Super Sleuth

[Mushroom_Retainer]

Okay. Let me just start off by saying that I'm not begging for ROMs. Anyone who's done any hunting for them at all should be well aware of the emulation community's vast hatred for begging and iron-fisted policies against such tactics. It's incredibly annoying, but it's also clearly understandable. I'm so very tired of following search engines to dead links, inactive forums, and other serch engines. I was Googling all day yesterday for some of those newer fighters that are so hard to find, and almost as hard to emulate if you do find them, and all I got out of it was Kawaks 1.48b/dev, which is actually quite an accomplishment for me. I guess I just really suck at this sort of thing.

 

I guess, what I'm asking here is... how the Hell do you guys do it? Everywhere I go I find endless discussion about emulating games like Samurai Showdown 5 special, SNK vs. Capcom Chaos, and King of Fighters 2003, so clearly people are doing it. I can't figure out how, though, if they're all beholden to this vow of silence reguarding ROMs. Communnities exist to help people and share ideas, right? So then, can I count on this communnity to help a guy out and share some ideas? Is there some kind of secret technique or something that I'm missing, or do I just reall, really suck at using search engines?

Edited June 14, 2005 by Mushroom_Retainer

[Agozer]

Well, I'll give you my two cents...

 

There is no special trick. It just requires patience and refining the search terms (such as using +, -, AND, NOT, OR). However, even with these you might end up with nothing. Search engines use mainly the metadata (read: predefined keywords put into HTML code) found on sites to display searches to the user. This is why you sometimes get porn sites when you're trying to search for something completely different.

 

Another reason why some ROM sites are hard to find is because some search engines have excluded the bigger sites from the search results automatically. Personally, I've found most ROM sites by accident, usually as a reference from another site.

 

Furthermore, most good ROM sites are not even english. Sure, there are a good deal of english sites, but majority of the sites out there are either chinese, japanese, korean, french, spanish or even russian (others too of course).

 

At this point, I'd still like to stress the almost-first sentence: There is no special trick to finding the sites that offer ROMs, it just requires trial and error and enough patience to go through pages after pages of some foreign board for instance.

 

True, a community should help eachother out, but seeing as distributing copyrighted material or even linking to it is considered illegal according to numerous laws, we just can't share the information. I don't hate people that ask for rom images, but it does get under one's skin when people don't even bother to read the rules... and in the past, this place had it's fare share of those who only registered to ask how to find a a game and after that were never heard from again.

 

 

btw, I really like your topic title. I also give credit to someone who is the first to ask a question like this when I'm around.

[Mushroom_Retainer]

Huzzah! The first reply was civil, and useful! This makes me happy.

 

For the record, I completely understand the logic behind those rules that keep people from sharing rom images/links. Nobody wants any kind of legal trouble. That doesn't make it much less aggravating, though, to see people enjoying these games while you're trudging through the sewers of the internet looking for things they already have.

 

I wasn't actually expecting there to be some sort of big secret underground railroad or anything. But at least I could use some pointers how to be a better hunter. And I got some! I shall redouble my efforts tomorrow... or, well, at least sometime later this week.

[Agozer]

Glad to have been of some use. Do stick around, this place needs more people like you.

[suvo]

welcome mushroom to our forums , cause i see that ur new just a thing to add , wat agozer said really sums up my rom searching skills , most of the best website's are in korean or french or any thing u can think of , also in google try narrow it down ok like eg.

kof 96 rom , if u want to try some more luck try "kof 96 rom"...

thats just an example ok , now try ur luck.... also u can add download to ur search thats how u get ur results... gud luk finding roms

[Agozer]

If you wish to search for specific phrases, you must use quotation marks, just like suvo said.

[Robert]

Another way, is you find a rom site (almost any rom site). They will have links and/or affiliates. Click on these, and their links, etc. Eventually you will find stuff that google never will.

[Wizard]

Another way, is you find a rom site (almost any rom site). They will have links and/or affiliates. Click on these, and their links, etc. Eventually you will find stuff that google never will.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sometimes sites will even say that you need to click on adverts for the download to work when their already is a predefined link that *works* perfectly without the use of advert clicking!

[Dooz]

Usually it's goos to search for the specific filename of the rom, such as, "samsho4.zip". I got good results in the first page by doing that.

[Gryph]

Usually it's goos to search for the specific filename of the rom, such as, "samsho4.zip". I got good results in the first page by doing that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, that's what I do. That usually brings me to some foreign language forums that usually have links.

[Mushroom_Retainer]

Welly well well! With a bit of refining, I was able to find SS5, SvC:C, and Matrimelee, which I wasn't even looking for. They don't all work perfectly (in fact, Matrimelee doesn't work at all), but it's a start.

 

Now I get to figure out how to troubleshoot. There's all kinds of numbers and acronyms and applications involved, and it's all a little overwhelming... I'll get into it closer to the weekend, probably.