ROM Websites

November 2, 2005 8:48 PM

Can anyone recommend a good, easy-to-navigate site for ROMs of NES and SNES games?
posted by TunnelArmr to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (15 answers total)

Probably not, since it is generally illegal to publish ROMs on the web.
posted by Rothko at 8:52 PM on November 2, 2005

I don't know of any, although I continue to be confused as to why there aren't more of this kind of site in countries where there aren't any digital copyright laws.

Anyway, if you want ROMs use BitTorrent or eMule.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 8:57 PM on November 2, 2005

I dunno about SNES, but you can find NES ROMs here.
posted by birdsquared at 9:04 PM on November 2, 2005

You can get ~4000 NES ROMs for under 1 GB at various BitTorrent sites.

Expect it to get harder to get these as Revolution launches. If I understand it correctly, Revolution will be able to play the entire spectrum. Nintendo will have more of an incentive to stop this.
posted by geoff. at 9:18 PM on November 2, 2005

Nice try, Narc!

[Flushes toilet] Nothing here! Hahahaha! I don't know these "RAM"s you're talking about!
posted by unixrat at 9:20 PM on November 2, 2005

This site is sweet and claims to have every NES and SNES game published in the U.S.
posted by keatsandyeats at 9:20 PM on November 2, 2005

Bittorent is the way to go. Go to thepiratebay.org and search for nes roms or snes roms.
posted by puke & cry at 9:30 PM on November 2, 2005

The technicalities of this issue are interesting, but suffice it to say that Nintendo and the IDSA have strongarmed many ROM sites down, as well as talking many others into voluntary removal of materials they don't want up.

As for the original question, I won't worry about the legality, but you obviously haven't done something as simple as put the word "roms" into Google. The very first match offers what you have asked for with a minimum of fuss. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
posted by Saydur at 11:12 PM on November 2, 2005

Response by poster: Saydur: I've used Google (including seeing the first match you're talking about), but the sites that pop up are usually warez sites that have a lot of corrupted files and require you to jump through a lot of hoops for each download. I was asking if there was a site with a substantial library and none of the wild goose chase. But I'm sorry if I've offended you.
posted by TunnelArmr at 12:00 AM on November 3, 2005

Do a tag search at del.icio.us for SNES. I guarantee you will find at least 7.
posted by Otis at 6:09 AM on November 3, 2005

Probably not, since it is generally illegal to publish ROMs on the web.
posted by Rothko at 8:52 PM PST on November 2

This is a terrible answer, Rothko; I'm disappointed.

The fastest, best way is to start here, install Azureus, and then go here. That should get you results for both NES ROMS and SNES ROMS. Sometimes there are a ton of seeders and sometimes there are none, but eventually you will have more than you could ever even want to play.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:42 AM on November 3, 2005

One of the best games I've ever played, I stumbled into accidentally through a SNES emulator and a ROM site, years ago. It's called Chrono Trigger, a really epic-length RPG.

If I remember correctly, a single run through will take over 50 hours, and it has over a dozen possible endings. You're very, very likely to play it at least twice. The storyline is complex and interesting. You're bouncing around through time, and things you do in the past change the future. It's kind of an old idea now, but it was newer then, and very well handled.

Great music, fun characters, neat plotline. If you do find it, be sure to play it until you get to The Trial, one of the best moments ever in computer gaming. If you can get to The Trial (you'll know it when you see it) and not like the game, you A) won't ever like it, and B) should go work in fast food or something. Unimaginative lout. :)

I remain ... flabbergasted is the right word, I suppose... that they could pack thta much story and gameplay into just four megabytes. It's just so huge. They must have had mini-celebrations when they figured out how to save four bytes in the monster-attack routine. Truly virtuoso programming.

I've installed multi-gigabyte games that didn't have a tenth as much gameplay.
posted by Malor at 8:02 AM on November 3, 2005

TunnelArmr, I know I'm being harsh about it, but ROMnation has a pretty good library of NES/SNES roms, with a minimal of fuss. They ask you to vote for two toplists once a day, which is pretty standard amongst such sites. Then there's a simple anti direct-link/autodownload mechanism. If that's too much hoop-jumping, just comb a few BitTorrent trackers for complete sets.

If you're having too much trouble with sites, use Firefox or Opera. They're enough of a minority that most places won't aggressively target them, preferring the ease of bombarding IE users with ads.

I try not to jump on people for much, but if you want to cherry pick your ROMs piece by piece with no hassle, it's best to just wait for the Revolution and pay a bit for the privlege. Either way, you get a lot more than you pay for. Still, I know you're probably new to this. If you want some detailed advice regarding emulation, mail me and I'll tell you what I can about finding working stuff.
posted by Saydur at 11:11 AM on November 3, 2005

mIRC, man! Packet News is dandy, too.

BT is a little 'slow' for ROMs. Don't get me wrong, I love BT--but who downloads individual rom torrents (unless we're talking big ISOs, which we're not)? They're all packaged.

Channels like #gbanow on efnet exist for all systems, and rock the hizouse. 2 minutes and you got what you want.
posted by Lockeownzj00 at 5:32 PM on November 3, 2005

http://www.mininova.org/sub/13
posted by Rhomboid at 12:39 PM on November 4, 2005