Top ROM hacking website is closing after almost 20 years

ROMhacking.neta long-standing resource for video game fan translations and custom fixes for classic games, is ceasing operations, the site administrator said on ThursdayThe site’s database, including all files and images, has been transferred to the Internet Archive caveat.

The website ROMhacking.net is a rich source 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 the Super Famicom role-playing game Sailor Moon: Another Storythe Neon Genesis Evangelion Tamagotchi-style versions of WonderSwan and the Samurai Shodown RPG, all of which were only available in Japanese until fans got their hands on them.

The site is also a source 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 adapt games to personal taste, allowing players to enjoy often improved versions of classic games. The site’s Data Crystal Wiki is also a robust source of information on hacking game ROMs for multiple platforms.

The site’s administrator, who goes by the alias Nightcrawler, said in a forum post on ROMhacking.net that all ROM hack submissions have been closed and that the site will remain online in read-only mode. The site’s forum will also remain active, but with submissions closed and other activity halted, it is likely that members of that forum will move to other destinations.

“It’s been a good run of almost 20 years, but for various reasons it’s time to slow down,” Nightcrawler wrote in a statement about the closure of ROMhacking.net. “The site has accomplished almost everything it set out to do, and even exceeded it. We merged the hacking and translation communities for the first time ever. We outlasted and outperformed the ROM hacking sites that came before us. We took ROM hacking from niche and fragmented to global and centralized. (…) This site has undoubtedly changed ROM hacking forever.”

Nightcrawler cited the challenge of maintaining ROMhacking.net as it grew “from an unknown, fledgling site to an infinitely growing and globally known site,” and the increasing pressures of copyright and takedown issues.

They also acknowledged that “the need for the site has diminished over time. There are now many options for community discussions, open source projects, and file storage on the Internet.” Nightcrawler’s statement also accuses other unnamed individuals, who they say have voluntarily taken over site operations, of doxxing and “deceptive plans (…) to cut me out.”

Polygon has reached out to ROMhacking.net staff for comment on Nightcrawler’s statement.

A long time ROMhacking.net member and a veteran localizer, who goes by the alias Gideon Zhi, disputed Nightcrawler’s versions of the events that led to the site’s closure. In a long thread on XFormerly known as Twitter, Gideon Zhi said Nightcrawler stubbornly refused to help shed the work and costs of running ROMhacking.net. Gideon Zhi also denied allegations that staff working for the site doxxed or threatened the site administrator.

Regardless of the reasons behind the site’s closure, it appears the ROM hacking and fan translation community has lost a huge resource, possibly forever.