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!


Why not look into other P2P protocols for sharing small files?
I appreciate the enthusiasm Lindene! In fact, someone in SimpleX suggested IPFS to me a few months back.
It sounds crazy good, there is a lot of good things to say about it, however, unless IPFS becomes mainstream as ThePirateBay made BitTorrent mainstream in the 2000s, there is a low chance a mass audience will adopt a tool that currently requires reading a long manual just to download a video game.
BitTorrent is not perfect, but the fact that a website uses the same file sharing protocol since 2004 says something.
IPFS is a total PITA. It’s not worth it.