Make Windows Like Home - A Guide for Linux Refugees

As a Linux cult survivor, I still found myself hit by Stockholm syndrome reminiscing over a deep hole left by an operating system that relinquished control to myself only. However, I developed disillusionment from the constant maintenance and upkeep of a desktop that was just too unstable. The frequent distro hopping, struggles to run anything that isn’t in the package repositories, and another kernel module update that broke suspending my laptop and ruined the font-hinting. Wine and virtual machines just didn’t cut it from some of my essential tools and games. I didn’t consider dual-booting as a solution as it was impractical to maintain two separate systems and requiring a restart to switch between them

Eventually, which now seems ages ago, I conceded and returned to Windows 7, a world of strong hardware support and masterful backwards compatibility. As a Linux user, I watched in envy when my peers using Redmond’s software working out-of-the-box, a plethora of software available that I dearly missed and had a sense of denial.

I’m certain that I’m not the only one who went through this phase, akin to ditching a sect. The open-source operating system did expose us to unlimited possibilities and paradigms that no other platform could provide. If you want to soothe some of this recent nostalgia, this guide will help you make Windows a home that has some of the opulence that Linux provided. These pieces of software and tools will bring back many of the features that you loved from your previous religion.

My seven year old machine isn’t ready for retirement.

AtlasOS, Win11Debloat

Yes, I know you love your precious 7-row keyboard on the ancient ThinkPad. But let’s face it, you only have 4 GB of RAM to work with.

This seven year old Dell netbook runs the fantastic Arch-based EndeavourOS like a hummingbird.

Microsoft actually recommends 16 GB of RAM for Copilot, when just the predecessor version 10 only needed 4 GB. However, your Linux desktop can easily thrive on a measly one gigabyte. I can’t make the promise that it’s actually possible to make Windows just as lean, but there are ways to make it much less thirsty.

While officially Windows is only a single-party state with only one true distribution, there are concoctions that can actually be called distros. This is where I really have to plug AtlasOS, which proudly gives the finger to Microsoft and trims out a huge amount of bloat without sacrificing compatibility. Watch your RAM consumption be cut in half and gaming free of stuttering. The CPU can actually calm down a bit because there’s no more mysterious services eating resources. The system will just feel so much more peppy and actually compete with Microsoft’s magnum opus, version 7 or maybe a heavier desktop environment like KDE.

Notice how much less resources that AtlasOS uses compared to a fresh Windows 11 install.

Unlike other similar recipes like ReviOS and Tiny11, AtlasOS doesn’t require you to download a shady ISO that instills doubts about the system’s true integrity. Instead, it has essentially become a series of scripts that will nicely clean things up and as a bonus, including a whole bunch more of them that you can run post-install for even more tuning. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use an existing installation and instead require you to redeploy from scratch. If you’re really brave, you can even disable Windows Defender which uses more resources than the cryptojacking software that it’s trying to protect you from.

Another shout-out, Win11Debloat will give you very fine grained control on doing much of what Atlas does to your existing Windows install. However, I consider this one for experienced users only, as it can do so much debloating that many apps won’t run anymore and break virtualization.

Pretend I never said this, but you can find OEM Windows ISOs and activation scripts on GitHub, through the MAS project. Just so I don’t find the SWAT team barging through my door, I’m supposed to say to only use your genuine license and report any piracy to your local authorities. Don’t copy that floppy!

I thought that advertising and telemetry were malware.

AtlasOS, ShutUp10++, Win11Debloat

I’m dating myself with my memories of BonziBuddy, the pioneer of spying and adware. Anti-malware packages were very quick to identify it as a threat to your system because of the unwelcome ads and running in the background sending each click to some shady data broker. The classic SpyBot - Search & Destroy was convinced that this supposed desktop assistant was a menace to your system. Many other pieces of software snuck in irritating full-screen advertisements such as μTorrent, a well-loved and lightweight file-sharing client, starting to plaster them straight into their UI. Antimalware organizations were quick to beg you to just get these travesties off your system.

However, when Microsoft decided to pull off the same tricks, they gave themselves a free pass to legitimize what was considered malicious back then. This is another plug for AtlasOS, which reliably prunes Windows from all the telemetry and advertisements. Microsoft was really convinced that AI was the future, and constantly reminded you that you just can’t live with Copilot. That is in addition to all the data-collecting, dare I say hoarding, that makes even the CIA green with envy, happening behind the scenes.

Now, if you really don’t want to start over again, O&O, well known in the past for their disk defragmentation utilities, made a tool aptly named ShutUp10++ to silence the constant onslaught of unwarranted ads and make sure that Microsoft doesn’t know about your secret porn habits. Again, Win11Debloat is just as apt at doing this but doesn’t have the nice easy-to-use UI that ShutUp10++ does.

ShutUp10++ has a nifty UI with a swath of options. Screenshot courtesy of O&O Software.

Package managers are the true setup wizards.

WinGet, Chocolatey, Ninite

Developers have made Windows synonymous with installation wizards, which encouraged users to just blindly click next over and over again until the software was installed. However, it resulted in a system that was just a jumbled mess (and maybe even performance hogging toolbars), with installation, uninstalls and updates done in completely different ways for each unique piece of software. It is only recently that more popular offerings started including an auto-update tool but I consider it lipstick on a pig, since it still uses these wizards silently. And there isn’t a way to run them all at once, it’s a one-by-one deal.

Using Ubuntu for the first time, I was blown away by apt-get and how deeply integrated to the system it was. Everything running on my PC was constantly kept up-to-date and software was just a click, or a terminal command away. I have fond memories of Synaptic Package Manager with thousands of packages to explore. Many credit Apple for introducing the concept of a centralized app store, but Linux distros had something just as convenient decades before iOS even existed.

Synaptic Package Manager running on MX Linux, a lightweight and quite popular distribution.

Now, these are more recent additions to the Windows ecosystem. But I can name WinGet and Chocolatey as convenient ways to get software cleanly installed on your system. WinGet is the newest one and has Microsoft’s blessing since they developed it themselves. However, Chocolatey has so much more packages to choose from and a bigger community. It doesn’t hurt to combine them but some consider it travesty to manage software with multiple tools. However, I consider this hypocrisy because Flatpak for example, is completely separate from the package manager on Linux systems and it is quite popular and even successful with Torvalds blessing.

Ninite is a must for many who are just getting their new install of Windows up and running. The selection of software is limited to only very popular offerings and uses wizards in the background, though thankfully prevents from bundled adware becoming present on your system. One nice feature is that running the Ninite installer again will automatically update all the software you installed with it.

Explorer can’t actually explore.

Total Commander, WinSCP, FileZilla, Start11, Classic Shell, Flow Launcher, Everything

Both Windows and macOS are guilty of including the worst file managers in existence, exaggeratedly so. You’ll have to find out what FTFF means, but Windows Explorer needs just as much work. In contrast, KDE’s Dolphin was incredibly powerful and even lightweights like Thunar were still capable with many plugins.

Total Commander brings the power of dual-pane file management to Windows, along with built-in archiving and extraction tools, and even the ability to connect to remote file servers. WinSCP does the same, but for file handling through SSH along with FileZilla.

You’d expect something as bloated as the Windows Indexer to provide some extremely powerful search features to your desktop. However, whether a file exists or not on your system will not guarantee that Explorer’s search will find it. This is where Everything comes in, which can reliably find any file on your system. Behind the scenes, it is an indexer, but it’s so lightweight that it seems magical that it’s actually able to scour your entire system with such ease.

Flow Launcher doing its thing.

The Start Menu is part of one of Explorer’s travesties but thankfully there are so many replacements. Stardock’s Start11 will bring back the familiar of the start menu that was so well done on Windows Vista and 7. Classic Shell is much more popular and comes with the wonderful price of zero with so much more customizability. The lesser well known StartAllBack has a different focus but it’s commercial just like Start11.

I’m surprised that it’s not very well known, but Flow Launcher brings a neat Spotlight-like search experience to Windows; a minimalistic search bar in the middle of your screen with convenient keyboard shortcuts. What makes Flow Launcher so powerful however is the huge multitude of plugins available for it. If I had to make you salivate, you’d be glad to know that there is an Everything plugin available.

Floating window managers are for the weak. Real men tile.

GlazeWM, Divvy, Groupy

Microsoft tends to be very unoriginal when naming products. So of course, the floating windows on your screen were just that: Windows. The Xerox Alto, the first notable GUI computer from the seventies, takes credit for being the originators of that paradigm, which as a reminder, let you scatter your applications anywhere on your screen comfortably overlapping each other. Ironically, Windows 1.0 that Steve Ballmer so proudly tried to sell was actually using tiling before Windows 95 made floating windows their staple. For the uninitiated, tiling window managers separate your application into neat sections on your screen, never overlapping each other and you have no choice but to do that.

One of the most powerful Linux features is the ability to change how your desktop worked, with the so-called desktop environments and window managers. Tiling window managers were born quite early on graphical Unix systems in general hosting tile-based window management. It’s a bit difficult to understand and use initially, but it’s hard to go back once you master their capabilities. There was this excellent video demo on xmonad that really attracted me to the concept but most people fell in love with i3. Mainly because it was so much more flexible with on-the-fly tiling layouts. In classic Linux fashion, multiple desktops were so seamless. And yes I know that Windows and macOS technically have multiple desktop support, but all I can is nice try.

Don Stewart shows off xmonad, a popular tiling window manager that he wrote entirely in Haskell

The excellent i3 window manager showcased in a VM running Arch Linux. (This is a really old screenshot, so don’t be surprised if the kernel version is from the stone ages).

Amethyst and bug.n were benevolent in their intention, but were just admirable tries to get tiling to work on Windows. They just had such a kludge that it didn’t instill confidence and felt more like hacks rather than actual tools.

Out-of-nowhere in 2023, GlazeWM came to the scene promising i3-style window management to Windows. And what made it so different is that it actually worked very reliably and really fooled you into thinking that you had native support for tiling on Windows. It even inherited i3’s keyboard shortcuts and intuitive configuration format and comes with a status bar reminiscent of i3bar called Zebar. It was very recently rewritten in Rust and really has set a benchmark when it comes to stability. The icing on the cake is the ability to drag-and-drop windows with your mouse and keep them within tiles.

Some other tools worth mentioning are Divvy, which also provides tiling, but in a completely manual fashion and Groupy bringing tabbed windows similar to modern web browsers for all applications.

I can’t help but script everything.

AutoHotkey, NirCmd, PowerShell

What Linux brought to my prominence is the power of scripting. The ability to automate repetitive tasks with little scripts but it wasn’t limited to only command line applications. Virtually all desktop features could be controlled with these scripts and that was a real sore spot when moving back to Windows.

AutoHotkey is so powerful that it has become a classic. From mapping simple tasks to global keyboard shortcuts to filling complex forms automatically. The syntax is a bit convoluted but still easy to understand. It is a must for anyone that want to supercharge their Windows desktop with its surprisingly deep integration with the Windows ecosystem.

NirSoft has a few tools to make a few tasks usable from the command line, notably NirCmd.

While you can use Windows Batch, bash and Python to write your scripts, I’m going to controversially say that the strongest scripting language is PowerShell. The Unix philosophy recommends using text for input and output of commands and treating everything as a file. However, the pain comes from actually parsing input and output and ends up making an unmaintainable mess. Maybe in the 70s when computers were doing simple tasks, this was the way to go, but computers have become so much more powerful. PowerShell basically throws the idea of using text as a way of communication through objects and APIs. Having well defined data structures means that parsing is obsolete and PowerShell scripts are a strong upgrade from interpreted shells to something as powerful as a typed programming language.

At this point, PowerShell can be used to configured almost every aspect of system administration though I doubt we’ll ever have a headless way of running Windows server. Linux and other Unix derivatives are still the champions when it comes to servers, web or otherwise.

I look cooler than everyone else using the terminal.

Windows Subsystem for Linux, ConEmu, PuTTY

This is something that Linux just does magically, which is its powerful command line utilities that can do even the most complex tasks. Whether you want to search for files, convert video formats or merge documents, it was all possible.

In the past, there were only really kludgy solutions. Cygwin and MinGW were pretty good attempts, but were a pain to install, and everything had to be compiled for them. That means that only simple tools like GNU utilities were available. I couldn’t find powerhouses like ImageMagick. Git Bash was quite popular but honestly didn’t cut it for me. As a result, my solution was even more convoluted. I had a virtual machine running a lightweight Linux distro and had to painfully transfer files back and forth between my host system and Linux guest. And no, shared folders don’t count as a solution because the probability of them working were the same as winning the lottery. And I’d think you’d be insane to suggest dual-booting as a solution.

At the dawn of Windows 10, Microsoft came up with a solution that would actually steal some users from the Linux fanbase. Windows Subsystem for Linux allowed to not only run a complete Linux distro that was perfectly integrated with your Windows install and files, but was binary compatible with ELF. This means that I could bring in everything that I loved using APT and manipulate files that were directly on my Windows partition. In typical Microsoft fashion, the name makes it hard to understand what WSL is supposed to imply.

Of course, Microsoft didn’t pair the very convenient Windows Subsystem for Linux with a nice terminal and was still stuck with the ancient cmd.exe (Command Prompt). Yes, I know there’s a Terminal app by Microsoft themselves now, but that doesn’t cut it either. It only just looks a bit prettier.

ConEmu brings some very powerful terminal features to Windows with all the bells and whistles you’d except from a fancy emulator. A showcase of WSL running on Windows doing typical Linux things.

ConEmu was salvation for me bringing an extremely powerful terminal emulator into my arsenal. It made switching between shells like Windows Batch, PowerShell and WSL a breeze. The most brilliant part is not that only support tabs, but also tiling. The icing on the cake however is the ability to be able to start a terminal within the context menu of the Explorer file manager and bring straight into that directory. Just like most desktop environments on Linux. It’s really hard to expand on this because I’m still trying to navigate my way around ConEmu; I’ll grudgingly admit that configuring it is a bit of a pain.

I can’t leave without mentioning the legendary PuTTY, an everything including the kitchen sink client that brought SSH on Windows way before anyone else.

I’m a ricing ambassador. Pimp my desktop.

Rainmeter, Windhawk, /r/desktops, DeviantArt

Alright, so I frequent the /r/unixporn subreddit quite often, and can’t help but feel jealousy, nay envy when I see these stunning desktop screenshots. I’m so jealous in fact that I’d threw a slur into the customization concept calling it ricing. This is just something that is impossible to replicate on Windows, so these suggestions are just a best attempt, and will admittedly only get you a part of the way there.

Rainmeter brings gadgets to your Windows desktop mainly with monitors of your system vitals like CPU usage and network activity but also custom UI, shortcuts and all sorts of widgets. The best part? It’s just as complicated to setup as your favourite Linux desktop environment with scattered .ini files and a bunch of plugins wrapped in .dll libraries. This will keep you very busy as you get everything just right and have all the pixels align as beautifully as the stars. I personally see it as conky on steroids but it’s so much more bringing a sense of life to your desktop. See the community showcase for what creative people have been able to make.

A really well pimped-up Windows desktop with Rainmeter and a few other UI tweaks. Image courtesy of an XDA blogger.

With Windows 11, Microsoft really nerfed UI customization to the point that the taskbar has become fixed to the bottom of the screen. A staple that started with Windows 95 was gone. The start menu layout wasn’t yours anymore and the only colour schemes are light and dark. Even macOS lets you customize the accent colour of your UI. This is where Windhawk comes in, a utility that brings an endless series of plugins to really tune your UI to your liking. From adjusting the size and spacing of the taskbar icons to restoring the login and logout sounds. I can’t say that this will bring a personal touch to your system, but it will allow to adjust and remove many of the idiosyncrasies that Windows, especially version 11, has brought to life.

There’s a few tools that will allow you to do some more visual customization but none of the really cut it. I’m mentioning them for completeness. Such as WindowsBlinds and various tools and themes that can be found on DeviantArt, notably the deviant niivu. For inspiration, I totally recommend taking a look at what some of the artists have been able to do at /r/desktops.

Conclusion.

Hyprland is a reminder for me of how beautiful a desktop could look. In my opinion, probably the most attractive window manager currently available on Linux. Video courtesy of the Hyprland official website.

In this post, I’ll admit that I really shat on Linux, and had much of sarcastic tone, but in the real world, there’s some software that I just can’t live without and things like Wine and VMs didn’t heal my melancholic longing. However, with Linux, even the sky wasn’t the limit and still run Linux in VMs just to catch up on what I’ve been missing. For example, the nascent Hyprland animated tiling WM seen above was a stark reminder of how beautiful a computer desktop could look like. Linux is like that unruly son of yours, so annoying, but you’d kill anyone who’d try to take him away from you.

The Oatmeal brilliantly explains how to fix a Linux computer.

I know some people will resent me a little, and probably get a bit defensive. And the war is still on. For those who might think that I was a n00b who gave up too quickly, I was running the platform full-time for several years and have a Debian server under my couch. While the official statistics hang around 1% of market share, I believe that within the tech community this number is much higher. Windows and macOS are not heaven either but feel like the least worst choice. Keep this in mind, even Torvalds thinks that Linux desktop still sucks. And Brian Lunduke, famed for previously hosting the Linux Action Show podcast and a passionate Linux ambassador, pokes fun at this every year.

Unfortunately, in the real world, there’s just things that don’t work. It’s been so many years that I’ve left and the honeymoon phase is nothing but a distant memory. When I first tried an Ubuntu 8.10 live CD when I was a teenager, I was just so impressed with how flexible everything was. Back then, I had so much free time, and would gladly spend an entire weekend tweaking the font-hinting to look just right. For the past few years now, my computer has just become a tool to get my job done, and the question of operating system choice boils down to pragmatism.

TopRoms Enters A New Generation

December has been a crazy month for me as I painstakingly undertook probably the most ambitious project for TopRoms yet. I know you’ve been secretly dying to see this addition to your beloved collection and I’d like to announce this massive edition of TopRoms. A set of games from a generation that brought forward some of the most definite classics in gaming history. An era that put four gaming titans in an arena for the fight of taking over your living rooms and no matter what team you chose, you had hardware with a lineup of absolutely excellent software.

Enough beating around the bush, take a deep breath!

Introducing the sixth generation of consoles! A carefully curated set of must-haves for Sega Dreamcast, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox are now part of the collection bringing these unforgettable titles on the screens of your choosing. All of the files have been converted to formats not only with reduced space usage but also compatible with emulators out of the box. This has come, of course, with quite the size penalty, expanding TopRoms by about 1.2 TB.

If you can’t contain your excitement, the torrent is ready to go right here. As usual, use your torrent client to select what consoles you’d like to download. In some clients, you will be able to see the size of each of the sets. This time, the files are being hosted on a dedicated seedbox rather than my home server meaning much improved download speeds and reliability.

🕹️ Click Here To Download Collection

While you wait for this extremely lengthy download to finish, you can find out about the changes and additions to TopRoms.

Sixth-Generation Consoles

  • The Dreamcast was technically a commercial failure after customers lost trust in Sega due to their disastrous launch of the Saturn and the embarrassing attempt to put the Genesis on life support with the 32X. However, retrospectively, the console did have a sizeable amount of unforgettable and innovative classics and now it’s considered Sega’s final swansong before exiting the hardware business in 2001. The platform was home to many definitive arcade ports, unique exclusives and was the birthplace of timepieces that would have sequels on other systems. Games are provided in CHD format which is compatible with the excellent Flycast emulator that is also available as a RetroArch core.

  • Nintendo didn’t disappoint with their GameCube bringing excellent first-party games to your living room in addition to many great third-party contributions. Many of the entrants have been considered the best of all time and are enjoyed still thoroughly today with many of them still played as part of esports and charity competitions. All games have been compressed with the RVZ format, which is native to Dolphin, an emulator that was impressive even in its infancy.

  • Of course, the sixth generation could not be forgotten without the extremely popular PlayStation 2, which ended in a solid lead in terms of hardware sales making it the best selling of all time at 160 million units. As a tradition of Sony, there is a swath of exclusive titles that only found a future on their subsequent consoles. Due to the very long life of the system, almost 5000 games were released, so narrowing them down was quite difficult. As a result, the PlayStation 2 is quite massive at more than 300 games and 650 GB of space. The images are in CHD format compatible with the PCSX2 emulator which provided mind-boggling compatibility, excellent performance and enhancement features like higher resolution and wide-screen hacks. A separate folder is included for sport games.

  • Last but not least, Microsoft’s entrant to the console world started with the Xbox, which took some time to become a hit. Being the most powerful of the four, it did bring graphics to the next generation though many of them didn’t take full advantage of the hardware because they were ports from other consoles or PC. Nonetheless, there were still quite a few titles only released for the system. In the end, the Xbox was more well known for being an excellent modding platform for turning it into a media centre and emulation machine. After 20 years, there was great progress in the emulation scene, but performance and compatibility still remain to be desired. All the games have been converted to XISO format for compatibility with the xemu emulator with a separate folder for sport games. Xbox Live made online gaming and DLC mainstream in the console world and I’ve included disc images to install them. You can also find the appropriate BIOS files in the “BIOS - Standalone” folder.

Arcade Systems

  • I made an embarrassing mistake in the 2023 edition of TopRoms. I wanted to ensure that all games would run and in order to do that, they would need dependencies to work. I mistakenly used the 'merged' collection which intuitively would be the right set but it is actually the 'non-merged' version. The archives have been migrated to 'non-merged' and should solve issues with games not starting. Now compatible with MAME 0.272.

  • Also, the set relied on some games that were disc-based and I didn't include the appropriate CHD files which are now there in a separate folder.

New Additions

  • Just like with the Super Famicom addition last year, a set of fan-translated Japanese RPGs for the original Famicom have been integrated into the collection. Many of them are unknown to the Western world though I bet many of them are fondly remembered in the East. They are in a separate folder for convenience.

  • There was a collection of games that were released in the early life of the Nintendo Famicom only in Japan. While not very ambitious, they were highly memorable and quite fun. Some might not want to include them so they are collected in a separate folder. Ironically, these were made famous in the West in pirate multi-carts and terrible clone consoles sold at some malls.

  • A well-remembered micro-computer in Europe, the ZX Spectrum, was strangely omitted during my compilation of TopRoms. Some of those unforgettable classics have been included now. The images have been stored in TZX format for compatibility with the FUSE emulator which comes as a libretro core in RetroArch.

  • The Philips CD-I is now part of TopRoms as well. This is a controversial inclusion as some of the Nintendo franchises have been massacred into awful cartoon animations. However, some of these games are actually acceptable once you put the Nintendo IP aside and skip the cutscenes. When using the SAME CD-I emulator, you will see a blank cyan screen at first. It isn't broken, you must wait about a minute for the CD-I inferface to show up and then you can select Play to run the game. You can speed this up by using the fast-forward feature in RetroArch.

Fixes

  • Jaguar CD games can be hard to run especially in the normally used ISO or CHD formats. The well-developed BigPEmu emulator has its own format for disc-based games. These images have been converted to the BigPImg format which works perfectly with that emulator.

  • Commodore Amiga games were included in the incorrect format for compatibility with emulators. They have been converted into the LHA format. The emulator PUAE which is available in RetroArch works perfectly with them.

  • I neglected to test Commodore 64 games in the previous release extensively. Tape images are now in the TAP format which is compatible with the VICE emulator available as a RetroArch core.

So that’s it for TopRoms. Please email me at toproms@cdahmedeh.net if you have any questions or issues with the download. I’ll continue working to improve and polish TopRoms this year and release incremental updates. Late holiday greetings for all!

TopRoms 2023 Edition - A Collection Full of Surprises

I know many of you have been waiting for this but the time has finally come for a new TopRoms release. I was hoping to release something like this earlier, but some of may know that life happened. However, we can put that aside for now and announce this exciting edition.

What's New:

- A Super Famicom collection for some of the most amazing Japanese RPGs patched and translated into English by fans. I got so many requests for Final Fantasy V, so obviously, it's in there!

- Homebrew games for the NES. It's amazing how there are still some fan developers who make games for a thirty-plus year old console. I only included freely available homebrew games since many of them are still for sale.

- The addition of some of the best sport games ever released both franchise and non-franchise titles. For the NES, Genesis (in its own folder) and PlayStation (in its own folder too).

- A sprinkling of some additions of more great games for various systems. Things that have been suggested by you and others that I've discovered.

What's Fixed:

- Moving the MAME collection from split to merged so that all games have their dependencies included in the ROM archive. Some games wouldn't start without them and it's really hard to tell what game needs what, especially with how big the MAME collection is.

I got many emails about people showing me how they use the collection such as turning the Steam Deck or Switch into a mean emulation machine, filling their dedicated emulation handhelds, or to populate their HTPC with awesome games. I personally use the collection on my smartphone and my HTPC.

One thing to keep in mind is that the only emulator I test TopRoms with is RetroArch. If you have issues with other emulators, let me know and I’ll look into it.

The torrent can be downloaded below or on the TopRoms page. Remember, you can point your torrent client to the existing TopRoms Collections folder and it will only download the changes. Please seed the collection since the initial upload is only on my local server.

TopRoms - 2023 Edition Torrent Download

Keep those emails with requests coming and I'll do my best to make TopRoms even better. Let me know about any issues you encounter downloading or using TopRoms! Send to toproms@cdahmedeh.net

I hope you enjoy this new release!

LAN Party Games that Run on a Potato and Any Platform

When I picture a typical land party, I imagine a bunch of passionate geek gamers bringing in their massive desktop weapons or laptop desktop replacements. Machines with powerful GPUs enough to run NASA spacecraft and cost as much as one.

An AI-generated image of a LAN Party on the Highway

However, what if your peers only have modest machines with an integrated GPU? Essentially, a 'normal' laptop. Imagine hosting a party with those, no one will be able to run these modern demanding games and no one will be enjoying the slideshow and crashes in their games.

So I'm including here a bunch of games that can run on a potato but still provide a fun experience without the need of a 20-pound computer. Of course, no one is going to be wowed by the presentation, but fun will ensue anyways.

I came up with a few arbitrary criteria that these games should have. First, the game must be less than 25$ CAD and easy to procure online. It must run on my mule netbook Latitude 3190 that only has an Intel UHD Graphics 600 as the iGPU reasonably well and be playable. Also, it needs to run on Windows, macOS and Linux either natively or via some compatibility layer like Wine or Proton.

Finally, I won't try to make the list exhaustive, however, I do want to try and make some variety with some genres. Not every party game needs to be a first person shooter. One more rule is that I will only include one game per genre. But, I will leave a list of games that are similar without description.

Quake Live - First Person Shooter

Classic FPS arena shooters games I find to be an enjoyable because of how easy and accessible they are. No fiddly mechanics or complicated rules. However, it still comes with a ton of customization options and almost a hundred maps. Several games modes like Free-for-All and Capture-The-Flag will keep the replayability high. A game that will easily take over even the longest marathon LAN parties.

It is available on Steam for 10.99$ CAD and I've been able to run it even on my backup 10 year old desktop that runs Linux through Valve's Proton.

Similar Games: Counter-Strike, Xonotic, Cube 2: Sauerbraten, Red Eclipse, Warsow, World of Padman, Urban Terror, Halo CE

Live for Speed - Racing Simulator

I've never been to a session where people were playing racing games, apparently the genre isn't popular with the typical comic-book geek. However, they provide a very difficult challenge of keeping a car on the road and for some hilarity on turn one T1 where everything goes wrong.

Live for Speed has been in development for over 20 years and the developer has maintained its modest graphical style so it runs even on lower-spec systems Scawen even tests that his game runs on Wine.

While it works pretty well with a mouse and keyboard, a gamepad is recommended for more precise control.

LFS comes free as demo version which includes, in my opinion, the best track in the game, Blackwood, and two very well-balanced road cars. The full game is a bit expensive at ₤36 but I'm including it here because the demo has enough content to keep the fun going for hours.

Similar Games: Speed Dreams, rFactor 1

0 A.D. - Real-Time Strategy

I know almost nothing about Real-Time Strategy games because I have no idea how to play them. However, I know that they are extremely popular, especially in Asia. Player of these types of games are extremely competitive and parties all over the world are hosted just to fight for the win.

Unfortunately, I don't play RTS games but I totally understand the appeal so my experience is a bit shallow and heavily relied on research to find some of the best games.

0 A.D. is completely open-source and free, and runs on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS and Linux. Amazingly, it is still being developed to this day.

Similar Games: Warzone 2100, League of Legends, Dota 2, StarCraft, Age of Empires 2, Brood War

Tabletop Simulator - Board Games

Board games can be a fun way to spend some quality time with friends but you need the actual set. Also, you can't play with people across the world. This is where Tabletop Simulator comes in, a physics sandbox designed to emulate board games.

The game has so much expandability with a massive repository on Steam's Workshop so you'll be hard pressed to not find a board game that you and your friends will like. Remember, however, it is up to you to implement the rules and TTS doesn't have an engine that keeps track of the rules. So that means, you can flip the board out of anger with no consequence.

Tabletop Simulator sells at 21.99$ CAD on Steam but you can buy four copies for 66.49$ CAD. It runs natively on all three major platforms.

Similar Games: Zillion of Games 2

Garry's Mod - Physics Sandbox

What happens when you take a masterpiece game like Half-Life and remove all the rules and story from it. You end up with an incredibly entertaining sandbox where you can do whatever you want.

This is the kind of game where you create your own fun whether you want to blow things up, make a Rube Goldberg machine or set fire to wooden structures. Of course, it comes with full Steam Workshop support where you can find thousands of props, maps and weapons limiting things to only your imagination.

Garry's Mod is available on Steam for 10.99$ though I also recommend getting Counter-Strike Source along with it because some of the props and addons need them. It runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux.

Similar Games: Minecraft

open.mp (GTA: San Andreas) - Open-World

Grant Theft Auto, for those who lived under a rock, is a open-world game that combines multiple elements from different genres such as FPS, beat-em-up and driving. Essentially, you're a criminal that is yielded weapons and have the ability to steal cars and drive. Most people play in a sandbox mode where they do whatever they want such as wrecking havoc in the city while there is also a story mode which follows an action-adventure style playing essentially as a criminal.

While GTA V is one most of the popular multiplayer games according to the Steam statistics, it still needs a pretty decent machine to run. However, GTA multiplayer experiences did exist before for San Andreas with the SA:MP mod. The mod was left stagnant eventually but fortunately a group of open-source developers came up with open.mp as a drop-in replacement to continue these tantalizing multiplayer experiences.

Unfortunately, San Andreas isn't available through the normal means anymore so you either need to buy a physical copy off eBay or get it through other means. It runs well under Wine on macOS and Linux. In fact, the game is so modest in it's requirements that there are versions for mobile.

Alternatives: Midtown Madness 2

RetroArch Netplay - Classic Games

For your classic gaming fix, you can still enjoy an amazing multiplayer experience with friends. And since emulators run classic systems, you don't have to worry about performance. There's a huge selection of great games for various consoles. I'm plugging in my TopRoms Collection to get you started.

RetroArch and other emulators like Dolphin have made it extremely easy to set up Netplay, a multiplayer program for emulators, as easy as picking a room from a lobby interface just like many other multiplayer games. This used to be incredibly complicated but now its headache free.

The emulator is available here for free and it's fully open-source. Not only does it run on Windows, macOS and Linux but also mobile platforms like Android and dozens of other systems.

Armagetron Advanced - Snake Game

What happens when you take Tron and turn into a fast-paced arcade snake game? You get Armagetron Advanced, where you play in a 3D arena driving futuristic bicycles leave a trail of walls behind you. Try to trap your opponents into them and don't crash into yours or that of others.

There's not much to say about the game due to its simplicity. It comes with excellent netcode so it will run even on poor networks. The game is open-source and free, running on all three major platforms.

OpenRCT2 - Tycoon

This is a game that has a special place in my heart mostly due to the nostalgia factor. However, building a theme park is quite an enjoyable experience for me. There are so many types of props that you can make your park as fanciful or simple as you want.

OpenRCT2 is a reimplementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 with multi-platform support, increased stability and a neat multiplayer feature.

In order to run OpenRCT2, you need a copy of the original game that you can get from Steam for 10.99$ or DRM-free from GOG for 8.13$. Of course, it runs on all three major platforms.

Alternatives: OpenTTD

YSFlight - Flight and Combat Simulator

Flight simulators are typically games that need a ton of horsepower to run due to their amazing graphics and complex and realistic gameplay. However, one developer, Soji Yamakawa, in the very late 90s, thought that there should be something more accessible.

Enter YSFlight, a combat flight simulator that has very simple graphics and sound but still provides the same kind of fun of flying in the air in addition to its combat mechanics. Setup is minimal, simply requiring you to pick your plane and map, and you’re good to go. It will also recognize your joystick quite quickly too!

YSFlight is available for all three major platforms and has been recently open-sourced. You can get many addons from here.

Alternatives: FlightGear, IL-2, Falcon

OpenLieroX - Artillery

Imagine the Worms game, but in real-time. This is what you get, OpenLieroX. It is based on the original Liero game but with a ton of extra maps and weapons.

Dig your way through a sand trap or use your weapons to make a big opening with a bomb explosion. Frag the other players in the free-for-all mode or play in teams. It is fun that will last for a really long time.

OpenLieroX is open-source and free, running on all three major platforms.

Alternatives: Teeworlds, Warmux, Worms Series

tetr.io - Falling Puzzle Game

I still have memories of the flash game Tetris Friends, an official version of the game with multiplayer support and a ton of single-player challenges. The controls were very solid generating some very exhilarating and exciting gameplay. Unfortunately, a few years ago, it was shut down.

The spiritual resurrection came out a few years ago as tetr.io bringing back essentially most of the gameplay of the defunct Tetris Friends. The presentation is excellent with your choice of relaxing or intense music and so much customization. It features excellent single player modes that keep track of your progress while also allowing you playing the game with other people on the Internet. The dynamics follow the official Tetris guidelines.

Tetr.io runs on the browser though there is a desktop version that again, runs on all major platforms.

Alternative: A List of a ton of Tetris Clones

Conclusion

So there you have it, a list of games to consider for your next friendly LAN party. However, since these games are not demanding, your party room won't turn into a sauna and people can bring in their regular laptops with the platform of their choice.

I tested all the games on my mule that I mentioned earlier. It runs a derivative of Arch Linux and was able to play all the games on it pretty smoothly. On my actually daily driver, which still has an integrated GPU, it doesn't break a sweat.

I hope you enjoyed this list and inspired you to run your own casual people friendly LAN party! If you have some suggestions of your own, feel free to leave a comment below and share with the community!

Sonic Origins Plus - A 'Dreamview' - What Could Have Been

We've all seen reviews of Sonic Origins stating that it was a mediocre disappointment. The Plus expansion was supposed to address our concerns but many of us are still unhappy.

Sonic Origins was supposed to be definitive version of the classic series but Sega clearly didn't put enough passion to make it one. Rather than get angry and emotional, I present what could have been added to Origins to make it the ultimate rendition of the masterpieces we loved so much.

This isn't another review, but rather a 'dreamview'. An re-imagination of what could have been and see a product that would leave us with goosebumps rather than a lump in our throats.

Before I get on with my daydream, I just want to briefly say again that playing Sonic Origins felt like a chore rather than a nostalgic marathon through some of my favourite games. You'll see many of us loyal Sonic fans online have been left with mixed feelings as well.

Salvage the Music

MJ Sound Team Cues

It has become fact that Michael Jackson and his collaborative associates have been involved in some way in the Sonic 3 soundtrack. His signature style was present in some of the music found in the game and it has been confirmed what tracks have been his. Namely, Carnival Night Zone, Ice Cap Zone and Launch Base Zone among some other iconic tracks.

A remastered rendition of LBZ1 according to MJ and his team.

Since MJ's death in 2009, there was an odd coincidence that Sonic 3 & Knuckles was never rereleased anymore unlike the previous games that got tons of rereleases in various compilation collections. It's suspected that there's a legal mess that has yet to transpire concerning the inclusion of his team's music in Sonic 3, and that for every new release of S3&K, Jackson would greenlight the project.

This was not possible anymore and Sonic Origins erased all evidence of the collaboration with some hard to listen sounds.

In a parallel universe, the legal battle would never have happened and Sega would have managed to sort out some licensing solution.

Apparently, 41 cues were composed by the team ready to be transformed into FM goodness. About ten of them did make it into the game but imagine if all of them were produced for the Genesis. It would certainly generate a very distinctive OST and likely something extremely memorable.

Having a choice between "Sonic Team OST" and "MJ Team OST" like the dual-track selection in Sonic CD would have surely been very exciting and hearing the before unheard cues would be incredible.

The Prototype Tracks

Of course, in the real world, this secret legal battle clearly hasn't ended and replacements were in line for Origins.

I didn't worry too much because we already had heard the original pre-MJ tunes in a prototype version from November 1993 a few years ago. Turns out, they were excellent compositions that had the energy and punchiness of the rest of the OSV and just as memorable.

Including these tracks would have been a great compromise for Sonic 3 and kept most fans quiet. Marketing at Sega confirmed that not all the sounds from the original release would make into Origins so these tracks were theorized to be the replacements.

We were even promised that Jun Senoue would do so-called FM makeovers of these tracks and they had all the tools to make them even more memorable than ever. However, when the replacements were leaked, some of us started to bleed from our ears.

CNZ Act 1 as butchered in Sonic Origins

CNZ Act 1 as it sounded in the November 1993 Prototype. Compare with the Origins Version.

What we got instead was recordings from probably an even probably older prototype than the one that Hidden Palace uncovered that sound bland and unfinished. Ironically, one of the first mods released for Origins was getting the music replaced. Too bad you can only mod the PC version.

As much as I love some of Jun Senoue's work, especially in Sonic 3D Blast, I don't think he should be allowed near a Yamaha YM2612 FM synthesizer anymore.

Alternatives for Sonic 3

Many Sonic lovers knew about this little conundrum and were ready to provide alternatives. What they produced were excellent and although we'd miss the originals, these reinterpretations would have made us quite happy.

Woofle, Bouncy Glow and Mastered Realm on YouTube all made some amazing renditions that I would secretly like to think Sega knew about but never considered including.

Sonic CD US Past Versions

By default, Sonic Origins uses the US soundtrack for Sonic CD. Although I'm in the minority who prefers the US OST, I still believe that the Japanese version was still quite the banger and should have been the default.

An odd thing in the US version of the Sonic CD OST was that the "past" theme melodies sounded nothing like the ones in the "Present", "Bad Future" and "Good Future" renditions. In fact, they were the same as the Japanese versions and were better suited for them.

I suspect the breakneck speed at which the US OST was developed, they never had time to do "Past" themes because of the holiday due date and the complexity of making them in Sega CD's native sound hardware. However, Spencer stated in an interview that the actual reason was political.

This would have been a great opportunity to bring Spencer Nilsen back and have him complete the circle. Such an idea, however, is something that Sega probably never even considered. Fortunately, one fan had the imagination to create "Past" renditions that would make Nilson proud.

A YouTuber by the name of King Meteor produced some hypothetical US versions of the past themes.

Bring Back the Lost Levels

Dust Hill as Presented in a Magazine

Magazine reviews and screenshots along with hearsay and speculation have revealed that many zone ideas were never implemented. It lit up the imagination of many gamers of what these lost levels would have been like.

Sonic 2 was one game were many zones were scrapped since the game was originally supposed to be a bit longer. Zones like Dust Hill, Genocide City, Hidden Palace and Wood Zone were the best-known ones. Sonic CD had a level officially known as R2, which is also known as Relic Ruins.

Many ROM hacks have tried to bring these zones back and it fills the imagination that they could have been in the original releases in the nineties. Luckily, Christian Whitehead brought back Hidden Palace Zone in his Sonic 2 release and the Dust Hill concept made it into Sonic Mania as Mirage Saloon.

Implement a Proper Save System

This is the biggest pain point in Sonic Origins, in my opinion, and has seen solutions in not only fan game interpretations of Sonic but even Sonic Team official releases.

Just a little background for those who haven't thrown some of their money into the trash, Sonic Origins has essentially only one save slot for the Anniversary mode. If you want to have more, you need to pick a different character. In other words, you get ONE save slot per character and that's it. There is technically a 'level select' mode after finishing the game as a time attack feature.

Sonic 3’s Excellent Save System

Even the infinite lives system from Anniversary mode can't save the game’s way of tracking progress. The original Steam versions of the Sonic series had a solid save feature through emulation, but they pulled those out in favour of Sonic Origins. Clearly, Sega believed that Origins would be so good that these emulated renditions were not necessary anymore.

You'd expect that game that strings four massively long games would have a solid way of tracking your progress. It doesn't need to be complicated, just some freeform save slots that you could pick from and have the game insert your progress into there. It doesn't need to be more sophisticated than even Sonic 3. It would be even better if it adopted Whitehead's port of Sonic 1 and 2 that would allow you to replay the levels after finishing the game.

Add A Difficulty Setting

There's an ongoing debate whether lives are needed in games anymore as there are more and more casual gamers finding retro games difficult. Some argue however that lives are needed to force the player to take less risks and strategize more to beat the game.

However, I think that this whole debate is a matter of taste and what kind of gameplay style you enjoy. At the end of the day, the gamer should be the one picking the gameplay style.

Origins did exactly that, with one big caveat. Playing with lives, in their 'Classic' mode, made you lose the widescreen aspect ratio and the drop dash move. Essentially making the interpretation of these games useless since the whole point of Sonic Origins was to get the enhanced format for modern platforms with widescreen support and 60 fps gameplay.

At this point, you might as well play the game on original hardware or through an emulator.

Rings Added to Death Egg Zone in Sonic 2 Absolute

An earlier compilation for the Sega Saturn called Sonic Jam had an 'easy mode' which would strategically place rings in difficult sections of the game. The three rings in Death Egg in Sonic 2 made a huge difference in terms of how the final boss was played for example.

Bloodstained - Curse of the Moon, showed how the lives system could be implemented. You could either play in normal or casual modes and one would have a lives system and the other gained you infinite lives.

Instead of having a compromise between classic and anniversary modes, I believe that a difficulty setting would have been much more appropriate. Perhaps an easy mode would give you infinite lives and strategically placed rings, while a hard mode would limit you to lives and original level layouts.

Bring in New Characters and Abilities

It was very exciting news when we learned that Sonic Origins Plus would finally have Amy Rose as a playable character. Although her move set is a bit disappointing, it was refreshing to replay the classics with a new character for replayability and a new experience.

On the other hand, Sonic Mania brought also two new characters, Ray and Mighty played with a very unique style. Since Sonic Origins was made using the Retro Engine, it would have seemed to be a no-brainer to port into Origins, since they were already there in Sonic Mania, which also runs on the Retro Engine.

Sonic's Drop Dash move gave a completely new dimension to his gameplay and felt like a natural addition. Jumping into a spin dash makes it easy to cross hills and loops in addition to getting some attack power. I was pretty pleased to see it added into all 4 games in Origins ported from Mania.

But, Sonic had other moves that he did in subsequent games like the Homing Attack and Light Dash. Homing Attack would allow Sonic to be directed and thrown straight into an enemy while spinning. Light Dash would put Sonic in path where he would follow a row of rings in the air. Interestingly, these moves are present in a ROM hack Sonic 1 Megamix.

Conclusion

I still hold from my post last year about my anger from Origins that it's not the definite way to play these games. Sonic 1 Absolute, Sonic 2 Forever, Sonic CD Restored and Sonic 3 A.I.R. are still the way to play our favourites. In addition, they all have great modding capabilities which add a dimension of replayability and customization to these games that Sega will never be able to provide.

To leave on a good note though, I have to grindingly admit that Sonic Origins got one thing right. And that's presentation. The islands rendered in 3D along with the fantastic animated cartoons in between the games transitions and the butter smooth 60 fps widescreen gameplay. Sonic Origins isn't horrible, it's still a great way to play some of the most influential games ever. However, it could have been so much better.