TopRoms Collection
The TopRoms Collection is a curated collection of classic console games focusing on high-quality, notable and popular titles. Contrary to other sets, TopRoms does not aim to be an exhaustive package with every game ever released. Instead, games are hand-picked based on their gameplay quality, historical significance and popularity to find both notable releases and obscure gems.
TopRoms covers a large set of game consoles, handhelds, arcade machines and computers all the way up to the 6th generation. The set had a modest start in 2017 with just a few older systems but has grown massively to cover so much more of gaming history.
My main motive with TopRoms was to provide a more portable package for retro ROMs and one that was more convinient. One of the main issues was hunting for games through a massive list of thousands of entries and that a random pick would likely lead into mediocrity.
Downloads
TopRoms Collection - January 06, 2025 Torrent (1.57 TB)
TopRoms is distributed via torrent and you can find the files above. You can use your torrent client to select what sets for the systems you’d like to download. Currently, TopRoms currently sits 1.57 TB with almost 50 systems and nearly 4500 games but is considerably smaller at 201 GB if you exclude sixth-generation systems.
Systems
| System | Description | Recommended Emulator | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second Generation | 633 KB | ||
| Atari - 2600 | The first home console to successfully bring the arcade experience to the home. Was both the cause of the game console revolution but also the 1983 crash. | RetroArch - Stella | 205.4 KB |
| Coleco - ColecoVision | Another entry into the cartridge era of second-generation consoles but with more graphical capabilities. Was a solid competitor to the Atari 2600 but not as popular. | RetroArch - Gearcoleco | 189.6 KB |
| GCE - Vectrex | The only home console that had a built-in vector display reminiscent of some classic arcade games. Had a memorable game library but was soon forgotten after the video game crash of 1983. | RetroArch - vecx | 47.0 KB |
| Magnavox - Odyssey2 | An entrant into the second-generation console market and known as one of the greats. Just like the VCS, it brought the arcade experience to the living room. | RetroArch - O2EM | 10.6 KB |
| Mattel - Intellivision | The second most successful unit in its generation and defined the era for generations to come. Was known for its great selection of sports and strategy games. | RetroArch - FreeInv | 180.5 KB |
| Third Generation | 41.2 MB | ||
| Nintendo - Famicom | A selection of fan-translated Japanese RPGs for the Nintendo Famicom. | RetroArch - Nestopia | 5.2 MB |
| Nintendo - Famicom - Classics | Games that were part of the early life of the Famicom when developers were still experimenting with the power of 8-bit. Many of these titles are considered classics but not well-known outside of Japan. Not until Nintendo clone consoles and pirate game compilation carts flooded the Western market. | RetroArch - Nestopia | 1.6 MB |
| Nintendo - Famicom Disk System | Nintendo released the FDS as a peripheral for the Famicom to bring the simplicity and low-price of floppy disks. Although somewhat popular, its reliability was questionable and the inability to add custom mapper chips kept cartridges popular. Many of the games exclusive to the Disk System were eventually released on cartridges. | RetroArch - Nestopia | 280.4 KB |
| Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System | After the video game crash of 1983, it was thought that video gaming was over in the West. No one wanted to put video game consoles or games on their shelves anymore. Nintendo was adamant to bring the gaming world back to the mainstream with promises of quality titles, powerful hardware and strong marketing. They took a massive gamble and the NES became a staple of the American home. | RetroArch - Nestopia | 21.9 MB |
| Sega - Master System - Mark III | Sega's admirable first entry into the console world. While mostly forgotten in North America, it gained popularity in Europe and South America remembered as a great alternative to the NES. | RetroArch - Genesis Plus GX | 12.4 MB |
| Fourth Generation | 367.0 MB | ||
| NEC - PC Engine - TurboGrafx 16 | The first home console to claim the 16-bit namesake. Despite having only an 8-bit CPU, it had a ton of unique titles and was quite successful in Japan. Still has a loyal following with franchises exclusive to the system. | RetroArch - Beetle PCE FAST | 14.0 MB |
| NEC - PC Engine - SuperGrafx | NEC's second try at a 16-bit console with much more powerful hardware than the original TurboGrafx-16 but was a commercial failure with only a few games released for it. | RetroArch - Beetle SuperGrafx | 1.3 MB |
| Nintendo - Super Famicom | The Super Famicom was an RPG monster, especially in Japan where the console was immensely popular for that reason. These are fan-translations of RPG games that were exclusive to Japan. | RetroArch - Snes9x / ares | 83.1 MB |
| Nintendo - Super Nintendo Entertainment System | While Sega and NEC were fighting to take the 16-bit crown, Nintendo took its sweet time to develop a next-generation console. While hampered by a slow processor, its graphical capabilities allowed massive and colourful worlds in expansive platforms and RPGs full of depth. Games were consistently of high-quality and supported by the greatest names in gaming. | RetroArch - Snes9x / ares | 130.1 MB |
| Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis | The first successful attempt to overthrow Nintendo's monopoly in the video game market. Sega strong and memorable marketing strategy paid dividends touting its superior capabilities to the NES and 16-bit arcade graphics. Was part of the very devising 16-bit console wars and each side claims the throne. Defined as a console for adults and teenagers, it shook political figures as a worry that children would be violent from some of the graphic games on the platform and eventually resulted in the creation of the ESRB. | RetroArch - Genesis Plus GX | 119.3 MB |
| Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis - Sports | Since the Genesis did have a fast CPU, it was preferred by publishers for sport games. | RetroArch - Genesis Plus GX | 19.5 MB |
| Fifth Generation | 118.0 GB | ||
| 3DO - 3DO Interactive Multiplayer | While considered a very expensive commercial failure, the 3DO was the first console to bring 32-bit 3D graphics to the living room. Many well-known franchises had their debut on the 3DO. | RetroArch - Opera | 10.3 GB |
| Atari - Jaguar | Atari urged us to 'do the math' when advertising the 64-bit Jaguar. Despite failing to grab any significant portion of the market, it did leave of small legacy of worthy titles. | BigPEmu | 26.8 MB |
| Nintendo - Nintendo 64 | Nintendo stubbornly decided to stick to the cartridge format in the modern 64-bit era. The storage limitations of cartridge held the capabilities of the 64 back. Games on the Nintendo 64 would be the first to successfully transition from 2D to 3D and many of them would be remembered as the best of all time. | RetroArch - Muper64Plus-Next / simple64 | 1.6 GB |
| Sega - Saturn | Sega was racing to become the first to arrive into the 32-bit world and it was a bit too haste. It was notoriously hard to develop for and had few launch titles. It was decimated by Sony with their PlayStation after being ghosted by Nintendo and Sega. The Saturn does have a small following and fans. | RetroArch - Beetle Saturn | 25.0 GB |
| Sony - PlayStation | After being ghosted by Nintendo and Sega, Sony decided to go solo and got it right from the first shot. Had a solid library of games from its introduction in 1994 and was an familiar and simple platform that developers loved to work with. Thanks to the PS1, Sony is now a staple of the video game world and in terms of sales, the most successful series of consoles in history. | RetroArch - SwanStation | 76.8 GB |
| Sony - PlayStation - Sports | A selection of sport games for the PS1 | RetroArch - SwanStation | 4.6 GB |
| Sixth Generation | 1.23 TB | ||
| Microsoft - Xbox | Microsoft released their first video game console with the Xbox, demonstrating that they were a force to be reconned with. Cemented Microsoft's place in the market strongly competing with Sony, Sega and Nintendo. Most of the titles were ports from other consoles with only a few exclusive games. As a result, the community was not really interested in developing an emulator for the console until just a few years ago with the emergence of xemu. | xemu | 434.2 GB |
| Microsoft - Xbox - Sports | A selection of noteworthy sports titles for the Xbox. | xemu | 22.0 GB |
| Nintendo - GameCube | Nintendo finally ditches the outdated cartridge format for optical discs. While heavily focused on first-party titles, many of them would be considered premier grade and steal the heart of gamers till this day. While it was not immensely successful, in retrospect, it is considered an essential part of gaming history. | Dolphin | 111.7 GB |
| Sega - Dreamcast | 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 was home to many definitive arcade ports and unique exclusives. It's now considered Sega's final swansong. | RetroArch - Flycast | 62.9 GB |
| Sony - PlayStation 2 | 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. Emulation for the system is very impressive with near perfect compatibility and many quality-of-life and graphical improvements. | PCSX2 | 609.5 GB |
| Sony - PlayStation 2 - Sports | The PS2 was host to quite a few excellent sport titles. | PCSX2 | 27.1 GB |
| Handheld Classic | 836.0 MB | ||
| Atari - Lynx | Atari's failed attempt to overtake Nintendo's Game Boy by flaunting a backlit colour screen and a more powerful processor. It was home to some great arcade ports and some original titles. | RetroArch - Beetle Lynx | 2.3 MB |
| Bandai - WonderSwan | Designer Gunpei Yokoi after leaving Nintendo decided to have another go at what he does best: portable games. While not particularly successful, the WonderSwan carved a niche in Japan for anime franchises. | RetroArch - Beetle Cygne | 13.9 MB |
| Bandai - WonderSwan Color | Bandai's foray into bringing their games into colour. However, it was outcompeted by the more modern Game Boy Advance. | RetroArch - Beetle Cygne | 16.4 MB |
| Game Park - GP32 | The grand-father of portable emulation and homebrew machines with easy moddability thanks to its simple ARM chipset. Only had a tiny game library of five. | GeePee32 | 47.1 KB |
| Nintendo - Game Boy | Making a portable system was a surefire way for failure like the Atari Lynx that came behind. Nintendo proved that it could bring handheld gaming to million of both children and adults. Despite the primitive hardware, underpowered chipset and poor screen, it was immensely popular and Nintendo has maintained dominance of handhelds until today. | RetroArch - Gambatte | 11.8 MB |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Advance | Nintendo was single-handedly running the portable game market and it was finally their chance to bring what they wanted so much in the previous Game Boys, and that was modern graphics and sound. There are a swath of unforgettable games for the GBA and it was hard narrowing them down. | RetroArch - VBA Next | 643.6 MB |
| Nintendo - Game Boy Color | With the success of the Game Boy, Nintendo just had to release a sequel. Still very affordable, it solved the weak point of the original: the screen. Now with a wide-gamut of colours and no more ghosting. | RetroArch - Gambatte | 43.0 MB |
| Nintendo - Virtual Boy | The first attempt to bring virtual reality to the mainstream with stereoscopic graphics. However, the experience was so underwhelming that so few titles were released for it that you could hold the entire library in one hand. Had so many health warnings that it might as well been a prescription drug. | RetroArch - Beetle VB | 7.5 MB |
| Sega - Game Gear | Sega really thought they had the upper-hand compared to the Game Boy because it's colourful backlit screen. It was mildly successful but well known for its abysmal battery life and unreliability. While it had some notable exclusive games, many of them were just ports from the Master System. | RetroArch - Genesis Plus GX | 10.7 MB |
| SNK - Neo Geo Pocket Color | Mildly successful handheld that lost to the Game Boy Color. Has some great arcade fighters with a small fanbase. | RetroArch - NeoPop | 21.2 MB |
| Console Addons | 21.1 GB | ||
| Atari - Jaguar CD | In the 90s, it seemed obligatory for every console to have a CD addon. Good luck finding a Jaguar CD that actually worked though. A tiny few games managed to make into the memories of retro enthusiasts. | BigPEmu | 949.2 MB |
| NEC - PC Engine - TurboGrafx CD | The first CD addon to bring the optical disc format to game consoles. Unlike the Sega CD, it did not fall into the path of mediocrity with a wide array of excellent games. | RetroArch - Beetle PCE FAST | 13.3 GB |
| Philips - CD-I | Nintendo ghosted Sony with their CD addon for the SNES for Philips instead. However, there was a really big regret for Nintendo; namely that their prime franchises would be massacred with some of the worst animated FMV in history. | RetroArch - SAME CDI | 1.3 GB |
| Sega - 32X | Sega just couldn't help with console addons to the Genesis attempting to keep it on life support with the 32X. While the hardware was impressive, many developers knew better than to develop for the system knowing that it would be a failure. The Sega Saturn was just a few shorts months away and gamers saved their money instead for the true successor to the Genesis. | RetroArch - PiceDrive / Kega Fusion | 27.4 MB |
| Sega - Mega-CD | NEC, Philips, 3DO and Sony were all convinced that the optical disc format would be the future. However, it was a bit too early and developers didn't really know how to harness the massively increased storage resulting in many FMV-based games that became a staple of the addon. Though some great titles were released for the platformers including impressive RPGs and improved versions of Genesis games. | RetroArch - Genesis Plus GX | 6.6 GB |
| Arcade | 12.1 GB | ||
| Arcade - MAME | MAME is a very ambitious emulator for thousands of arcade games. This set narrows it down to the well-known titles that dominated arcades both historical and modern. | MAME 0.272 | 5.7 GB |
| Arcade - MAME CHD | Some notable Arcade games were stored on large disc formats and this is the companion set to the MAME ROMs above. | MAME 0.271 | 5.7 GB |
| Arcade - MAME Legacy | Portable devices struggle with current versions of MAME. This collection is based on version 0.37b5 which runs adequately on weaker hardware. Emulators such as MAME4ALL or MAME 2000 on RetroArch work with this set. | MAME 0.37b5 / MAME4ALL | 842.5 MB |
| Old-School Computers | 63.6 MB | ||
| Commodore - Amiga | A personal computer well known for its strong multimedia capabilities and bringing 16-bit computing to the masses. Happened to be a competent game system with many memorable titles and amazing soundtracks. | RetroArch - PUAE | 40.7 MB |
| Commodore - Commodore 64 | The first truly affordable and mass-produced PC that made it into homes everywhere. Its powerful chipset was well loved by the demoscene community which is still alive today. | RetroArch - VICE x64 | 20.0 MB |
| Microsoft - MSX | The Redmond-based company penetrated the Japanese market in collaboration with the ASCII corporation. Major game studios released their games on this system and some franchises had their start on the MSX. | RetroArch - fMSX | 1.0 MB |
| Microsoft - MSX2 | A more powerful version of the MSX released only in Japan. | RetroArch - fMSX | 1.5 MB |
| Sinclair - ZX Spectrum | Sinclair had a massive influence on the home computer market by developing an extremely affordable system. Was very popular in the UK which is now considered home of the computing revolution. Make sure to pronounce the Z as 'zed' and not 'zee' otherwise Europeans will get quite angry. | RetroArch - Fuse | 502.0 KB |
| Modern PC | 46.5 GB | ||
| Microsoft - MS-DOS | The emergence of DOS games showed to the world that IBM's boring office operating system was up to the task of definite and varied gaming experiences. Some DOS games are still being sold until today despite ages spanning decades. | DOSBox-X / RetroArch - DOSBox-Pure | 46.5 GB |
| Handheld Modern | 142.0 GB | ||
| Nintendo - Nintendo DS | Nintendo streak of amazing portable systems continued with the Nintendo DS. With an innovative dual-screen design with touch-support, it became the best selling handheld of all time. Due to it's long life and popularity, the Nintendo DS was home to a huge collection of excellent games. In terms of number of games, this is biggest one in the TopRoms collection. | RetroArch - melonDS | 22.6 GB |
| Sony - PlayStation Portable | The first console to finally make a dent in the Nintendo dominated handheld market. Provided graphical capabilities that were more impressive than anything before with great ports and sequels from the PlayStation library. Brought portable homebrew to the masses with easily hackable hardware and great community support. | RetroArch - PPSSPP | 119.6 GB |
| Hacks and Homebrew | 39.2 MB | ||
| Atari - 2600 - Hacks | Even to this day, there is still an active homebrew scene for the beloved VCS. Hobbyists have pushed the hardware to the limits with some great innovations. | RetroArch - Stella | 160.4 KB |
| Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System - Hacks | People couldn't get enough of popular franchises on the NES so the community decided to refresh these series with new redesigned levels and improved gameplay. | RetroArch - Nestopia | 4.5 MB |
| Nintendo - Nintendo Entertainment System - Homebrew | The NES computing is well understood and documented making development of games easy and practical. While others were struck by nostalgia from the unique experience that the NES could provide. As a result, games are still being released today for the console in actual cartridge format. This set is only freely available games since some of them are commercial projects. | RetroArch - Nestopia | 7.5 MB |
| Nintendo - Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Hacks | There were a few hacks that expanded upon existing titles with new levels and stories. | RetroArch - Snes9x / ares | 12.9 MB |
| Sega - Mega Drive - Genesis - Hacks | The Genesis was the first platform to legitimize the hacking scene, at least for home consoles. The homebrew community is also quite active. | RetroArch - Genesis Plus GX | 14.2 MB |
| Additional Content | 2.5 GB | ||
| Microsoft - Xbox - DLC | The original Xbox pioneered additional downloadable content with its Live service and making DLC a mainstream idea. Mounting these images will provide a simple tool to install the DLC. | xemu | 2.5 GB |
| BIOS | 649.0 MB | ||
| BIOS - RetroArch | Complete set of BIOS files required for emulating all supported cores in RetroArch. Put these in the 'system' folder. | RetroArch (system folder) | 564.0 MB |
| BIOS - Standalone | BIOS files required for PCSX2, GeePee32 and xemu. The Xbox BIOS files should be copied into the xemu directory since the emulator will modify them. | xemu / PCSX2 / GeePee32 | 85.5 MB |