ROMhacking.net is effectively closing, but all ROM data is moving over to the Internet Archive for preservation.
ROMhacking.net, a longtime resource for video game fan translations and homegrown fixes for classic games, is shutting down operations, the site’s administrator said Thursday. The site’s database, including all files and images, have been transferred to the Internet Archive for preservation.
The ROMhacking.net website is a rich resource for post-release hacks and patches for software, particularly for games that never received localizations outside of their native language. In recent years, we’ve written about fan translations for titles like Super Famicom role-playing game Sailor Moon: Another Story, the Neon Genesis Evangelion Tamagotchi-like for WonderSwan, and the Samurai Shodown RPG, all of which were only available in their original Japanese until fans stepped in.
The site is also a font of bug fixes for classic games; in 2020, a ROMhacking.net user uploaded a patch for a Super Mario 64 graphics bug that Nintendo itself never fixed. ROMhacking.net hosts thousands of such fixes, hacks, and tweaks that alter games to personal taste, letting players enjoy oft-improved versions of classic games.
