CD Romance has been forced to remove all on-site downloads and shift them elsewhere as the site faces pressure due to legal challenges.
The incredibly popular ROM and translation hosting website is the online Library of Alexandria for those looking for retro games and translations. The site hosted thousands of pre-patched ROMS, giving users a centralised platform to improve, translate, and share their versions of various games.
The change was extremely sudden, with no prior notice provided to users. Instead of the download button, which used to be there for each game under the screenshot, it now says "This site does not host any files". There are no blogs or community posts that comment on or explain this sudden change.
While the website is still up and functional, CD Romance now no longer hosts any of the content. Instead, they simply host a collection of links to the original downloads for each ROM. This could have dire consequences, as now the legal teams that forced this new policy on CD Romance can directly pressure the websites hosting the downloads.
You can join CD Romance's official Discord if you still want to access the files and gain an in-depth understanding of what went down. While many users are averse to Discord, it appears it's the best solution available right now. Some users are calling for CD Romance to transform themselves into a private membership association like ROM Hustler.
Owners of these IPs certainly have the legal right to crack down on ROM distribution sites that share their property illegally. However, it should also be noted that a vast majority of these games no longer receive any developer support and are preserved online through ROMs by dedicated fans. In fact, the average person can't play a majority of these titles legally anymore.
This change in CD Romance's policy marks a dark day for video game preservation, and we can only hope things don't continue in this manner. We just hope we won't see another ROM site in a court battle where they're fined millions for hosting ROMS.