As I am sure you are all aware RomUlation, one of, if not the biggest rom sites was recently given a cease and desist notice from the Entertainment Software Association, essentially closing down the site. What does this mean for the gaming community at large? We ask Seph, the founder of RomUlation.
“I’m 19 years old and working as a part-time PHP programmer, the other part of my work hours I spend on various Internet related projects; RomUlation being one of those. I started out my web career doing work for other people while working on re-launching a highly improved version of RomUlation. When it finally got done I stopped doing work for other people and focused instead on my own project. Along the way some more ideas fermented in my which I am now working on; they’re still a few months away from total realization - RomUlation took up a lot of development time.
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What made you start RomUlation?
“I don’t remember really; RomUlation initially started more than 5 years ago as a very amateurish website with static html pages and uploads to Yahoo Groups. I don’t think I can brag about having had some noble purpose for starting RomUlation. I was quite naive back then and I suppose I merely liked being able to play N64 games on my PC and wanted to share my joy with others. My parents had this crazy idea that I couldn’t have an N64 because I already had a PlayStation. Obviously no child should ever have to face that horror.
My reasons changed with time though; it’s no longer just about the philosophy that “sharing is caring”. I suppose it’s more about showing that today’s business models are outdated and don’t work anymore, it’s tiring to buy a game only to find out an hour later that you should rather have spent the money on that other game. I honestly don’t think I’d keep RomUlation running if Nintendo made it easy to download demos and full games and use them with a flash cart; well at least not the download aspect. I’d probably still run the forum and the community.”
RomUlation has grown massively over the last year or so, it’s a big site to manage on your own. Do you get much help from other people?
“I don’t think “massively” quite covers the growth rate we’ve experienced with RomUlation. We got from 500 visitors per day to 25,000 in about 10 months and managed to push 241mbit/sec at our peak. I’d like to say that I managed it all alone but I can’t take that credit. I had help from a lot of people really. A friend of mine through quite some time, Loonylion, who’s also an admin of the site, is a network engineer - he helped me with server management and such. I’ve picked up on most of it now so I’m capable of doing basic maintenance but he still helps out if we need custom software compiled for the server. Then there’s Patton, our host guy who helped us in negotiating our hosting and showed us the ins and outs of the industry, I don’t know where we’d be today if it weren’t for his contacts and hosting guidance. Lastly of course, there are the forum moderators and the community. The community is really what makes the site; it’s them who create the content, aside from the downloads. Without them, RomUlation really wouldn’t be half of what it is.”
Tell me about when you received the cease and desist notice from the ESA.
“The cease and desist notice was actually a DMCA notice so it was more or less directed at our host instead of me so it wasn’t really too shocking. I merely got a notice from the hosting company that they wouldn’t be putting the server back online as long as the RomUlation domain pointed to it.
They had attached the email they got from the ESA and it was pretty much just a standard DMCA notice, rather boring.”
Do you think the closure of RomUlation means that other rom sites will be closed down soon?
“It’s hard to say; I doubt that ROM sites in general are in danger, perhaps some of the larger ones. It’s easy to prevent though - just don’t host in the US, then the ESA will have to go through hoops instead of just the usual DMCA notice. As to whether or not that’s a wise decision, I can’t say. It might just annoy them enough to take it a step further.
Regardless though, there will always be sites: they might be small, they might upload to lousy free hosts such as RapidShare and Megaupload but at least the files will be available. Even if they do manage to get the majority of ROM sites shut down then there’s still IRC, Usenet and P2P.”
Is see you are opening up the forums again, do you believe RomUlation can make a come back?
“Yes I believe we can make a come back. In retrospect I think I might have exaggerated our death a bit, but hindsight is always 20/20. We plan to start a torrent tracker which should make up for the missing HTTP downloads to some extent. I can’t say if we’ll ever have HTTP downloads though, I’ll have to investigate with a lawyer before I’ll make such a decision.
Despite not having HTTP downloads, I still see a bright future for RomUlation; an overwhelming amount of people have expressed their wishes to bring back the community. It’s actually quite ironic that the activity level in our IRC channel has more than doubled since we closed down the site; that’s not really what I had expected but it was a nice surprise.”
Do you have any other projects on the go?
“I have two projects in the works: one is my own personal project involving comics. I can’t say more at this point since it’s not really progressed that far and I don’t want someone to steal my idea; it’s too good to allow it to slip away.
The other project is a collaborative effort between myself and one of the owners of zShare; it’s basically a torrent search engine with a user collaboration aspect, users will be able to share their favourite torrents and have new torrents suggested based on that. It’s quite an advanced project which involves a C backend for the spider and a PHP front-end for the search engine and community part. I think it’ll be popular though, take torrents and mix in my previous experiences with communities and user friendliness, bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes and hopefully it ends up good.”
In your spare time do you play games, if so what are your favorites?
“I used to play games; I started playing games at the age of 3 back when the family PC had a turbo button to increase it to an amazing 33MHz. Nowadays I spend more time taking part in the PHP community and working on my websites. I didn’t outgrow gaming though; I still do game once in a while. When I do, I usually play Urban Terror which is an FPS game which was originally a Quake 3 mod but has now gone stand-alone. I really wouldn’t play any other game on my PC. Most of the new games are boring and focus too much on graphics rather than game play and innovation. Besides that I also enjoy my Wii, or rather, I probably will when they release some games worth playing. ”
Do you have a favourite console or computer?
“My Wii, probably. Sadly it’s not very active at the moment, I have a butt load of games for it (downloaded of course) but only 3 of those games I found worth my money; sadly I’ve already completed all of them so I’m really just waiting for some new games to enter my download queue.”
Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers.
“I’d like to remind users to buy games; I know that sounds odd coming from someone who runs a ROM site, but I believe it’s important to make a statement that we’re not just rebellious communists who want everything handed to us on a silver platter. I’d hate to think people download games because they’re too cheap to pay for the games even though they like them and are entertained by them for hours on end. If you download a game and find yourself addicted, then go buy the game. If we don’t then we’re no better than the big corporations, and I’d hate to think that we’ve sunk to that level.
Sharing is caring but if we don’t share with developers who produce good products then eventually there won’t be any games to share.”
Seph, www.romulation.net
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41 comments so far
seph, u’r awesome
too bad i can’t afford to buy original games since in my country, the price is too expensive for me :p
thanx a lot for providing us a freakin awesome site
October 31st, 2007 at 7:16 am
I beileve “Romulation.net - The greatest ROMs site ever” will be come back.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:52 am
I Hope Romulation Will Open Again…I’m Shocked When It’s Closed
October 31st, 2007 at 11:13 am
Its stupid to hear you stop whit hosting files.
You can host these by limewire.
Or i can try to do it in holland.
thx
Kevin
October 31st, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Seph, I hope you will go on with the forum, and I’ve got lots of respect for your attitude towards the big companies, and towards they people that just download ROMS because they’re to lame to buy them.
Keep up the good work; I love the time I’ve spend on the RomUlation forums, and i hope that time will continue!
Cheers mate!
October 31st, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Boo Hoo Hoo
Ok whos next?
October 31st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Dear Seph,
sorry to hear the bad news about Romulation. Im gutted you have to close but Im sure I would do the same under the circumstances.
You went out on a high point in my mind with the release of LOZ: Phantom Hourglass (US). The wait and the build up was ledendary….but you remained cool and reassuring throughout. I got the rom from you long before it was available anywhere else. This is typical of the service you provided.
Best of luck for your future endevours.
Cheers
Ian
October 31st, 2007 at 4:07 pm
hey seph… you may recognize me from the forums… if not, i understand, there were lots of people back there…
nice speech, dude, and i seriously hope at least the forums will open again… it’s been so boring spending my days without those people…
regards…
jin_kazama
October 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Seph,
My friend have a good idea.
Make a new site and make a new server.
First begin with forums and chat. Than you can host files.
But you must move.
My friend says:’if i have money i will buy that site, no problem for me’.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Don’t be an ass, Chris, whoever you may be.
Anyways, thanks for all the ROMs, Seph. I agree with everything Einherjar has said, and GL with your projects.
-sL
October 31st, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I am sure whatever Seph puts his mind to, it will succeed. Getting a site like RomUlation to grow like this is no small task by any means. I believe there is hope for the site yet!
October 31st, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Hey Seph, Just want to say you rock, I got lots of hope in you and lots of respect for you towards the big company. And not forgetting people that download ROMS due to their personnal reason. Keep up the good work; Best wish in whatever you do, Romulation will be back with the support of all of us. =D
Cheer,
Eames (Singapore)
October 31st, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I totally agree with you Seph! I download games, because most of them are not worth my money. I also download a fair amount of Mature games, because I cannot buy them.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I am pretty sure that the site will run again. It was a awsome site
October 31st, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Wow, great interview. I loved RomUlation for the soul reason so i could test games to see if they were worth while to buy, thanks to that site i would say the gaming industry has earnd an extra £200 (from me)Isay its all thanks to you Seph, but then again they are those who just download for the sake of downloading. RomUlation came for a good use and a bad one ill agree,but none the less you did a great job keeping RomUlation up for so long, Thank You!!!
November 1st, 2007 at 1:16 am
I stumbled onto Romulation 1 year ago.
It’s not that I don’t have the money to buy original games. I couldn’t care less whether they are expensive or not. My main problem was that; there were too few games in my country. No one wants to export original games to my country as our policy is to just let users there download anything they like.
But I have ONE big regret now. I was cheap. I didn’t donate a single cent to RomUlation. I downloaded heaps of games from there. I always tell myself I should donate, but I happen to keep forgetting.
Damn, I should have at least donated. But there’s no more chance now. *sob*
But kudos to you, Seph. For showing us your kindness through RomUlation. The availability of games over there made me keep my NDS till today.
If you ever reopen it again, I’ll donate a lot of money.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:46 am
RomUlation pwns all other rom sites!! dont give up and keep trying!!!
November 1st, 2007 at 2:16 am
Seph,
Sad that Romulation was closed down. T’was a great website with great capabilities.
Regards,
blackmagic (Philippines)
November 1st, 2007 at 9:36 am
It’s really sad to hear that Romulation was closed down. I was the best website I ever seen (in its own category) and I wish it can be brought back again.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
sad that ROMulation closed
i only found it 3 month ago
and i hope it reoppens (yn)
best ROM site on the net
xx
November 1st, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Show your support for ROMulation put this in you name/personal message on msn yahoo AOL etc.
:’(ROMulation - We Love You :’(
November 1st, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Hey Seph,
You remember me lately in the forums …I am sure Romulation will make a comeback and tackle the terrible situation you are in.We certainly have hopes in you and wish you good luck at the near future.
Always available as your subordinate
~Vincent_Valentine~
November 1st, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Hi all,
Our whole bodyapaint team wish ya the best
Hurray for ROMULATION!!!
Hurry with the forum … we cant wait to post
xxx
bodyartcrew extreme-colour
November 1st, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Well everybody, myself and the rest of the crew thank you for the comments.
We do have a few tricks up our sleeve’s, and will get back as soon as possible.
Just hang tight, we’re working on it!
Romulation.net can’t go down, it is not of nature =)
Until then
-Patton
November 1st, 2007 at 10:54 pm
man i tink every one is right about the site closing, its an pity becouse it rely was an incredible site, iam use to search for every king of sites in internet about games end stuff of this kind and i got to say, i never south such an organisede site and id an great team spirit, is marvalous.
im tinking in criating an anime serie to but its not easy, but iff you need an and for imagination just sai it. any ways the site was marvelous, i dont rely know the pepol here of this forum but just by look i can tell that you gonna have an brialiant future, i hope you make your ambitions true, if tha site cant be lift again i antherstand. good luck and one advice of my selve. Falow you hearth.
Sorry my rely bad ingles
November 1st, 2007 at 11:14 pm
A million THANKS to all of you pals. Looking forward to see you make a comeback.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:55 am
I’ve certainly bought more than my fair share of games, espcially for the NDS. Some are just awesome, such as The Phantom Hourglass but some are a complete disapointment, reminding me of the bad old days in the 80s when most games were gammy or inferior quality. I appreciate the opportunity to test out these gamaes. Most are just crap. Most I wouldn’t touch for more than 10 minutes. I think sites such as yours provided a valuable service and made a powerful statement.
Thank you.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:57 am
To seph
It’s most gratifying to see such a bright, fascinating young man with an attitude that is as aspiring as yours. A more hopeful and constructive future shall always be in front of us as long people like yourself are around.
Kind regards and best wishes.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Please come bak….. I’ll support you. My Download points?
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Thanks for the comments everyone, truly appreciate it.
Brig: I certainly hope I can live up to those steep expectations, and hopefully there’ll be more of those people interested in more world changing areas than web development.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:54 pm
It’s sad to see the site get shut down. Seph, all the best to you man.
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:05 am
Its a pity..real pity…do let us know if u decide to make a come back or such…anyway…wheres the forum u guys mentioned?? Anyway..best of luck man! u rock!
November 3rd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
romulation was the best rom’s site!!!
please come back!!
now what i am going to do??
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Bloody hell seph!
awesome as usual!
thanx for the many
months of romUlation that i was
involved with
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:46 am
Hope romulation will come bak again, I am kinda tired waiting for rapidshare and filefactory rom sites, DS games and the console is expensive, that is why downlading roms is my only way to play these.
November 27th, 2007 at 3:29 am
wow everyone loves Seph.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Of course they do.Romu is back
October 26th, 2008 at 9:58 am
I can find other ROM sites. The ESA thinks closing sites does any good, but it really doesn’t. Myself, I’m too cheap to buy the games. Whenever I do buy a game, it’s often a used copy anyway. And if the game companies are going to try and criminalize sales of used games, then I have no objection to outright piracy.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
no way cant believe the site down www.romulation.net was my holy grail
June 20th, 2009 at 11:16 am
OMG! Romulation looks down here!!!
September 15th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Yesterday, it worked just fine. But now, it’s down. What happened? Was it closed? Is it just a server error? OHMYGOD, LET’S PANIC!!
Well, not really. A few hours ago, Firefox gave the error that the website took too long to load and now, it just can’t connect. It’s probably just some good ol’ server-fixing.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
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