Good news for HD fans – specialized high definition torrent tracker Awesome HD is open for signup. Things were not looking good for AHD earlier this year when one of their main internal encoders, EuReKa, left to join HD-Torrents  - a rival HD tracker. Although everyone saw this as a critical blow to AHD, the site is very much alive even after 6 months since the incident. In fact, AHD staff and its coders have been busy adding a lot of new features to the tracker during the last couple of months. The site only recently achieved two important milestones – the launch of AHD v4 and migration to Gazelle RC2 codebase. AHD v4 brings is some welcome new features while Gazelle RC2 ensures a more secure, faster hunt for torrents on Awesome-HD. Of course, it’s been about a month since these changes have been implemented but this is the first time AHD have opened public registrations after the revamps.

With over 5100 enabled users, AHD is a medium sized private tracker. The site tracks 720p/1080p x264 movie encodes + DTS/AC-3 + English subtitles in a Matroska container, TV shows ripped from Blu-Ray / HD DVD sources (only complete seasons) and DTS-HD, TrueHD, LPCM & FLAC HD Audio. As of 15/7/2010 Awesome HD tracked  1775 active torrents which included 1100+ HD movies.

Ever since it was launched about an year ago, AHD has been adding new features to the tracker at regular intervals. If you were not satisfied with the 10+ improvements introduced a couple of months back, here are some more changes to keep you hooked. Quoted below are a list of features launched under AHD v4:

1. Bonus Points! - You wanted them, we've integrated them!
2. Audio Tracks are now linked to movies.
3. Films now list audio tracks and subtitles
4. New Forums
5. Polls
6. Requests
7. All internal releases now 75% free leech

One of the highlights of AHD v4 is the new bonus points system. You can now do some pretty crazy stuff with bonus points including activating half leech, secret free leech or free leech for a random dude on tracker.

Earning bonus points on this tracker is pretty easy. Here’s how it works (quoted from site page):

Bonus points are awarded for seeding completed torrents. Every hour you are awarded 0.1 points for each GB of each completed torrent you're seeding. e.g. for a 10GB torrent you will get one point.
You also will receive an extra 0.1 points where you are in a group of seeds totalling less than 5. You also receive an extra 0.1 for each seed less than 5. e.g. 4 seeds you get 0.1 points, 3 seeds 0.2 points, 2 seeds 0.3 points and if you are the only seed you get 0.4 points

No matter how good a private tracker is, it would be of little use to our members if they can’t get in. Although AHD was closed to the public in the last 4-5 months, signups have now been opened for a limited period of time. If you download high definition video over the internet, you might find the site pretty useful so check it out.

Site Name: Awesome-HD (http://awesome-hd.net)

Signup URL: http://awesome-hd.net/register.php

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• New & Improved Awesome-HD 3.1
• EuReKa Joins HD-Torrents - Signups Open, Awesome-HD Domain Changed

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In the last couple of years, the leading one click hosting service RapidShare was hugely popular among uploaders on various Direct Download Link (DDL) forums. However, with the recently announced changes to RS’s rewards program (link – read second post), this might soon change. Several leading DDL forums have already ditched RapidShare for other services and the latest site to join the club is x264-BB. For those who don’t know what x264-BB is, it’s a popular forum for m-HD (MicroHD), 720p and 1080p movie encodes with a lot of exclusive releases (for a detailed post on this forum with registration info, read the full review located here). It appears that all of x264-BB’s internal encoder groups have decided not to upload any of their releases to RapidShare anymore. Their new upload destination? Hotfile.

The site’s decision to abandon RS is explained in detailed in a forum post (which is quoted below):

This is an official notice to all members of x264-BB.com that Encoders Group will no longer providing Rapidshare download links. After much discussions, Encoders Group had came to an amicable decision that only Hotfile links will be supplied in all future new releases.
Question: What about existing Encoders Group releases?
We will be deleting all current Rapidshare plus other mirror links on x264-BB, only Hotfile links will be supplied.
Question: Are we allowed to make request for other mirrors?
No. We do not allow any mirrors to be made from now. Do not ask for mirrors in the forum, you will be banned as you had been officially notified.
Question: Hotfile sucks for Free Users, why is Hotfile a better choice?
Because Megaupload sucks for its rewards program and extremely frustrating for uploading management. Encoders Group wants to spend more time on providing better quality releases rather than to waste time on sorting out missing uploaded files or unable to find the uploaded files in MU's File Manager. Hotfile's FTP upload has much faster upload speed and more stable than Netload's FTP upload. Netload's storage is frequently proned corrupted files and unrecoverable files due to hard disk crashes and never been able to recover and again, Netload's reward program is nothing compared to Hotfile's.
Question: Why not consider other file hosts such as SharingMatrix, FileServe or x7.to etc..?
See for yourself: http://i30.tinypic.com/2s9btbc.jpg
Hotfile has the biggest reach to global users than any of the file hosts compared.

While Hotfile is indeed a good one click hosting service, it does have several restrictions for free users.

• Limited download speed
• Maximum parallel downloads limited to 1
• 60 second wait time
• Downloads restricted to 1 file per 30 minutes
• No support for download accelerators, download resuming, direct linking

In addition, the download speeds on Hotfile are reportedly slow for some regions in the world. The thread on X264-BB announcing the change has met with some interesting responses with some users suggesting Megaupload, etc in place of Hotfile. However, the admin panel’s decision has so far been unchanged and judging by their responses it’s unlikely to change in future as well. Note that this change would only apply for releases by x264-BB’s internal encoder group – there are no hosting provider restrictions on user uploads and members are still free to use whatever service they prefer, including RapidShare.

On a side note, x264-BB is currently open for registration. This forum indexes m-720P, m-864P, m-HD, m-DVD, 720p and 1080p movies along with TV shows and documentaries. They have a lot of exclusive releases not found elsewhere, thanks to their internal encoder group. A detailed review of x264-BB can be found here.

Site Name: x264-BB (http://x264-bb.com)

Signup URL: http://x264-bb.com/register.php

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Name three things most Chinese BitTorrent trackers have in common – they are all built on the NexusPHP tracker script, they all seem to specializes in HD content and they all have plenty of leechers. For fans of such torrent sites, we are happy to present Pig2Pig, the newest China based HD tracker to enter the BitTorrent scene. Odd sounding name aside, Pig2Pig has managed to grow rather quickly within the first few weeks since its launch – today it's a decent torrent site filled with active members and a healthy flow of new daily torrents. You can download high definition video content including movies, TV shows, sports and documentaries (both scene and P2P releases) from this tracker. In addition to HD releases, PIG2PIG tracks some PC and console games as well. Signups are currently open and if you are looking forward to being a member of a fast growing HD tracker, check this site out.

Launched a couple of months ago, PIG2PIG was off to a rocky start with several downtimes earlier on. However, the site recovered well and has since been able to build a somewhat strong user base. With close to 10000 registered users and open signups poised to bring in some more, PIG2PIG does not have that much to worry about when it comes to user activity. The site currently tracks close to 6000 torrents, most of which have good seeder activity leading to better download speeds.

As mentioned earlier, PIG2PIG is primarily is high definition torrent tracker. You can find all major scene and non scene HD releases including movies, TV shows, anime, sports and documentaries here. However, they currently do not have an internal release group so don’t expect to find a lot of exclusive, unique stuff. A screenshot depicting part of P2P’s torrent index is attached  – some of the video formats and torrent categories available on this tracker can be seen below:

PIG2PIG is based on China and the default site language is Chinese. However, if you are an English speaking user, you can easily switch the language using the drop down menu located at top right corner of signup page. Speaking of signups, there is a noticed posted on site mentioning that open signups would close on the 16th of June. However they are still open and you can still create an account on PIG2PIG without an invite.

Site Name: PIG2PIG (http://pig2pig.com)

Signup URL: http://pig2pig.com/signup.php

Special thanks to Peter Vig for the heads up.

If you liked this tracker may also like:

• OurDiSC – Private Tracker For Full R1, R3 DVD And Blu-Ray Disks
• HDCity – Another HD BitTorrent Tracker From China
• CHDBits – High Definition Private Tracker
• CCFBits – Chinese HD torrent tracker with English releases
• HDRoad.ORG - Private HD Torrent Tracker
• HDStar HD BitTorrent Tracker Open For A Limited Time Only
• TorrenTGui (TTG) – Private Tracker For Games, Movies & TV Shows
• BDMKV & TorrentCCF – Two HD/Blu-Ray/MKV Torrent Trackers Open For Signup

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When it comes to downloading movies, music, games or TV shows online, Direct Download Link (or simply DDL) forums have gained a lot of popularity over the last couple of years. These are nowadays equally popular as BitTorrent trackers and hundreds of such forums are now online, facilitating quick and easy transfer of large files over the net. Bulk of the DDL forums you can find however either specialize in movies or are focused on indexing general content – you don’t see many sites dedicated to television series, other than a handful forums such as TVFreeLoad. If you are looking for a forum that focuses on TV shows and TV shows only, here’s a site worth checking out; CouchTater. CouchTater indexes download links to full TV seasons and individual episodes of a number of different TV shows aired on over 20 TV networks in USA and Canada.

Although CouchTater has been online for some time, the site does not seem to have attracted that many visitors (or at least not as many visitors as it deserves). According to current forum statistics, there are ~11500 threads and 15600 members (5000 active) on CT. Almost all of the forum threads open on this site are actually for TV releases – the number of discussion and ‘chit-chat’ threads are less than 1000.

When it comes to indexing links to TV shows, CouchTater follows a no-bullshit approach. There are no hidden forum sections, there are no hidden download links and shows are directly accessible from the site’s homepage. The main forum is divided into several sub forums – one each for major US TV networks such has CBS / NBC / ABC, Fox / The CW, Comedy Central, HBO/Starz/SHO, FX / SyFy / USA, TNT, Discovery / A&E, History/NatGeo, etc. Each of these sections contain individual threads for different TV shows aired on the appropriate network. These threads in turn are divided into two sections – ‘Single Episodes’ and ‘Complete Seasons’; this is where the download links are placed. The screenshot below which captures part of CouchTater’s main index, will give you a better idea on the site’s visual layout:

Download links on CT as usual are from one click hosting sites such as RapidShare, Megaupload, etc. I’ve found the forums to be regularly updated with new links for new episodes but there was the occasional thread that was out of date or had missing episodes. Majority of the indexed content however were live links that were working perfectly.

If you are interested in signing up, registrations for CouchTater are currently open. However, the download links are visible even to non members, making registration pretty much an optional task.

Site Name: CouchTater (http://www.couchtater.com)

Registration URL: http://www.couchtater.com/register.php

If you liked CouchTater you might also like:

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Currently, the PC games torrent tracker scene is dominated by a few large torrent sites – Blackcats Games, bitGAMER, Underground – Gamer, etc. Although there have been new games trackers launched on a somewhat regular basis, only a handful of these sites have been able to make a lasting impression – the rest sooner or later headed for the deadpool. This post however is not about the demise of yet another games tracker – it’s about GazelleGames (GGn), one of those few new entrants that seem to be headed in the right direction. Running on the shiny new Gazelle RC2 codebase, GazelleGames has recorded some impressive progress (in terms of expansion) since we last featured it about 1.5 months ago. But that’s not all, GGn currently has a host of new features in development, waiting to be rolled out to all of its users pretty soon.

During the past one and a half months, GGn has managed to expand both its user base as well as the torrent index. More than 300 new torrents have been uploaded and over 2000 new users have joined the tracker during this period. It now tracks close to 500 torrents and has managed to recruit over 3100 active users. Good news is that the site’s administration and staff has not got carried away with uploading torrent after torrent (as it usually happens with most new trackers) – they’ve been working on a lot of new features too. Quoted below is a news post from the site’s homepage:

We have some exciting new features for GGn that are in the works, all of which our developers are hard at work on.
Some have already been implemented. For example, it is now possible to upload torrents with individual files of over 2GB, to help make things that much easier for uploaders.
Speaking of making things easier for uploaders, another exciting feature nearing beta stage is our auto upload form filler system, Uploady. Tired of scouring the internet trying to put together beautiful game descriptions? Not to worry, our new integrated system will do all the hard work for you.
To help better accomodate the intelligent form fillin' bot, there are going to be some improvements to the way uploads are stored. For example, you'll soon be able to add all your screenshots directly on the upload form and even add YouTube trailers for some of the higher budget games out there!
All of this information will be neatly organised on the torrent details page.
We are also working on storing game review ratings. Soon you'll be able to add review ratings from various sources, or let Uploady add one in for you!

A summary of new features that are to be rolled out in the near future can be found below (list quoted from GGn homepage):

• Screenshots - form fields right on the upload form
• Review Ratings - from Metacritic, IGN, GameSpot, CNET etc.
• Uploady - the clever auto upload form filler bot
• Hit & Run - up-and-download torrents assured of fast and reliable speeds
• ESRB Ratings - soon you'll be able to filter your searches by ESRB or PEGI ratings
• Better NFO's - a smarter way of handling NFOs to help make descriptions cleaner
• 'My' Platforms - show only the games for platforms you own on the browse list
• Account Parking - going away? As jealous as we are, you can be sure your account will be here when you get back
• RSS Feeds & Announces - we'll be improving the RSS feeds and writing an IRC announcer so you can grab your favourites as soon as they come out - Freeleech!

Add these to the impressive list of usability features already incorporated into GGn’s Gazelle RC2 implementation and you’ll have one of the most feature rich games trackers ever.

As you can see from the screenshot above, GGn is a multi platform games tracker. No matter if you are a console fanboy or a hard core PC gamer, you will find stuff to download on this tracker. If you still haven’t joined, registrations are currently open – signups would remain open until the site hits 5000 users (which leaves around 2000 more free slots remaining).

Site Name: GazelleGames (http://gazellegames.net)

Signup URL: http://gazellegames.net/register.php

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In the past we have run several articles on Sublight, an automatic subtitle search, download and synchronization utility for Windows. I’ve been using this utility since it’s early versions and needless to say I absolutely love the app. If you download movies, TV shows and other video files over the internet (who doesn’t?) and if you watch them with subtitles, this is a must have tool. It makes finding and downloading subs pretty much a one click task which can be done right from your desktop. With Sublight installed, all you have to do is to right click your video file and hit ‘Find Subtitles’. Sublight connects to it’s sources (which are storage sites such as OpenSubtitles, divx-titlovi, podnapsi, etc), searches and lists matching subs for the selected file. You can download these instantly through the app itself or even start your default video player and start watching the video. Sublight recently launched it’s Silverlight based web based subtitle search and released v2.4 of the desktop client with several new features.

First thing you’ll notice in Sublight v2.4 is that it has the ribbon UI from office 2010. This interface provides context sensitive options that helps you perform a number of subtitle related functions such as search, download, synchronize, rate and even publish. In addition to these basic functions, Sublight provides some unique features including subtitle preview, IMDB integration, ability to view subtitle NFO, integrated list of latest subtitle uploads to online repositories, etc. The full list of features (quoted from Sublight homepage) can be found below:

• access to over million subtitles
• autodetects over 100,000 movies and tv series
• Office 2010 look and feel with Ribbon user interface
• Sublight is currently translated to 14 languages
• supports 46 subtitle languages
• plugin support for accessing subtitles from different sources
• user can choose default subtitle encoding (ANSI, custom code page, UTF-8, Unicode)
• movie playback with subtitle support with double click
• possible to play RAR compressed video files
• possible to publish new subtitles
• simple subtitle editor
• subtitle synchronization
• users can preview subtitle before download
• possible to view new/favorite subtitles
• includes "My Movies" library
• supports 7 favorite video players
• possible to integrate subtitle search in Windows Explorer
• users can vote/report subtitles
• includes cross-platform tool SublightCmd for batch subtitle download (advanced users)

In addition to the desktop client, Sublight now has a fully functional online subtitle search function. If you don’t like installing the app on your computer (or if your operating system does not support it), you can use the Silverlight powered online interface to easily search and download subs.

Download

[Click Here] to download latest version of Sublight desktop client

[Click Here] to search for subtitles online using Sublight’s web based search

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Just a few days ago we featured on this blog MVHive, a direct download link (DDL) forum for music videos. Today’s post is about another similar site; MVDDL.Net. Although some of you may be hearing about this for the very first time, it remains to be one of the largest music video DDL forums currently online. MVDDL.net started off it’s operations soon after the demise of Keitex.net, a popular MV forum which had more than 60000 active members. A lot of ex-Keitex members took refuge in MVDDL and what initially started off as a simple WordPress blog has today grown into forum buzzing with activity (and of course, a lot of download links). There are a lot of scene and non scene music videos indexed on this site, including exclusive releases by MVDDL’s internal encoder groups.

MVDDL launched back in December 2008 and is now more than one and a half years old. Thanks to a good staff panel and an efficient uploader team, the site seems to be doing fine both in terms of member activity as well as indexed content. MVDDL currently has over 6500 active members who've created 21000+ threads.Although known primarily as a source for music video downloads, MVDDL is actually more than just a DDL forum. The site has a number of discussion threads where everything from music (audio) to new video encodes are discussed. Anyway none of this would matter to most of you who sign up seeking to download MVs.

To see the music video download threads on MVDDL, you need to register and log in. Then browse the ‘Member Uploads’ section to find the ‘Music Vids’ sub forum. It’s inside this section you can find all the goodies which range from scene releases to non scene encodes by internal groups such as 3isi, GRV, PuSH and debis. Available video formats include DVDRip, TVRip, untouched VOB, HD, WEBRip, MDVDR and even encodes optimized for portable devices. MVDDL’s ‘Music Vids’ section has over 13000 threads – this is a good indication of the amount of content available on this forum.  A screenshot of part of the forum can be seen below:

Music videos themselves are hosted in one click hosting services such as Megaupload, Mediafire, Fileserve, etc (JDownloader works very well with these). Just like on most forums, you need to reply to a thread to see its embedded download links – this is not a big deal and will take only a few seconds. However my personal opinion is that this practice promotes spam- the user is ‘forced’ to make a reply just to see the links.

A positive aspect of MVDDL.net is that it’s pretty easy to get into. The site is open for registration and you can directly sign up without any extra hurdles. Overall, this is a recommended forum for those of you who download music videos from the internet.

Site Name: MVDDL (http://mvddl.net)

Signup URL: http://mvddl.net/forum/register.php

If you liked MVDDL you’ll also like:

• MVHive Forum – Direct Download Hundreds Of Scene & Non Scene Music Videos
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It’s always good to hear about BitTorrent trackers teaming up instead of having online flame wars and hostility towards one another. BTN and TehConnection (TC) are two latest private trackers to enter such partnership deal – this was officially announced on both sites roughly 6 hours ago (at time of this post). BTN is a feature rich tracker for TV shows and TehConnection is an equally good resource for downloading movie torrents. The said partnership is primarily based on invites to each site being offered on the other. Ultimately, it’s a win-win situation for users of both trackers - if you have an account on one of these sites, getting into the other just became a whole lot easier. Both BTN and TehConnection are closed for public signup and the only way into either one of these sites right now is through recruitment partnerships such as the one just announced.

TehConnection

TehConnection, a project started by the crew behind SceneTorrents (ScT) was launched to the public back in 2008. It’s a specialized movie tracker which allows its members to download a ton of movies both old and new (in SD/HD formats), at pretty good download speeds. Based on a customized version of What.CD’s Gazelle codebase, TC sports an elegant look and feel which is a pleasure to navigate. During it’s early days, TC did open signups to the public several times but later this was limited to invites being offered through their IRC channel. Now, even the invites channel has been closed down and the only way you can become a member is through recruitment threads on other trackers such as What.CD, StB and BTN (unless you know someone who can invite you). If you are an existing member on any one of these trackers, obtaining a TehConnection invite could just be a PM away. The announcement on BTN is quoted below:

We believe that relationships with other trackers is always a good thing, so we have partnered with TehConnection to help our communities grow!
TC is one of the best, if not the best, film sites in the torrenting world. Going with quality over quantity, they have a great selection of high quality movies for everyone to enjoy. Boasting an epic site design and code, great selection of movies and awesome community, I'm sure any movie lover would enjoy this site!
That said, if you want to get in over there, its easy; send a PM to ONE of these users
[List of usernames]
Make sure you give it at least a day or two to get a response, these guys are busy running a tracker so spare time isn't always easy to come by.
Beware, if you don't put your email in the PM, your PM will be ignored!

Tehconnection currently tracks over 13600 active torrents. There are 10500+ movies indexed which involve over 200000+ actors, 6500+ directors and 13000+ writers. The site’s active user base as at 10/7/2010 was 11500. For more information on TC please read this post.

BTN

BTN, a much younger tracker than TehConnection, started off its operations in early 2010. The site was an instant hit among the BitTorrent community thanks to it’s impressive set of features and it’s ‘ratio free’ download system. Based on a heavily customized version of Gazelle codebase, BTN made discovering and downloading TV shows a pleasure with it’s great design. The site constantly kept improving and is now packed with seedbox hosted torrents, autouploader bots and great organizational features such as separate pages for each TV series. (for detailed list of features including a comparison between leading TV trackers, read our full BTN review here). Ever since its inception, BTN has never had an open signup and registration was only possible through invite applications or IRC invites (both of which have now closed). However if you are an existing Tehconnection member, you now have the chance to join BTN just by sending a PM to one of the BTN reps on TC. The announcement on TehConnection is as follows:

In the past we had a partnership with What.cd, invites to each site being offered by the other. That line is still intact, and now we offer another line: BTN!
BTN is a ratio-free TV tracker running on a well customized Gazelle base. Lots of good content, good pretimes and good speeds, this tracker is the up and coming rookie to keep your eye on.
That said, if you want to get in over there, its easy; send a PM to ONE of these users:
[List of usernames]
If you do not include your email, your PM will be ignored!
Make sure you give it at least a day or two to get a response, these guys are busy running a tracker so spare time isn't always easy to come by.

BTN currently tracks over 13300 active torrents. This includes ~8000 different TV shows and 2500+ TV series. The site’s active user base hovers somewhere around 5000.

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• BTN Tracker – TV Torrents Without Ratio
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If you like classic movies and obscure TV shows, you’ll love this news. Gormogon, one of the better specialized private torrent trackers around for retro movies and television shows, is currently open for signup. That’s not all, in celebration of their first year online, the site will have site wide free leech (aka gold torrents) throughout this month. Gormogon, which started off as a resurrection of Classic Cinema Zone (CCZ), recorded impressive growth during the past year to become of of the larger retro movie trackers around. It now tracks over 10000 torrents, a feat only a handful other sites in this niche have been able to achieve. Gormogon was initially invite only (and hence we did several invite giveaways for it earlier) but later opened its doors to the public, bringing in more activity into the site.

Gormogon started off it’s operations back in 2009 as a resurrected version of Classic Cinema Zone. It however was run by a different admin and staff panel than CCZ and was rebuilt from scratch (which seemed to be a good idea as there were so many complaints about CCZ’s staff – just have a look at the comments posted here). So far, things seem to have gone pretty well for Gormogon – it’s established a firm foothold in the BitTorrent community with nearly 4500 active members and it’s torrent index now lists over 10k movies and TV shows including some very hard to find torrents (during our previous review back in December 2009, there were only around 1700 active members and 6300+ torrents).

Speaking of the content indexed on Gormogon, you won’t find any of the new movie releases, TV shows or games you see on most General trackers here – this site is all about classic, retro, hard to find, obscure content that belong to a bygone era. There’s an impressive collection of classic movies on this tracker, ranging from films produced in the 1930s to those made in the late 1980s. Television shows from the same era can also be downloaded – there are some awesome full season packs of rare TV series indexed here. In addition, quite a few OST (official soundtracks) from retro hits, classic music and even old radio shows are also available for download.

Some of the torrents indexed on Gormogon are tracked by public trackers such as OpenBitTorrent. These torrents are obviously excluded from ratio rules. However, the vast majority of  indexed content are tracked by Gormogon’s own private tracker – such torrents are subject to ratio rules but usually have better download speeds.

Signups for this tracker are currently open. As stated earlier, the entire site will be on free leech throughout this month in celebration of Gormogon’s first birthday. If you are interested in downloading retro movies and TV shows, you might want to check this site out.

Site Name: Gormogon (http://www.gormogon.com)

Signup URL: http://www.gormogon.com/index.php?page=signup

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There was a time when PC game rips were hugely popular. They were hits among the gaming community especially during the late 1990s, when scene groups such as CLASS, BACKLASH, MYTH, etc were active (they guys obviously released a lot of ripped games). A rip is basically a stripped down version of a PC game with reduced file size. This reduced size is usually achieved by re encoding/removing in game movies (or FMV), removing music, removing extra languages or by simply using a better compression algorithm. The smaller size facilitated easier online storage and saved bandwidth, both of which were valuable resources back then. However, as internet speeds improved and transferring large files over the web became relatively easier, the demand for game rips gradually decreased. But does that mean the art of ripping games is a thing of the past? Well, not really. Although not as popular, game rips are still around. If you still seek to download them, this post is about a private torrent tracker that focuses solely on this type of releases.

Although not as hugely popular as groups such as RELOADED, Razor1911, SKIDROW or ViTALiTY, scene groups who still release rips still do exist (i.e. UNLEASHED). However when it comes to these releases, non scene groups are nowadays more active than the scene. Their releases are usually made available over file sharing networks such as private trackers or DDL forums instead of topsites.

However, you won’t find a lot of game rips on General/0Day scene trackers or surprisingly, even on dedicated games trackers. But here’s a private tracker that’s dedicated to tracking game rips. TPTB (short for ‘The Powers That Be’) tracks a lot of unique and exclusive releases that you won’t easily find anywhere else. TPTB runs on TS Special Edition 7.0 codebase and has been around for several years. The site currently tracks close to 500 torrents, vast majority of which are games.

As you can see from the screenshot above, TBTB’s game rips collection even includes titles released just a few days ago. Most of these are uploaded by the site’s internal groups (hence the ‘TPTB’ tag in torrent title) and are exclusive to the tracker. If you want to know what’s ripped from a game, you can usually find that information in a torrent’s description page. Most of the rips I have come across so far were done in a way that did not cause any serious harm to a game’s playability – in most cases only unnecessary info (such as extra languages from MULTI5 and MULTI8 releases) was removed. In short, these guys are pros and they know how to reduce the size of a game without screwing it up. While the content is great, one downside of this tracker are the download speeds – they are average at best and there are some torrents without enough seeder activity to keep them going.

Although a little shy on the publicity front, signups for TBTP are currently open. If you are interested in downloading PC game rips, you might find this tracker to be useful.

Site Name: TPTB (http://teamtptb.com)

Signup URL: http://teamtptb.com/signup.php

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