my jailbroken gen 1 PSP, it's a high quality emulation device.

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I kind of want one of these Chinese contraptions

          https://www.goretroid.com/products/retroid-pocket-3-handheld-retro-gaming-system

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Earthbound! Boing!

      weeeelllcome to mooooooonside

      My favorite line though in the whole game is when that old lady in the hospital asks you if you have grandkids. If you say yes she says, "At your age? Oh, the youth of today shocks me." Lady why did you ask a 13 year old boy if he has grandkids.

      • Yanhanderiljumyasten [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        One of my favourite lines is from the librarian in Onett explaining the map "all the information is there, except the information that isn't there." simple and good.

        Also, "Whose bones are on display here? Your bones, my bones, bones' bones, bones bones bones bones"

  • Prolefarian [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    GOOD post.

    I also want to shout out Fightcade which is an emulator that was built to play classic fighting games online - it has expanded over the years to include lots of classic systems and games. I played NES Contra with some guy in Brazil a few days ago for free. Get your friends on Fightcade and there are literally thousands of classic games you can play online for free.

    edit: If anyone downloads fightcade follow this tutorial which will install a script that automatically downloads the proper rom for you when you join a lobby.

    • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Fightcade sounds pretty cool, it always impresses me when people add online functionality to old, emulated games, I can't imagine the work it takes to accomplish such a task.

      Only thing Fightcade needs is a way to emulate that hype crowd that watches you fight, to really emulate that amusement arcade feel!

      • Prolefarian [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        It allows you to spectate games live - sometimes I'll go on there and watch Japanese players play Street Figther 3rd strike or Darkstalkers for funsies. It also supports replays of your sessions. But you're not wrong though, crowds are really what make fighting game events and such.

        • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
          hexagon
          ·
          2 years ago

          OH SHIT!!! Then never mind, it's got everything! Gosh that's so cool, those people really went out of their way to revive the spirit of arcades. Really inspiring how far people will go to work on something that inspires them without a capitalist motivation.

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Somewhat relatedly, there's apparently even a whole achievement system for old games that's integrated into modern emulators

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    NOOOOO YOU WILL BUY THE PLASTIC NOSTALGIA BOX THAT HAS LIKE 15 GAMES AND CHARGES ROUGHLY 10 DOLLARS A GAME AND YOU WILL ACCEPT ICE CLIMBERS INTO YOUR HEART :wojak-nooo:

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    For older consoles, there are several torrents floating around with "every" game in them. I got nearly complete collections of NES, SNES, GB, and GBA this way. Also found one with something like 240 N64 ROMs. Newer consoles are trickier, since the games are considerably larger. These I need to hunt down one by one. I've found about a dozen games for GameCube/Wii, half a dozen for PS3, and a handful of Switch games. Also found a collection of 700 DOS games, 20 or so Genesis games, and maybe 6 Sega Saturn.

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      If you're looking for full rom sets for older consoles look for the redump or no-intro sets, those are clean dumps that'll work with any emulator. Vimm and archive.org carry them.

    • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've got those same collections! The entirety of SNES games in a zip file comes up to 3Gb. Old games are insanely well optimized compared to the bloat we ended up with today.

      I wish I could remember where I got them though. All files are available individually in the link above, but it's so convenient when you want to play a game and you just have to locate it from a single Zip!

  • HogWild [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Since I haven't seen them mentioned in this thread, yet, I'd like to add https://www.myabandonware.com/ to the list. They host old-school PC games, from Football Manager to LOTR RTS, which are currently not being sold anywhere, so if you want to download them, you're technically in a legal grey zone, hence the name abandonware.

    • HogWild [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Thee's also Flashpoint Infinity https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/ , which let's you play all those old flash games from 10-15 years ago on your PC. It's completely free, runs like a charm, and comes with a huge library.

  • Quimby [any, any]M
    ·
    2 years ago

    obligatory "please be careful about malware" reminder!

    • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Download your emulators directly from the emulator developers (or though curated channels, like RetroArch, or your Linux distribution). Don't use the emulators packaged in torrents and whatnot.

    • dead [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Luckily, perfect rom copies have documented hash checksums. You can verify that your roms are legit by matching them with the hash checksum. Also, modern console game discs are signed by the manufacturer with pgp. Some modern roms you can verify with the manufacturer signature.

      • Quimby [any, any]M
        ·
        2 years ago

        absolutely! people just need to... you know... actually check, haha

  • justjoshint [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    anyone know how much of a risk it is to do ddls of stuff like this from archive? i assumed that it was mainly torrents but idk how that shit works. in america

    also damn i would like a better processor so i could properly emulate ps2 games and ideally switch games

    • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I think it's pretty safe. The risk was always in distributing piracy, not downloading it. You can always use a VPN in case, but I've downloaded without and never got in any trouble.

      And yeah, emulation is always CPU intensive, especially Switch since your CPU doubles as a GPU. But it's worth trying the older consoles, there are some games that have stood the test of time!

        • riseuppikmin [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          It does. Emulators for most more modern consoles (PS2 onwards and some before) do use your GPU instead of strictly only using the CPU.

  • shiteyes2 [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'll be surprised if I'm smart enough to get demon's souls working but here goes nothin

    • Mindfury [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      isn't PS3 like the hardest thing to emulate because of the weird CPU design?

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        If you've got a beefy enough PC, you can currently emulate plenty of PS3 games. It's actually more advanced than 360 emulation right now

    • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Thanks! Romhacks are probably the best features of emulation, playing The Legend of Zelda and Metroid for the NES with updated textures was a great way to experience them in 2022!