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!
By the way, you can join the signal group and discuss this further with us! You can send me a direct message as a request or find it in the “RetroTorrents” community page.
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. :)
Sounds like the old Underground Gamer which I still miss after all this time. Good luck!
Thanks etherphon! I will take a look at that private tracker.
Sure thing! It closed down quite some years ago but I’m sure there’s still some info about it.
It may be worth your time to have a chat with the veilid devs about using the veilid protocol to host all the files.
I haven’t heard of veilid before. How does it fit with the privacy tech like i2pd, Tahos-lafs, reticulum, etc?
I’m not conversant enough about it to give you an intelligent answer. I’m only a peripherally involved in supporting the project.
It works by distributing a database across multiple nodes, refreshing node database info automatically as needed. Beyond that is more technical than I’m really prepared to address and I’m not familiar with the technologies you mentioned; it just seems to check the boxes of E2EE, distribution, and privacy that OP seems to need.
Here are more details written by people smarter than me: https://veilid.com/how-it-works/
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!





