We've heard you, some improvements to TopRoms are coming!

Thanks everyone for sending me emails about TopRoms with suggestions and issues. I’ll be addressing them when I have some free time, probably near the end of this month.

Some of the issues you brought up:

  • TopArcade is missing some BIOS roms and some games can’t start.

  • Expanding the TopArcade game collection. (Thanks to one of my readers for providing a list)

  • The large collection TopIsos cannot be downloaded because Mega is requiring payment due to its file size.

  • Consider converting ISO to CHD format as it is smaller in size and more universally supported by emulators. I know this is possible with PS1 but not sure about Sega CD.

  • Some multiple disc PlayStation 1 games are missing the second disc.

  • The collections will move to a privately hosted VPS for direct download.

  • The collections will also be available via torrent. I’ll keep a seedbox running so you don’t have to wait for multiple seeds. One advantage of torrents is you can pick and choose what gets downloaded or not.

  • Curate TurboGrafx-CD ISOs. This system actually has a sizeable amount of high quality games

  • Finish curating the ROM hacks set. There is still SNES, GB, GBC and GBA that are missing.

Please keep these emails coming, I’m glad that you are enjoying the collection!

A Huge Thanks to My Readers!

It’s been over 5 years since I’ve started my blog with over 50 posts written to the public now. At this point, I stopped doing a word count because it’s just become so ridiculously big.

My readership exploded last year and my analytics have been providing an ego boost, didn’t know that so many people are actually interested in what I’m writing about. At this point, I have over 2000 unique readers per day and even more during rush hours. A far cry from my ~10 readers per day back in 2017I don’t feel like a nobody anymore, my thoughts have become valuable to others.

I’d like to thank some of my readers to have posted my articles on Reddit and Hacker News. Exposure there has lead to certain posts becoming viral with people still looking for them via web searches. Commentators went wild. Speaking of search engines, many queries result in having my blog as the first result. Some say it will be because of my SEO skills but it’s actually some of you linking my website to other places.

Although I can’t deny that my blog has been inconsistent in terms of writing quality and article length. This blog is purposely nicheless because I’m passionate about so many topics and want to share my interests with the world.

This blog started as a passion project rather than a side-hustle, expecting to make no money out of it. I will remain benevolent in my pursuit keeping the blog ad-free and without affiliates. I hope you enjoy the clarity. Again, I’m making no money from this website.

Some very interesting topics are coming up with even more depth and detail. A few experiments are coming along to see how technology, art, ethics, social media and human behaviour fit on our modern world and what role technology plays in. I’ll keep the laughs coming in along with extended essays.

My case studies have become quite popular especially the one about automatic transmission simulations. I’ve gotten several thank you emails because of being, apparently, the first person online to cover this subject. Some of my projects have taken off such as TopRoms because I discovered that many want a curated collection of ROMs.

The Live at the Intro radio station for gaming and demoscene music has exploded in popularity with hundreds of listeners per month. Looks like my love for video game music wasn’t only from me. There’s so much more content that is coming for that variety you crave.

My family and friends have been also frequent readers of my blog. I really appreciate your mindful and non-judgmental approach to what I write. Some analytics have revealed that talent acquisition specialists and recruiters also spent time on my website which I really appreciate. This is my main portfolio and gives you an idea of my writing style. I know my controversial ideas can be a bit scary.

I’ve received many emails and social media posts about the subjects that I’ve covered on my blog. Also, keep in the suggestions coming in for the various content that will be included in my projects and perhaps even my blog.

Feel free to explore more and contact me through my social media credentials. We won’t be giving up, ever. Keep reading and enjoy! Again, thanks to all of you! Looking forward to more good times!

Issues with Live at the Intro (Solved!)

Dear Listeners, you may have noticed that the radio sometimes pauses in between tracks for several minutes or some tracks not being played at all.

I’m currently looking into this issue, seems like the hosting provider service has some problems while uploading some newer tracks.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Thanks for your emails for letting me know that your beloved station was acting up.

Live at the Intro is back in fully working order for your listening pleasure! After contacting the streaming service provider, turns out the uploading functionality had some issues. It was uploading blank audio instead of the MP3/OGG content and wouldn’t pick up the tags either. This wrecked havoc with the track scheduler.

I’m currently using Airtime.pro for Live at the Intro but it hasn’t been free of issues. It required quite a bit of fine tuning to get it to work like I wanted it to and the interface is not intuitive at all. It’s also quite expensive. I’m considering switching to Shoutcast if I continue to have issues.

One thing it’s missing is a good web player that shows more information than just the currently playing track. I currently have a custom JavaScript player in the works. Stay tuned!

Otherwise, I’m still hunting down for good content to add to the station. I’m aiming to add another 12 hours of music by August 2022. Again, if you have any suggestions, please send them my way to liveattheintro@cdahmedeh.net

As usual, you can listen to Live at the Intro on the project page.

Announcing TopRoms - A Curated ROM Set of High Quality Games.

Announcing TopRoms! A curated ROM collection of high quality games. This set aims to include only games that are worth playing according to the industry. A big search was done through blogs, sales numbers, multiple recommendation lists and top lists to find both well known classics and the gems that we forgot.

This is to avoid the inconvenience of having multi-GB ROM sets that have every game ever made for a given system. The majority of the games are of poor-quality and the collection is hard to explore. It’s not always practical to carry these sets on storage limited systems such as smartphones, single-board computers (such as the Raspberry PI) and portable game systems.

🕹️ Click Here for Collection

It is constantly evolving project and more and more games will be added as they are discovered. Feel free to suggest additional high quality games at toproms@cdahmedeh.net

There are currently several packages:

TopRoms: This is for cartridge based systems. Includes Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, SMS, Genesis, 32X, TurboGrafx-16

TopArcade: This is for Arcade Machines. It is compatible with MAME 0.236 and newer.

TopIsos: This is for disc-based systems. Includes Sega CD and Playstation. TurboxGrafx-CD coming soon!

TopHacks: Coming soon! A curated collection of homebrew games and ROM hacks!

Use your favourite emulator to play these games but we recommend the amazing multi-system open-source emulator RetroArch

Introducing the 'Gems' list!

The Internet has so many ways to entertain us and teach us. I sometimes come across extremely useful or interesting web pages on the interwebs. They usually get hidden in a notepad somewhere or in my favourites list.

I want to share pages that I have found useful throughout my Internet career. The list is made to grow either from places I stumbled across myself or someone wanted to share.

Feel free to make suggestions by sending an email to gems@cdahmedeh.net

Gems 📚