While video games have been around for a massively long time, the first true video game was introduced in the early 1950s. It was until the 1970s arcade video games started gaining more popularity. Fast forward to 2020, the gaming industry has witnessed significant improvement. We’re now looking at immersive graphics, intense gameplay, and whatnot. Heck! we’re now foraying into the world of cloud gaming. Although the next-gen gaming titles are super impressive, we can not forget about the old classic games that were used to be a fun adventure for many.
Such classic titles include Super Mario All-Stars on NES, The Legend of Zelda on SNES, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on Sega Mega Drive, Donkey Kong, and the list goes on. If you’re trying to relive that pleasant nostalgia, then you have stumbled across the right webpage on the internet. In today’s article, we’re going to talk about ROMs that will help you play those old classics very easily. Furthermore, there’s going to be a list of the best ROM sites that you can always go through safely.
What Are ROMs And How You Can Make Use Of It?
While you can not get your hands on old classic games and their respective consoles, there is still a workaround that you can follow to enjoy these titles. For those who’re unaware, a ROM image can help you re-experience all these old classic games that are quite hard to find today. If you’re an Android smartphone user, then you might have already heard of ROMs at some point.
ROMs are basically an image file that contains read-only data generally a video game cartridge, firmware, or an arcade game’s mainboard. Using these ROMs on your computer, you can actually enjoy all these old games from a single device. Apart from ROM images, you also need the Emulator to play these games on your home desktop. You can find emulators of all the major and retro consoles out there.
Best ROM Sites of 2022
While ROMs allow you to play old retro games on a single device, finding one becomes much of a hassle. With so many options out there, the entire process of finding workable ROMs is a bit head-scratching. To top things off, various spammy and phishing websites makes things even worse. Here at OpenFMC, we try to keep things easier for our readers. Following that ideology, here is the list of best ROM sites for you to check out.
1. Gamulator
When it comes to finding ROMs, our go-to source is the Gamulator. The website contains both Emulators and ROMs of popular games. Gamulator has a very huge collection of games and consoles out there. From NDS to NES and from Super Mario to Dragon Ball Z, you can find everything you want at a single online outlet.
Apart from the extensive library, Gamulator has a very simple user interface with few advertisements and pop-ups. Furthermore, the website claims to offer virus-free files, and considering the amount of traffic it gets, it really looks like so. Thanks to the user interface, you can use Gamulator on both desktop and smartphone.
2. Retrostic
Another popular website that comes to our mind is Retrostic. Like Gamulator, Retrostic also contains an extensive library of ROMs out there. The user interface is quite minimal and you will see advertisements very rarely. You can find ROMs and Emulators of various consoles such as Atari, NDS, N64, Sage, and many more.
While the available library is quite huge, there is a Request page that you can make use of to request unavailable ROMs. To download games, you need to first select the console and then look for the game. There is a straight-forward Download button on the game’s webpage and clicking that will initiate the download.
3. ROM Hustler
The third in the list of course has to be the ROM Hustler. While the user interface of the website might not look modern, the plethora of ROMs and minimum ad environment makes it a better option out there. ROM Hustler is largely famous for its vast library of ROMs but you can also find Emulators. The entire download process is quite simple and all you need to do is make use of the search bar with a drop-down menu.
ROM Hustler promotes safe and infection-free downloads and that is why they check each file they upload to the server. Since the website generates a lot of traffic, the recommendations based on customer ratings and votes actually works pretty well.
4. CoolROM
Unlike the websites mentioned above, CoolROM might look a bit messy to various users out there. However, CoolROM makes up for the user interface with its vast library of ROMs and Emulators. You can choose between various emulators such as DS, GBA, Gameboy, Nintendo, SNES, and many more. There is a simple search bar that will help you find the game you’re looking for.
Sadly, the website does contain advertisements but at least the download files are safe from viruses and malware.
5. DopeROMs
Since we have talked about CoolROM, it’s time to take things up a notch and look at the DopeROMs. What we like about DopeROMs is the fact that it has one of the simplest user interface out there. You get four options to choose from namely Browse ROMs, Emulators, Game Covers & Arts, and Support. Using these four options on the homepage, you can basically navigate throughout the website.
Clicking on any of these options will take you to TheOldComputer webpage from where you can basically download the games and ROMs.
6. Vimm’s Lair
Vimm’s Lair is something that we stumbled across a couple of weeks ago. Since then, we have heftily used the website to download numerous ROMs, and turns out, the website is quite good. First up, the user interface is quite simple. You will see five options on the homepage namely Emulation Lair, The Vault, The Manual Project, Message Boards, and FFA Links. The Emulation Lair will help you find all the console emulators while The Vault consists of thousands of games.
If you’re unsure of how to proceed with the ROMs or games, then you can find manuals under The Manuals Project. You can even search for games with the help of a search bar located in the top right corner. The downloadable content seems to be on the safe side and free from viruses and malware. To top things off, the entire website is ad-free and contains no popups at all. All of these make Vimm’s Lair one of the best ROM sites out there.
7. Easy ROMs
Easy ROMs is another one of the best ROM sites that we managed to find while we were surfing through our Reddit account. The website follows the simple blog like user interface and the owner seems to be adding new links quite frequently. So far, we haven’t come across any annoying amount of popups or ads which is always a good thing.
The owner of the website uploads the ROMs file on Mega cloud storage meaning you will always get a good amount of bandwidth. Just like with most ROM sites out there, you can get your hands on numerous games spread across different consoles. The owner of Easy ROMs seems to be using affiliate links to keep the website running. If you haven’t already tried Easy ROMs, then you should definitely check it out.
8. The Eye
While the name ‘The Eye’ sounds more Illuminati-like, it is simply a space from where you can find various downloadable items. It’s basically an open directory data archive driven by the community. The idea behind The Eye is to preserve any data ranging from websites, books to ideas. The ROM section of The Eye seems to have a lot of downloadable content beautifully categorized.
Since the service is driven by the community, the entire website is advertisements and pop-up free. In fact, you are also looking at a high speed direct download links. The content is safe from viruses and malware as well. Opening the ROM page of the website, you will see various emulators or consoles. Clicking on them will take you to all the games that you can download.
As mentioned earlier, The Eye contains so much more than just ROMs making it a solid website to visit every now and then. You can basically find everything there with zero ads and pop-ups.
9. NicoBlog (NitroBlog)
NicoBlog is also one of the popular names out there when it comes to downloading games and ROMs safely online. It is worth noting that NicoBlog is now known as NitroBlog so you should not get confused with the naming. As the name suggests, NicoBlog is basically a blog that contains posts of various games embedded with the download link.
Instead of the direct link, we’re looking at third-party cloud services such as Mega and Google Drive. This means that you will get maximum download bandwidth. What we personally like about this blog is the fact that it contains detailed content regarding the game. For instance, you can get the system requirements along with ratings and basic information.
10. MoreROMs
If you’re looking for a Nintendo-focused space to download ROMs from, then you need to give MoreROMs a try. You can find ROMs for SNES, NES, and GBA along with emulators. The website contains an extensive library of games and you will be able to find almost every single one. While the website comes with a simple user interface and direct download links, the website will throw in pop-ups. If that is gonna annoy you, then MoreROMs might not be the perfect option out there for you.
MoreROMs also has a Help and Glossary section that will come in handy whenever you are blanked or are in need of help.
11. NES Files
Since we’re on the subject of Nintendo-focused ROM sites, we would also like to talk about NES Files. As the name suggests, this website contains ROMs for the NES console. The website claims to have more than 350 NES games giving you wide options to choose from. You can also find NES manuals and instructions in PDF format which will come in handy whenever you are stuck somewhere.
Apart from games, NES Files contains game music, user reviews & ratings, NES emulators, NES cartridges, and much more. You can also find codes and cheats for the specific title if you’re looking to tweak your gaming experience. For someone who’s into NES consoles, NES Files should be a go-to place for everything related to it.
12. ROMNation
If you still haven’t found your favorite ROM sites, then we have yet another suggestion for you. ROMNation is a popular name when it comes to downloading older games on your computer. The website largely deals in consoles such as GameBoy, Atari2600, Colecovision, and GameBoyColor. The website is free of ads but will throw in a few popups when you try to download any game. The download speed is up to the mark and we were able to get high bandwidth, but it depends on your internet connection.
The homepage of the website showcase the most popular ROMs. At the time of writing this, it is recommending titles such as The King of Fighters 2002, Metal Slug 3, Street Fighter III, Ne0-Geo, and many more. You can also make use of the user ratings to decide which game to play for the time being. The webpage performs perfectly well on the mobile and you can even make an account to get personalized recommendations.
13. SONYISOS
As the name suggests, SONYISOS is completely focused on Sony consoles such as PSX, PSP, PS2. However, you can still find ROM files for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. The website gives you an option to select the console right away and later on, you can download ROM images for various popular titles. Believe us, the website got some vast library under its belt.
Throughout our usage, we rarely encountered annoying ads or pop-ups meaning your overall user experience is going to be top-notch. The owners generally upload files in parts on file-sharing sites such as uploaded.net so you might have to compromise on download speeds.
Conclusion
With the help of this article, you will be able to find the best sites to download ROMs so that you can satisfy your cravings for old classic and retro games. We have tried our best to list all the sites that we tend to use every now and then. While some of these websites contain few ads or pop-ups, they are completely safe to download ROMs from. We highly recommend checking out Vimm’s Lair and The Eye because of the clean user interface and no ads or popups at all. For Nintendo lovers out there, you need to definitely check MoreROMs and NES Files.
As mentioned earlier, there are a plethora of options out there and there is a solid chance that we might have missed many. With that said, we wanted to keep this article as brief as possible. If you think we have missed your favorite sites, then you can always let us and fellow visitors know by commenting down below. We’ll try to keep the list updated whenever we come across some worth mentioning ROM sites. With that said, we’re now off to play our all-time favorite Contra by Konami on NES Emulator.
Also Read: Best Torrent Sites of 2022
