Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
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Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
Ask almost any PC gamer from Asia to South America, and they will tell you the same thing: FitGirl is the one name in piracy that everyone recognises
The Business Standard (www.tbsnews.net)
The repacker* is great but there’s also ElAmigos and DODI.
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it’s consistent, quick, and dependable. There’s no reason to use anything else. I get the original purpose was for people in countries with slow internet connections but now everyone just uses it.
It’s harder to use on Linux, and lower-performance devices. I would prefer prefer having dumps of the pre-installed game folder to use on a steam deck, for example.
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The repacker* is great but there’s also ElAmigos and DODI.
They crack, she repacks
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it’s consistent, quick, and dependable. There’s no reason to use anything else. I get the original purpose was for people in countries with slow internet connections but now everyone just uses it.
Which is kinda positive because that mean faster torrents
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It’s harder to use on Linux, and lower-performance devices. I would prefer prefer having dumps of the pre-installed game folder to use on a steam deck, for example.
I use it all the time on linux, what problems did you have?
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Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
Ask almost any PC gamer from Asia to South America, and they will tell you the same thing: FitGirl is the one name in piracy that everyone recognises
The Business Standard (www.tbsnews.net)
I have zero trust installing pirated software, especially when they go out of their way to break it when using wine on Linux or running it in a vm.
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Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
Ask almost any PC gamer from Asia to South America, and they will tell you the same thing: FitGirl is the one name in piracy that everyone recognises
The Business Standard (www.tbsnews.net)
Note plenty FitGirl repacks are lossless; as in, she isn’t taking less important files out of the game, she’s compressing it better. 90GB→35GB seems accurate; you often see ~1/3 of the original size, like this. And it shows plenty game devs
- do an extremely bad job at basic tasks like compression.
- give no flying fucks about players, who might have really slow connections.
And then those same developers get amazed at the fact FitGirl is so popular. “Maybe we’re doing something wrong? …nah.”
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It’s harder to use on Linux, and lower-performance devices. I would prefer prefer having dumps of the pre-installed game folder to use on a steam deck, for example.
You’re missing the point. The other user is highlighting why your typical player would go with those repacks. And, well, your typical player doesn’t use Linux (…yet - Microsoft is fixing this real fast.)
(I typically use johncena141, but I don’t recall having problems with FitGirl.)
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It’s harder to use on Linux, and lower-performance devices. I would prefer prefer having dumps of the pre-installed game folder to use on a steam deck, for example.
They seem to work fine for me on Linux? Only thing is that stupid isdone.dll error but that’s easily fixed using a different runner
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Note plenty FitGirl repacks are lossless; as in, she isn’t taking less important files out of the game, she’s compressing it better. 90GB→35GB seems accurate; you often see ~1/3 of the original size, like this. And it shows plenty game devs
- do an extremely bad job at basic tasks like compression.
- give no flying fucks about players, who might have really slow connections.
And then those same developers get amazed at the fact FitGirl is so popular. “Maybe we’re doing something wrong? …nah.”
It’s more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.
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Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
Ask almost any PC gamer from Asia to South America, and they will tell you the same thing: FitGirl is the one name in piracy that everyone recognises
The Business Standard (www.tbsnews.net)
I’ve had a lot less of a desire to pirate games after moving to Linux full time a few years ago. But FitGirl has been the one reliable place for public torrents, compaed to chancing it on the third Google Link or scrolling through the Russian CS-Rin-Rulette forum to find links.
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It’s more likely that the devs are not being given the time or resources to do this kind of thing properly. Their bosses are too concerned with what will save money and generate shareholder value.
Fair point. I guess it would be more accurate to say “development studios” (you know, the organisation… including the bloody boss) instead of “game devs”.
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I use it all the time on linux, what problems did you have?
What’s your process for running the unpacker executable? Maybe it depends on the game, but I set up a wineprefix through Lutris and always seem to run into issues getting it to complete properly without any unpacking errors.
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The repacker* is great but there’s also ElAmigos and DODI.
I only use DODI when there is no Fitgirl release. DODI torrents are always behind spam/scam link gates and the installer is horrible. In the DODI installer to start it for some reason you have to press the up arrow or something. Just… why? It’s like he saw that feature on his phone lock screen and decided to add it without asking himself what purpose it serves. The installer is also totally broken if you have changed windows scaling so every time I want to use it I have to go into the properties and disable scaling.
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It’s harder to use on Linux, and lower-performance devices. I would prefer prefer having dumps of the pre-installed game folder to use on a steam deck, for example.
As someone trying to move to Linux this year, what issues are there? I’ve heard this before, but I never see an explanation on what makes it difficult.
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What’s your process for running the unpacker executable? Maybe it depends on the game, but I set up a wineprefix through Lutris and always seem to run into issues getting it to complete properly without any unpacking errors.
For the setup:
Final Edit: The wine prefix is the same for the games and the installer, just a windows subsystem that has all the dependencies.
First I install the wine-cachyos package, create a WINEPREFIX variable for the folder i want to put the prefix in, then i run winecfg to start the prefix, then I install the dotnet packages and vcredist packages through (before, when the repos existed) these links for the vcredist and dotnet (maybe archive.org or somewhere else still have the executables), or using winetricks too, but these are nicer to use as they install everything in one go.
Then I install the dxvk and vkd3d (you can install through lutris, so this is kinda useless hahaha).
Then I run the fitgirl repack through lutris and click to install the vcredist or .net when asked.
Then I just run the game with a runner or wine-cachyos.
I’ll update this with valid links when I find them.
Edit: last time I used this and this, installing just the .net runtimes, not directx, java, silverlight, etc.
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Why FitGirl won't die: The repacker millions of gamers depend on in an age of surveillance
Ask almost any PC gamer from Asia to South America, and they will tell you the same thing: FitGirl is the one name in piracy that everyone recognises
The Business Standard (www.tbsnews.net)
If you can afford it
Might be a better option, or least send the devs some support while using repacks. It’s sort of like a thrift store when you find something you really wanted maybe a game you didn’t even know of, and it means a lot more because it feels like finding a treasure.
I actually didn’t know that the whole point of fitgirl was for compression, I’ve been blessed with massive hard drives. I think I took my 4tb ssd for granted. Not everyone has even an extra $5 .
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They crack, she repacks
They crack, she repacks
This is just not true. Both DODI and ElAmigos are Repackers.
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As someone trying to move to Linux this year, what issues are there? I’ve heard this before, but I never see an explanation on what makes it difficult.
Proton can handle the game files but not the installer. So you have to install in wine and it’s a hassle. I install the games on my windows pc, zip them and then transfer them to my deck.
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I only use DODI when there is no Fitgirl release. DODI torrents are always behind spam/scam link gates and the installer is horrible. In the DODI installer to start it for some reason you have to press the up arrow or something. Just… why? It’s like he saw that feature on his phone lock screen and decided to add it without asking himself what purpose it serves. The installer is also totally broken if you have changed windows scaling so every time I want to use it I have to go into the properties and disable scaling.
Ah, alright alright
DODI torrents are always behind spam/scam link gates
There’s a bypass script for this and should be on the DB0 megathread list (or at least in the PiratedGames megathread).
and the installer is horrible. In the DODI installer to start it for some reason you have to press the up arrow or something. Just… why?
Honestly, I never found this to be an issue. But can understand it could be a bit annoying.