By Retro Achievements Based on False Accusations and Without Inquiry
For clymax’s projects, click here. You can also follow him on YouTube, Twitter, or Retro Achievements.
1. Achievement Sets Taken Down
Each screenshot is hyperlinked to the original post.
Previously, a Retro Achievements admin already reached out on April 28, 2025 via Discord DM (conversation not reproduced here). The admin sought to confirm if any of my achievement sets were paywalled. This question was confirmed in the negative, and the admin indicated the achievement sets would have no issues.
Admin Announcement via RA Discord, April 25, 2025 (days earlier; bold added)
In light of recent events, the admin team has decided not to allow sets for paid hacks of copyrighted content. We have long striven to avoid any involvement of money in what we do beyond paying server costs, and we don’t believe the risk opened by encouraging unauthorized monetary gains based on a third party’s IP is worth the gain. We still support and encourage paid homebrew, which showcases the creativity and capability of skilled developers without invoking these concerns. Free hacks will of course continue to be supported as well. This is purely about preventing liability.
To be clear, this does not affect any sets at this time, it simply sets up policy for when it becomes relevant.
2. Publicly Addressing RA’s Comments
Let’s take a look at a first comment posted by Retro Achievements:
This set has been demoted due to being unmaintainable as the patch is locked behind a pay wall.
This accusation is false.
Even more problematic is that no attempt was apparently made to verify false information before taking down the work of an achievement developer.
A second comment by Retro Achievements:
This set has been demoted due to patch inaccessibility.
This accusation is also false. As addressed in the next section, the patch has been (and continues to be) primarily available on RAPatches. The patch is secondarily available via multiple major websites that host this kind of mod—a simple Google search would show this—or via my Discord servers, which are free to join.
And a third comment:
The hack author specifically does not want their patches hosted on RAPatches and because of that we aren’t able to ensure continuity of maintenance.
The first part of this statement is true, but that has always been the case, and there have been talks between myself and certain members of Retro Achievements off and on to try to reach a resolution.
Meanwhile, pending a resolution, the patch continued (and continues) to be hosted on RAPatches.
Even if the patch wasn’t hosted on RAPatches, the second part of the statement doesn’t follow from the first. Game roms are not cloned into the repo. That would be illegal, just like cloning hack patches without hack author permission is allegedly. But game achievement sets stay up. Why?
I previously covered Retro Achievements’ double standard and allegedly illegal or unethical practices in the Related Post below.
3. Having the Effect of a Smear Campaign
Sample player comments after the set demotions.
The full extent of the impact can’t be ascertained due to the Discord shadowban covered in the Related Post above.
Making something pay walled makes me want to get a copy and post it everywhere possible.
(Not here of course, that’s bad)
A dev who makes a hack for money is not a dev I respect.
Bring back the free version and maintain it against their will for all I care. They lost the right to protect the hack the moment they decided making money was their goal.
Palhaçada isso
Clymax tem potencial pra um ótimo romhacker, mas toma uma decisão pior q a outra
Triste q eu tava pensando em jogar essa hack[This is ridiculous.
Clymax has the potential to be a great romhacker, but he keeps making one bad decision after another.
It’s sad because I was thinking of playing this hack.]
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