385TB video game archive saved by fans — Myrient has been '100% backed up' and validated, torrents being generated
Last month, the site’s hosts announced a shutdown due to spiraling costs.
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A member of the Save Myrient community has announced that the colossal video games archive has been “100% backed up!” This retro-gaming resource was on the precipice of collapsing last month after collection admins revealed that insufficient funding, rising costs, and abusive download managers were taking a heavy toll on the operation. Costs concerns were particularly strong with skyrocketing RAM, SSD, and hard drive prices.
It is great to share good news regarding the preservation of classic video games. Redditor and SaveMyrient mod, Ill-Economist-5285, fanfared the success of backup efforts just ahead of the weekend. “We've been kicking major ass in the background getting downloads completed and validated,” wrote the mod. “We can now announce that the Myrient mirror is now 100% COMPLETE!!”
As for getting the mirror up and operational, remember the original site doesn’t get decommissioned until the end of this month. However, with the 385TB resource now backed up, work is underway “generating torrents and getting them available.”
Article continues belowTorrents? Yes, but another SaveMyrient mod has confirmed “Torrents is only a temporary solution as of now.” With commenters pledging to make sure to seed their file-collections. Meanwhile, Ill-Economist-5285 reassures Myrient fans that things will be back to normal soon, with some resources being taken down temporarily only to make things ready for the next stage of the plan. More news will come, we are teased. Hopefully soon.
As mentioned previously, Myrient is still operational. So I thought I’d take a look. It was good to see some old favorite Atari ST apps like Calamus there. Moreover, if you feel like celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of Descent II on MS-DOS (March 13 in the U.S., March 29, 1996 in Europe) then today may be a good day to do it.
Myrient and AI
The AI industry frenzy undoubtedly contributed to the original Myrient archive’s soaring costs, ahead of its closure announcement. Perhaps ironically, if Myrient hadn’t been saved, retro fans may have looked to AI to generate copies of their favorite apps and games of yesteryear?
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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