📰 New article from RetroRGB

Weekly Roundup #498

https://retrorgb.com/week498.html

You know what’s cooler than retro gaming? Fixing retro gaming.

RetroRGB’s latest Roundup is basically a treasure map for vintage tech nerds — and this week, the loot is wild. Ever wish your Sega CD looked like it was beamed in from 1995? There’s now an open-source laser board replacement to bring your console back from the dead. And if you’ve ever stared at a pristine NDS cartridge and thought, “This needs more glitch,” meet the DSpico — an open-source flash cart that’s basically a time machine for your handheld.

But wait — there’s more. A $20 ultrasonic cleaner that actually works? Check. A VHS filter plugin to make your emulator look like it’s playing through a dusty 1987 TV? Double check. And for the true connoisseurs: a Genesis-shaped mug that’s 100% caffeine, 0% regret.

Oh, and someone made replacement labels for your Holo3DFX console. Because nothing says “I love the 90s” like a sticker that says “Powered by Space Magic.”

If you’ve ever spent more time fixing your old hardware than playing it… this is your weekly dopamine hit. And hey — if you’re feeling generous, Bob’s got a Patreon link. Your $5 buys him coffee… and keeps the nostalgia machine running.

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

Spotify’s Crackdown on Anna’s Archive Domains Hits a Jurisdiction Snag

https://torrentfreak.com/spotifys-crackdown-on-annas-archive-domains-hits-a-jurisdiction-snag/

Spotify went full “Hollywood villain” this month—filing a secret court order to shut down Anna’s Archive, the shadowy digital library that’s hoarding millions of music files like a bibliophile dragon. They took down .ORG and .SE domains, got Cloudflare to cooperate, and even tried to freeze the site’s future domain registrations. Bold move. But then… reality hit.

Enter Njalla: a privacy-first domain service named after a Sámi hut (yes, really)—built to keep things safe from predators. Only in this case, the predator is a multi-billion-dollar music industry. Njalla, based in Costa Rica, didn’t blink when Spotify’s U.S. court order landed. Neither did Switch Foundation (.LI) or AFNIC (.PM). Why? Because U.S. court orders don’t automatically mean “do this” in Costa Rica, France, or anywhere else with a sense of legal sovereignty.

The result? Anna’s Archive is still online—just on new domains, hiding behind DNS providers who don’t take orders from New York courts. Even the registrant name “Cyberdyne S.A.” (a Terminator reference?) feels like a troll move.

Bottom line: You can’t sue the internet out of existence. Not when its infrastructure is global, decentralized, and unimpressed by American subpoenas. Spotify’s legal hammer just hit a wall made of privacy ideals and jurisdictional red tape.

And Anna’s Archive? Still streaming. Still sharing. Probably laughing.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

The Games I’m Actually Playing on My Odin 3

https://retrohandhelds.gg/the-games-im-actually-playing-on-my-odin-3/

You know that feeling when your new gadget is so good, it makes you question all your life choices? Meet the Odin 3—Ayn’s latest handheld wizard, and now my personal dopamine delivery system.

Nick didn’t just unbox it—he unleashed it. Between Vampire Survivors clones, PS2 crash-fests, and a slot-machine prison simulator called Clover Pit, his playlist reads like a love letter to addictive, low-stakes fun. Megabonk? 3D Vampire Survivors with jumping. Bloodshed? Duke Nukem meets bullet hell with voice acting that should be on a podcast. And Destiny: Rising? A mobile game so good, it made him forget COD Mobile ever existed. (We’re not mad.)

The real MVP? Hollow Knight. Yes, he finally played it. And yes—on the Odin 3’s gorgeous screen—it felt like magic. “I get it now,” he says. We believe you.

Burnout 3 on 3x resolution? Yes, please. G.I. Joe beat ‘em up with cartoon-perfect style? Sign me up.

The Odin 3 isn’t just powerful—it’s persuasive. You don’t need to max out every emulator or run 4K Steam games. Sometimes, all you need is one great game… then another… then five more before bedtime.

The real win? Knowing your next handheld won’t collect dust. It’ll just collect wins.

P.S. If you’ve got a game you can’t quit on the Odin 3, we want to hear it. And maybe… just maybe… you’re also stuck in Clover Pit right now.

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

The Oscar Surge: ‘Sinners’ Piracy Triples Following Record-Breaking 16 Nominations

https://torrentfreak.com/the-oscar-surge-sinners-piracy-triples-following-record-breaking-16-nominations/

Oh, the Oscars don’t just crown winners—they fuel piracy surges like a Hollywood glitter bomb.

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners just dropped 16 Oscar nominations—yes, sixteen—and fans didn’t just cheer. They pirated. Hard. BitTorrent data shows downloads of the film tripled overnight, while other nominees like Bugonia saw a nice 50% bump. Meanwhile, the un-nominated Superman? Crickets. The message is clear: Oscar buzz = pirate frenzy.

This isn’t new—remember when Barbie or Oppenheimer spiked on pirate sites after nominations? But this is next-level. With 16 noms, Sinners isn’t just a movie—it’s an event. And where there’s buzz, there are always folks skipping the subscription to grab it for free.

Here’s the kicker: this surge isn’t just about BitTorrent. Pirate streaming sites are seeing millions of extra views we can’t even fully track. Legal platforms? They’re riding the wave too—Sinners jumped back into Max’s Top 10 and VOD sales are soaring. So yeah, piracy might be bad… but it’s also the ultimate fan signal.

Bottom line: If Sinners wins big on Oscar night? Prepare for a digital stampede. Theaters might lose a few sales—but the internet? It’s already packed.

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Game Over: Casio Loopy

https://retrohandhelds.gg/game-over-casio-loopy/

Meet the Casio Loopy: the console that printed stickers instead of pixels.

In 1995, while Sony and Sega were locked in a 3D arms race, Casio dropped a lavender wonder that didn’t care about frame rates—it cared about diary decor. With its built-in thermal sticker printer, the Loopy turned gameplay into glittery keepsakes: anime girls, fashion sprites, and your cat’s face (if you were brave enough to scan it via the optional MagiCard). It wasn’t a failure because it was bad—it failed because it was too nice. No one knew if it was a game console, a scrapbooking tool, or a very confused Hello Kitty robot.

Ten games. All sweet. Zero explosions. The market shrugged, grabbed a PlayStation, and never looked back.

But here’s the twist: 30 years later? The Loopy is iconic. Collectors pay top yen for it—not for its 32-bit processor, but because it’s the only console that made you say, “Wait… I can put this on my pencil case?”

It didn’t win the console wars.

It won our hearts.

And honestly? We could use more consoles that ask, “What if gaming felt like a glitter bomb in a journal?” 🎮✨

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

Aylo Wins $90 Million Default Judgment Against Porn Piracy Network

https://torrentfreak.com/aylo-wins-90-million-default-judgment-against-porn-piracy-network/

Aylo just scored a $90 million win—against a ghost.

The parent company of Pornhub, Brazzers, and MOFOS sued an elusive pirate operator named Anton Popravkin for running eight adult sites that streamed over 9,000 of its copyrighted videos. Popravkin? Never showed up in court. So Aylo got a default judgment—a legal win by default, like winning a race because everyone else quit.

The math was wild: Aylo initially asked for $150 million ($15K per video). The judge said, “Nice try,” and cut it to $90 million—still enough to make pirates sweat. But here’s the twist: Aylo knows they’ll never collect a dime. Popravkin’s probably sipping cocktails somewhere with no U.S. assets.

So why bother? Domains. The real win: the court ordered eight pirate domains—FreshPorno, Kojka, you name it—to be handed over to Aylo. Verisign’s already been told: transfer control. In a few days, those sites will go dark… or worse, become Aylo-branded PSA portals. (“Hey, why pirate when you can subscribe?”)

It’s less about the money and more about sending a message: We own the content. You don’t get to steal it—and we’ll take your URL too.

Bottom line: The lawsuit was a legal stunt. The domain seizure? That’s the knockout punch.

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 01/26/2026

https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-torrented-pirated-movies/

This week, Zootopia 2 stole the spotlight—literally. After dethroning last week’s champ, The Rip, Disney’s furry sequel is now the most-pirated movie on the planet. And honestly? We’re not surprised. Who wouldn’t want to watch a sly fox and an overzealous bunny team up again… in 4K, on a Tuesday night?

But here’s the twist: One Battle After Another (IMDb 8.1) is quietly climbing the ranks like a Netflix underdog with a gym membership. Meanwhile, Wicked: For Good and Avatar: Fire and Ash are still drawing crowds—probably because people can’t wait to see if the sequels live up to the hype (or just want free tickets).

The real mystery? Sinners and Bugonia—two titles with no prior ranking—are suddenly everywhere. Are they hidden gems? Or just really good at sneaking into pirated bundles? Either way, someone’s binge-watching in the dark.

Fun fact: Rental Family (7.7) is #7—and if you’re pirating a movie about fake families… maybe it’s time to call your real ones. 📺💥

(Disclaimer: We’re not encouraging piracy—we just find it weirdly fascinating.)

📰 New article from Retro Handhelds

Retro Handhelds Weekly: Retroid Pocket 6, Anbernic RAM Swap, BanjoRecomp, and More

https://retrohandhelds.gg/retro-handhelds-weekly-edition-83/

Retro Handhelds Weekly: RAM Swaps, Banjo Rebirth, and Mario’s Pixel Power Move

Let’s be real—when you drop $200 on a retro handheld, you don’t expect the RAM to suddenly become a ghost story. Anbernic’s RG34XXSP just got downgraded from 2GB to 1GB, and the community is side-eyeing the invoice like it’s a bad cheat code. Meanwhile, Retroid Pocket 6? Delayed—not because of bugs, but screen calibration issues. Turns out, making a perfect 4.5-inch display is harder than it looks.

But wait—there’s magic in the software corner. Banjo-Kazooie just got a full PC remake called BanjoRecomp, and fans are weeping into their N64 controllers. And in the weirdest twist of 2026? Nintendo once told Sega, “Mario must always be one pixel ahead of Sonic” in promotional art. Not metaphorically. Literally. One foot forward. Pixel by pixel. The gaming gods are petty, and we love them for it.

On the hardware front: TrimUI’s Brick Pro is rumored to have joysticks. Yes, you read that right. The handheld world’s favorite chunky little box might finally grow up.

And yes—Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake? Cancelled. But Banjo lives. So do we.

Subscribe to Retro Handhelds Weekly for more chaos, cheese, and controller nostalgia. 🎮

📰 New article from RetroRGB

DSPico – Open Source NDS Flash Cart

https://retrorgb.com/dspico-open-source-nds-flash-cart.html

If you’ve ever longed to relive your NDS days without hunting down dusty cartridges, say hello to DSPico—the world’s first open-source NDS/DSi flash cart, and it’s actually real.

Created by the LNH Team, DSPico isn’t just a nostalgia trip—it’s a full-blown upgrade. Think custom firmware, save states, homebrew support, and even region-free play—all without needing a modded console. And because it’s open source? The community can keep improving it forever. Tito from Macho Nacho Productions didn’t just show it off—he geeked out over the insane level of documentation, which is basically a love letter to DIY enthusiasts.

You can preorder it now via AliExpress or PhenomMod (US), and if you’re wondering why this matters: open-source hardware thrives when people can actually buy it. No more “this looks cool but I don’t have the tools to build it.” DSPico fixes that.

Bonus: It looks like a tiny, sleek NDS cartridge. No ugly cables. Just pure, unadulterated DS magic—reinvented.

Get one before your old DS cart turns to dust. 🕹️

📰 New article from RetroRGB

Small Ultrasonic Cleaner Review

https://retrorgb.com/small-ultrasonic-cleaner-review.html

You know that moment when you’re holding a grimy, decades-old controller and think, “What if I just… sonically bathed it?”

Enter the OSLTWI ultrasonic cleaner — a tiny, $30 machine that turns your junk drawer into a high-tech spa for old electronics. It’s perfect for cleaning PCBs, buttons, or even that one controller you’ve been too grossed out to touch since 2017. And yes, the video shows tobacco products (because of course it does).

Big ultrasonic cleaners? Yeah, they cost $1,000. This one? Less than your last coffee run. But here’s the twist: it’s so small, you can’t even fit a SNES motherboard in there. Still — if your stuff fits? Total win. The reviewer admits he’ll probably use it more for his coffee cup than his NES, but hey, clean bowls are a win too.

The real takeaway? It’s not about power — it’s about accessibility. You don’t need a lab-grade tank to make your retro gear shine. Just a little buzz, some soap, and the confidence that yes, you can revive that dusty Game Boy without a toothbrush.

Space is the real bottleneck — but if you’ve got a shelf and a curiosity? This little guy’s worth every penny.