When ROMhacking.net announced it was shutting down, the message that was left included bits that accused an unnamed group of staffers of trying to oust the man behind the site itself. All of those involved who offered their public announcements had not only given their side of the story. But also accused Nightcrawler of being absent, unwilling to negotiate, and hard to reach.
Within the past few days, a lot of interesting changes have taken place. Nightcrawler offered an update on ROMhacking.net. He says that the site is somehow intertwined with other sites that he hosts. Therefore cannot be backed up and shared with others for security reasons. Closing out the update, he says “the site and downloads will remain online.” This would point to the site no longer being hosted through a contributor’s S3 server; which checks out, as you’ll be greeted with a Cloudflare verification page when attempting to load the site or make any downloads.
Big news! The staff have been working hard behind the scenes and we now present you with this: https://t.co/z0BXjhcLXy Please remember, this is analpha and it is read-only. We’ll continue to refine it and tweak it until it’s ready for primetime.
— Romhack.ing (@romhackdoting) August 15, 2024
The new site, ROMhack.ing is formed by the former staff of ROMhacking.net and a few members who helped throughout its journey over the past 20 years. The aforementioned group of staffers has been working away at this new venture. It promises to be modern, easily navigated, and a place that can also serve as a backup of the ROM hacks previously featured on ROMhacking.net.
ROMhack.ing is currently available in an alpha stage, and while it is missing some of its eventual features and polish, the site does have a lot of promise.
As opposed to linking to everything on its own Amazon S3 server, the current iteration of the site relies on archive.org and NeoRHDN. The latter is another site aiming to revitalize the spirit of ROMhacking.net. Albeit with more of a focus on the message board. RHDI does plan to eventually enable direct downloads in the future, but there is currently no timeframe.
The team creating ROMhack.ing wants to emphasize that their site is in its alpha stages. It is currently useful to most, but it is nowhere near what its official launch plans to be. On its About page, it lays bare what it intends for the site to become:
ROMhack.ing Site Goals and Features
- Provide a central hub to encourage a new, refreshed, ROMhacking community.
- Eliminate problems other sites have had that cause stagnation or site ‘death’.
- Provide a comprehensive document, utility, and translation archive.
- Expand that archive to include whatever the community necessitates.
- Put the power into the community member’s hands for site operation and maintenance.
- Provide an active, central, one-stop news source for the community.
- These are just some of the goals and features that you will find here on this site.
The history of ROM hacking, its community, and its placement in the retro gaming world almost demands that that same history never be lost to time. 20 years’ worth of creativity, expression, and effort should bring forth new ideas, collaborations, and projects by people who want to see the hobby continue for years to come. With sites like these beginning to pop up, we can be assured that ROM hacking will go nowhere soon.
Are you excited about the future of ROM hacks? What’s your favorite ROM hack of all time? Let us know in the comments below, or chat with us in our Discord!
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