Vimm's Lair and the ESA

[DoubleGulpSlurpeeCup]

So... I am brand new to the game preservation scene, I'm sure most of you on here have heard of Vimm's Lair. Why was that website peepee slapped by Nintendo, Sega, and the ESA but this one has not been? is there any chance of something like that happening to The Repo??

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

Moving the website from ᏟDᏒ to here probably helped. Vimm's Lair was really popular so maybe one too many people talked about it and then they got shut down by a few companies.

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

Blame youtubers not shutting the fuck up

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

Blame youtubers not shutting the fuck up

I remember when it was commonly considered taboo to publicly talk about rom sites and now everyone keeps getting them shut down due posting everywhere about them.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It's honestly amazing to me that Nintendo would involve the suits in taking down sites hosting games that they haven't sold or supported since the end of the Cold War (in most cases).

Owners of your childhood, destroyers of your future.

 

[Tonberry]

Blame youtubers not shutting the fuck up

I remember when it was commonly considered taboo to publicly talk about rom sites and now everyone keeps getting them shut down due posting everywhere about them.

The catalyst that started the recent crackdown on rom hosting sites was when Apple allowed emulators on the App Store.
Due to this, a trillion people learned how to emulate games at the same time, but because they weren't "in the know" they didn't know about the etiquette involved, they just saw it as a means to get free games, so they got way too loud and made the lawyers see red.

Also Switch emulator devs/Switch hosting sites getting too bold. You're not supposed to flaunt current-gen games so out in the open.

 

[medisinn]

I remember when it was commonly considered taboo to publicly talk about rom sites and now everyone keeps getting them shut down due posting everywhere about them.

Isn't it the same with fan projects? All it takes is one Kotaku or Polygon or whathaveyou post and that's all the attention needed for Nintendo to find out. I'd think a rom site doesn't have as big of a chance of attention otherwise because there's not a singular thing that would go viral. Maybe if a user there created a popular romhack or something.

It's honestly amazing to me that Nintendo would involve the suits in taking down sites hosting games that they haven't sold or supported since the end of the Cold War (in most cases).

Owners of your childhood, destroyers of your future.

Ain't that the truth. So many games are left to rot and we're supposed to be grateful for the painfully slow drip of one or two games added to the paid Switch Online subscription a month. I'll never understand why they abandoned Virtual Console, it wasn't perfect but it was a hell of a lot better than what we have now.

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

Blame youtubers not shutting the fuck up

Most likely that but then again I don't watch those kinds of channels.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Blame youtubers not shutting the fuck up

Also individuals to a lesser extent. Some people be making Twitter threads of places for anime and games and shit, like they didn't learn from what happened with BookTok

 

[MajesticSiN]

It's because they couldn't handle the heat

 

[IyoTheHelpfulWolf]

I remember when it was commonly considered taboo to publicly talk about rom sites and now everyone keeps getting them shut down due posting everywhere about them.

And this is why I never mention the forum by name on stream. I don't want this place over run with trolls and feds.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Blame youtubers not shutting the fuck up

YouTubers are definitely responsible for the unwanted attention, but "Honeypots" have been a staple of anti-piracy measures since the IRC era. People employed by gaming companies just search the web and join sites to see what they offer before reporting back.

It sucks, but it's part of the game.

 

[DoubleGulpSlurpeeCup]

It's honestly amazing to me that Nintendo would involve the suits in taking down sites hosting games that they haven't sold or supported since the end of the Cold War (in most cases).

Owners of your childhood, destroyers of your future.

Hell, they are the owners of your future as well, live service games being crammed down everyone's neck as a way to ensure you never obtain ownership of any media. Forever paying a monthly payment. right now, it costs $1360 USD to get the "Fullest experience" of the sims 4 and it is absolutely disgusting

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

And this is why I never mention the forum by name on stream. I don't want this place over run with trolls and feds.

I'm sure we all appreciate that. I think I've only mentioned this place in person and not online.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

YouTubers are definitely responsible for the unwanted attention, but "Honeypots" have been a staple of anti-piracy measures since the IRC era. People employed by gaming companies just search the web and join sites to see what they offer before reporting back.

It sucks, but it's part of the game.

You're telling me companies like Crunchyroll probably do shit like this and still put out dogshit products?! That's crazy

 

[Tonberry]

And this is why I never mention the forum by name on stream. I don't want this place over run with trolls and feds.

Yeah that's the right way to go at it, I think.
The general "Code of Honor" or whatever was always to never namedrop hosting sites on places that are easily accessible.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Hell, they are the owners of your future as well, live service games being crammed down everyone's neck as a way to ensure you never obtain ownership of any media. Forever paying a monthly payment. right now, it costs $1360 USD to get the "Fullest experience" of the sims 4 and it is absolutely disgusting

Live service is one thing (they're ass games), what I'm more worried about are physical copies and how hard companies are trying to phase them out, hell Nintendo put out that digital only localisation of FE1 and we still don't have it back. Imagine what they could do with anything else and slowly normalise like what happened to microtransactions

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

You're telling me companies like Crunchyroll probably do shit like this and still put out dogshit products?! That's crazy

There was a time when companies would set up their own piracy sites just to bust anyone trying to download from them. It was a scary time indeed.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

So... I am brand new to the game preservation scene, I'm sure most of you on here have heard of Vimm's Lair. Why was that website peepee slapped by Nintendo, Sega, and the ESA but this one has not been? is there any chance of something like that happening to The Repo??

As long as RGT remains niche, we will be safe, but if the site continues to grow and grow it will become a target eventually. Vimm eventually became the goto ROM site for everyone because the other popular sites like EMUParadise were getting shut down. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo already knew about this site but is waiting for something egregious to act. Or perhaps they are too busy suing other folks that are more of a direct threat to their business.

It's honestly amazing to me that Nintendo would involve the suits in taking down sites hosting games that they haven't sold or supported since the end of the Cold War (in most cases).

Owners of your childhood, destroyers of your future.

Nintendo's business plan is centered around nostalgia. If they become the only store in town for old games through NSO and can fill their product line with lazy remakes of games people can't access otherwise (if emulation is gone), their profits go way up.

 

[Tonberry]

As long as RGT remains niche, we will be safe, but if the site continues to grow and grow it will become a target eventually. Vimm eventually became the goto ROM site for everyone because the other popular sites like EMUParadise were getting shut down. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo already knew about this site but is waiting for something egregious to act. Or perhaps they are too busy suing other folks that are more of a direct threat to their business.



Nintendo's business plan is centered around nostalgia. If they become the only store in town for old games through NSO and can fill their product line with lazy remakes of games people can't access otherwise (if emulation is gone), their profits go way up.

It's really weird because Vimm was super secret for the longest time. Then it like exploded in less than a year and then it was gone.
Such a shame, they were dedicated as hell.

 

[Jotaro]

that counts here as well, thats a code for every internet pirate, you only trust and tell, to peeps, you know and are fellow comrades, like you, gg, learn to keep secrets

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It's really weird because Vimm was super secret for the longest time. Then it like exploded in less than a year and then it was gone.
Such a shame, they were dedicated as hell.

I LOVED Vimm just as much as I loved Emuparadise, but they were getting cocky.

Their last updates added Wii and PS3 games, which was straying into a firing range.

 

[Skeetos]

Isn't it the same with fan projects? All it takes is one Kotaku or Polygon or whathaveyou post and that's all the attention needed for Nintendo to find out. I'd think a rom site doesn't have as big of a chance of attention otherwise because there's not a singular thing that would go viral. Maybe if a user there created a popular romhack or something.

Ain't that the truth. So many games are left to rot and we're supposed to be grateful for the painfully slow drip of one or two games added to the paid Switch Online subscription a month. I'll never understand why they abandoned Virtual Console, it wasn't perfect but it was a hell of a lot better than what we have now.

Because it's easier to get a bunch of meatriders and ignorant parents to pay monthly then to convince them it's more user friendly to just let you buy whatever game you want for like 5 bucks. Man I miss the Wii.

 

[Tonberry]

I LOVED Vimm just as much as I loved Emuparadise, but they were getting cocky.

Their last updates added Wii and PS3 games, which was straying into a firing range.

Yeah I guess that's true in a way.
I used it for years, and I never saw anyone say "You should go to Vimm" on publicly available discussion places like Reddit and the like (but you saw EVERY other site mentioned, even dinosaurs like Coolrom), so I always felt like it was way more secretive than it appeared. You're right though, adding more recent stuff may be stirring the pot a bit too much.

 

[Skeetos]

Yeah I guess that's true in a way.
I used it for years, and I never saw anyone say "You should go to Vimm" on publicly available discussion places like Reddit and the like (but you saw EVERY other site mentioned, even dinosaurs like Coolrom), so I always felt like it was way more secretive than it appeared. You're right though, adding more recent stuff may be stirring the pot a bit too much.

You'd be surprised how comfortable people who don't fully understand are with just name dropping websites on YouTube and Twitch. It actually happened to CDR at one point. I remember everyone being pretty worried about it. I think that was why Spike had the ticket thing in place that one time.

Post automatically merged: Feb 25, 2025

You'd be surprised how comfortable people who don't fully understand are with just name dropping websites on YouTube and Twitch. It actually happened to CDR at one point. I remember everyone being pretty worried about it. I think that was why Spike had the ticket thing in place that one time.

Also, I hate to mention the whole Nitroblog business but it was a similar thing that happened there as well.