A pivotal online hub for ROM hacks goes news-only after two decades

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

ROMhacking.net, a longtime stalwart of the online classic gaming world mostly turned the lights off on Saturday. Nightcrawler, who created and runs ROMhacking, announced that the site, which has hosted community-made alterations for classic games, has stopped taking submissions and will only post news going forward.

ROM hacks like those the site hosted can be as minor as replacing the original Mario sprite with his Super Mario Bros. 3 incarnation, or as thorough as Mario Builder 64, essentially a game in its own right lets you create your own levels for Super Mario 64, a la Super Mario Maker — a Nintendo series that arguably owes a lot to the ROM hacker community.

Hobbyist contributors to the site regularly submitted tweaks for game ROM...

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