TopRoms Massive Update (Black Friday Edition)

TopRoms has received a massive expansion with a huge selection of new systems. I spent a good chunk of the past few weeks working on the upgrade of the collection. Over 20 new systems have been added into the collection. There has been more addition to existing systems, including forgotten ROMs for Pokémon games on GBA.

At this point, the collection has compilations for 45 systems. Most of the new systems have smaller sets because their obscurity and small selection of quality games.

Again, as a reminder, TopRoms attempts to go from the most ancient video game systems all the way to PlayStation 1. There’s some more systems I’d like to add but this will take more time and further research. As usual, if you find missing games or suggestions, send them to toproms@cdahmedeh.net

Again, you can find the torrent on the TopRoms page. The older torrents will stay active as long as seeds are available, but I won’t be hosting them myself. Please remember, for the first 24 hours since posting this, the torrent might download slowly and hang a few times.

I originally had a target size for the collection at 128 GB and then 256 GB. However, it is now at 329 GB, so you’ll need external storage, probably a 512 GB SD Card. Unless your cellphone has massive eMMC storage. Remember to use your torrent client to download only the systems you want.

In addition, many CD-based systems have been converted from ISO to CHD for better compatibility with emulators and slightly smaller file size.

Finally, a BIOS file collection was included for running the games through RetroArch for BIOS-based systems. All you need to do is put the files in the ‘systems’ folder.

One thing I’m considering is adding a set for Japan exclusive games and translations.

Starting with TopRoms which is for cartridge-based systems, the following systems have been added:

  • Atari Jaguar

  • Atari Lynx

  • Bandai WonderSwan

  • Bandai WonderSwan Color

  • Coleco ColecoVision

  • Game Park GP32

  • Maganvox Odyssey 2

  • Mattel Intellivision

  • NEC SuperGrafx

  • Nintendo DS

  • Nintendo Famicom Disk System

  • Nintendo Virtual Boy

  • SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color

  • Vectrex

For TopArcade, a new “Legacy” collection was added that includes ROMs for MAME 0.37b5 (or MAME 2000 in RetroArch). That older version of MAME uses much less resources and runs better on low-powered devices such as some lower-end Raspberry Pi

  • Arcade - MAME Legacy

TopIsos has also gotten some love with new systems. These collections take considerable space:

  • 3DO

  • Atari Jaguar CD

  • Sony PlayStation Portable

TopHacks has been expanded slightly for SNES. I’m trying to avoid ‘quality of life’ improvements that only provide minor differences.

  • Super Nintendo Entertainment System Hacks

TopPc is a new collection for PC-based systems or desktop computers. These have been tested the least, still contain a subpar collection of games and need the most configuration for emulators.

  • Commodore Amiga

  • Commodore 64

  • Microsoft MS-DOS

  • Microsoft MSX

  • Microsoft MSX2

TopBios is a new set that contains the BIOS needed to run all the systems above through RetroArch. Simply put them in the ‘systems’ folder.

  • BIOS RetroArch

TopRoms now includes TurboGrafx-CD (November 2022 Edition)

A new torrent file was added to the TopRoms page.

You may point your client to the directory of your existing download. Files that you already have will be skipped.

The collection now includes a curated set of TurboGrafx-CD games. This was a very time consuming endeavour due to the large amount of high-quality games for the system. Unlike the Sega-CD, the TurboGrafx-CD didn’t fall into the same path of mediocrity as the Sega addon. Too bad it wasn’t very popular and sold poorly because many are missing out.

Please subscribe via email if you want to get updates on TopRoms

The torrent may take some time to be fully uploaded to the seedbox. Sorry I’m making you wait! The older torrent file will still be available but I cannot make any guarantees about availability of seeds.

TopRoms now available as a torrent! (Fixed)

I just uploaded a torrent to download the entire TopRoms Collection including TopRoms, TopIsos, TopArcade and TopHacks. Everything is consolidated into a single torrent. Use your torrent client to pick what systems you would like to download.

Checkout the TopRoms page for the torrent file. It is served by a SeedBox so you don’t have to worry about having enough seeders or peers, your connection will be fully saturated.

More improvements are coming as I promised in a previous post.

Issues

I’ve gotten several emails that the torrent is stalling when downloading, I’ve been able to reproduce the issue and currently investigating the problem.

Fixed

A new torrent file has been uploaded in the TopRoms page and should fix the issue. To avoid redownloading, simply point your torrent client to the original folder where you downloaded before.

The issue was due to the tracker URLs not properly formatted in the .torrent file.

We've heard you, some improvements to TopRoms are coming!

Thanks everyone for sending me emails about TopRoms with suggestions and issues. I’ll be addressing them when I have some free time, probably near the end of this month.

Some of the issues you brought up:

  • TopArcade is missing some BIOS roms and some games can’t start.

  • Expanding the TopArcade game collection. (Thanks to one of my readers for providing a list)

  • The large collection TopIsos cannot be downloaded because Mega is requiring payment due to its file size.

  • Consider converting ISO to CHD format as it is smaller in size and more universally supported by emulators. I know this is possible with PS1 but not sure about Sega CD.

  • Some multiple disc PlayStation 1 games are missing the second disc.

  • The collections will move to a privately hosted VPS for direct download.

  • The collections will also be available via torrent. I’ll keep a seedbox running so you don’t have to wait for multiple seeds. One advantage of torrents is you can pick and choose what gets downloaded or not.

  • Curate TurboGrafx-CD ISOs. This system actually has a sizeable amount of high quality games

  • Finish curating the ROM hacks set. There is still SNES, GB, GBC and GBA that are missing.

Please keep these emails coming, I’m glad that you are enjoying the collection!

A Huge Thanks to My Readers!

It’s been over 5 years since I’ve started my blog with over 50 posts written to the public now. At this point, I stopped doing a word count because it’s just become so ridiculously big.

My readership exploded last year and my analytics have been providing an ego boost, didn’t know that so many people are actually interested in what I’m writing about. At this point, I have over 2000 unique readers per day and even more during rush hours. A far cry from my ~10 readers per day back in 2017I don’t feel like a nobody anymore, my thoughts have become valuable to others.

I’d like to thank some of my readers to have posted my articles on Reddit and Hacker News. Exposure there has lead to certain posts becoming viral with people still looking for them via web searches. Commentators went wild. Speaking of search engines, many queries result in having my blog as the first result. Some say it will be because of my SEO skills but it’s actually some of you linking my website to other places.

Although I can’t deny that my blog has been inconsistent in terms of writing quality and article length. This blog is purposely nicheless because I’m passionate about so many topics and want to share my interests with the world.

This blog started as a passion project rather than a side-hustle, expecting to make no money out of it. I will remain benevolent in my pursuit keeping the blog ad-free and without affiliates. I hope you enjoy the clarity. Again, I’m making no money from this website.

Some very interesting topics are coming up with even more depth and detail. A few experiments are coming along to see how technology, art, ethics, social media and human behaviour fit on our modern world and what role technology plays in. I’ll keep the laughs coming in along with extended essays.

My case studies have become quite popular especially the one about automatic transmission simulations. I’ve gotten several thank you emails because of being, apparently, the first person online to cover this subject. Some of my projects have taken off such as TopRoms because I discovered that many want a curated collection of ROMs.

The Live at the Intro radio station for gaming and demoscene music has exploded in popularity with hundreds of listeners per month. Looks like my love for video game music wasn’t only from me. There’s so much more content that is coming for that variety you crave.

My family and friends have been also frequent readers of my blog. I really appreciate your mindful and non-judgmental approach to what I write. Some analytics have revealed that talent acquisition specialists and recruiters also spent time on my website which I really appreciate. This is my main portfolio and gives you an idea of my writing style. I know my controversial ideas can be a bit scary.

I’ve received many emails and social media posts about the subjects that I’ve covered on my blog. Also, keep in the suggestions coming in for the various content that will be included in my projects and perhaps even my blog.

Feel free to explore more and contact me through my social media credentials. We won’t be giving up, ever. Keep reading and enjoy! Again, thanks to all of you! Looking forward to more good times!