Ill conceived idea to resurrect a dead torrent (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 5 days ago by sad_detective_man@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Hi, let me know if this is obviously stupid and won't work. I'm an old pirate but obviously still pretty uneducated. I've got a dead torrent that's a collection of roms. 4 seeders, 800 abandoned peers (ungrateful basterds). Seeders are rarely online or can't provide more than 8% after a week. The roms are pretty mainstream and it's strange for this torrent to have been abandoned.

If I can find find the exact releases of as many roms as possible in the collection from other singular sources, can I resurrect this torrent by just copy+overwrite into the unfinished folder? is it that simple or is this hubris? am I too old to be this stupid?

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[-] Stillwater@sh.itjust.works 22 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Wouldn't the other files you use as replacements have to be bit-perfect matches of the original files in the torrent? I would think grabbing random ROMs from various sources would not work like that.

[-] sad_detective_man@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

that's what I'm assuming. I know even GBA roms have different versions that got shipped to different countries. but some sites over multiple versions for you to download so I was planning on rechecking the torrent after every overwrite until I see the progress bar leap up for that file.

still seems to easy to actually work though, right?

edit:FUCK FUCK FUCK IT WORKED HOLY SHIT BOYS

[-] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 2 points 3 days ago

I'm glad it worked. I was going to to rebut all the pessimists in here, saying I've done this before, and most ROM copies are identical. (Sites like Retro Achievements rely on ROMs having specific hashes, for example.)

[-] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 days ago

You could probably try that but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort with many other sources available for those ROMs. I personally would only put this kind of effort in for something rare and hard to find.

[-] sad_detective_man@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 5 days ago

you're not wrong. it probably isn't worth the bother because these are all available elsewhere but I think I just got sentimental about how leeched the torrent is. it's a good collection, and what if there's like a kid somewhere who ends up discovering p2p through this? not likely but I think I like to dream