Unless you have hundreds of accounts at various private trackers, you’re most likely missing out on the majority of what is being released (leaked) from the scene. Even so, it’s been estimated that 90% of scene releases don’t make it to BitTorrent at any level; whereas IRC, Usenet and even eD2k offer much more variety for those who seek out hard-to-find scene stuff. If you’re looking for something specific, dupecheck and preDB websites contain a wealth of information for the latest 0day and 0sec releases.
What is a Dupecheck site?
A dupecheck (or duplicate checker) is an automated repository of validated scene releases. Most dupecheck sites pull their listings from various public and private IRC predb (pre database) bots and other sources.
What can a Dupecheck website do for you?
Typically most dupecheck sites don’t offer direct downloading, specific links or even torrent files. You’ll need your own sources to find the releases. A great thing about dupecheck sites is that most offer NFO files that accompany each scene release. Not only do you get an official release name (which it extremely helpful for searching), but often a serial number will also be viewable int the NFO (whenever applicable) for a software title - so you can avoid using risky serial/crack sites.
PreDB, Scene & Dupecheck Sites
You’ve probably come across similar lists akin to the one below. FSF has cleaned it up for 2009, and added our own short synopsis for each.
General Sites:
http://pre.scnsrc.net — Very promising new preDB from SceneSource. Hundreds of daily additions in all release categories. The NFOs are only available on MP3s and 0Day, and are external.
http://nfohump.com — Not quite as thorough as a preDB, but still formidable. Has NFO files and search links to public trackers and binsearch.info.
www.doopes.com — Excellent dupecheck site with every category imaginable, with thousands of releases added daily. While there aren’t any NFO files to view, the customized filtering options are top-notch.
www.NFOogle.com — Very cool NFO and release search utility! Pulls results from pre.scnsrc, nfohump, vcdq, doopes, theisonews, etc.
www.vcdq.com — Dupecheck/NFO site for all things video-related - similar layout to NFOHump.
http://dupe.sabeln.org — Good dupecheck site dating all the way back to 2001, perhaps earlier. The XviD and TVRip sections are sporatic at best, and new releases haven’t been added since September and November 2008, respectively. The Console and DVDR releases appear to be up-to-date.
http://0day.ugia.net — Contains 0day rip release infomation dating back to 2002. Almost all of the releases contain NFO files that are viewable as images or ASCII. Ugia offers RSS feeds for any of your conducted searches, and will keep you informed when new releases become available (in the subscribed feed). Aside from direct searching by release name [Adobe], users can search Ugia (in the following format) by date [date:2009-01-06] and release group [group:scotch]. (NOTE: The database is continuously updated, but there’s a lag from days to weeks for current releases to be shown).
http://dupe-hq.info — Amazing dupecheck database! While there are no NFO files displayed here, Dupe-HQ’s main attraction comes in sheer volume with over 1,000 releases added daily. Categories (MP3, XXX, TV, 0Day) are easily browsable, as are the release groups. There’s even an RSS feed - although you’ll never be able to keep up with it at these numbers.
http://0daycheck.eastgame.net/0day — Chinese (and English) site that shows current 0day (appz) releases. While there are no NFO files to view, the official release names are left intact (with release group), and there are handy links to each software vendor’s website. TIP: Use the ‘quicksearch’ box for title/group searching, and the calendar on the right sidebar to switch between days.
http://www.0daynews.net — Lately, we haven’t seen much new here, but they have an impressive collection of releases. There’s no NFO files, plus you’ll need to conduct specific searches for the site to show any relevancy - search results are limited to a maximum of 150.
http://nfodb.com — NFOs database. Some categories are no longer maintained, and newer releases are not current.
http://www.zenet.org/pre/ — A web mirror of their IRC pre channel. Displays the last 100 releases (about an hour’s worth of data).
www.wrestlingdupe.com — You guessed it: A dupechecker for wrestling, boxing, MMA, UFC.
http://exs.no-ip.org — Has some current video listings, but not much here.
Console / Games Sites:
www.console-releases.net — Tracks only new game scene releases for Wii and XBOX (360), but done rather well. Each release has a GameFAQs link, an NFO file and an in-game screener.
www.logic-sunrise.com/releases.html — Huge list of almost 5,000 console/games releases, although the list hasn’t been kept current since 25-11-2008.
www.ludibria.com — Console games NFO database with official scene releases only. The site is a little tricky to navigate through to older entries - you’ll need to click on a category and select a date range. By default, categories only show releases for the current month.
www.abgx.net — Tracks console games from specified newsgroups. Additional info is supplied for each title (Pre-patched, region, etc).
www.xbins.org — XBOX and XBOX 360 tools & utility releases only.
http://gbatemp.net — GBA, NDS and Wii releases. TIP: The higher the release number, the more recent the release.
www.theisonews.com — Nothing new since Dec. 2007.
www.dvdrfixes.com — As the URL suggests; fixes for DVDR releases.
Music / MP3 Sites:
www.mp3kingz.org — MP3 release site with NFOs and official scene release names. Sources - Usenet. Sister sites include
www.0daykingz.org and
www.pornkingz.org.
www.mp3-list.net — Excellent site for the latest music releases; literally hundreds of new daily additions. There’s a ‘premium’ option for direct downloading, as well.
http://releases.mp3-tunes.nl — Not a whole lot of new stuff being added lately.
http://m2v.ru — While M2V.ru contains an assortment of categories, only the MP3 releases are kept current.
http://nfodb.net.ru — Over 135,000 music releases listed.
http://forces.sytes.net — DNBFORCES serves up Drum ‘n Bass NFOs (click on the ‘forces’ link).
http://nfo.sigsegv.ru/nfo/ — D&B music release site.
www.technorocker.info/tracks/TR/ — Not so much of a release site, but worth mentioning anyways. Full techno albums are available as download links from RapidShare, ZippyShare, etc.
Other / Localized Sites:
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http://ocean3dupe.com [French]
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http://nldupe.net [Dutch]
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http://www.swenews.info [Swedish]
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http://www.swecheck.net [Swedish]
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http://www.xrel.to [German]
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http://nfo-base.de [German]
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http://www.nfos.de [German]
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http://qdupe.com - not updating
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http://releases.pocketheaven.com - Nothing new since 2006
Public IRC Pre Channels
Advantages (from Wikipedia):
• Members of a Pre-Channel are notified about new warez/scene releases as they are released. This is of particular benefit to Couriers (Racers) and Release Groups as well as torrent sites interested in uploading Scene Releases for their members as fast as possible.
• Pre-Channels commonly announce when a release is Nuked or UnNuked. (Releases are “Nuked” when a release does not meet Scene Standards).
• Pre-Channels provide a search facility that allows users to find out if a release exists, when it was released, and if it has been nuked. This function may also be used by release groups to avoid dupes (duplicates).
• Pre-Channels are also used for Topsites to measure how fast they received the release, otherwise known as the pretime.
Disadvantages:
• If a Pre-Bot does not include an elaborate filter to disallow certain words and characters, it can be annoying when defaced with spam.
Looking for a list of public ‘pre’ channels? Try this search:
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http://searchirc.com/irc-pre-1—
http://searchirc.com/irc-tracers-1 (for Torrent racers channels)
P2P-NET’s Pre channel:
Server: irc.p2p-net-eu
Ports: 6667
Channel: #pre
Hotlink: irc://irc.p2p-net.eu:6667/pre
#pre.search — irc://irc.p2p-net.eu:6667/pre.search
ScnSrc:
Server: irc.link-net.org
Ports: 6667 (7000 for SSL)
Channel: #scnsrc
Hotlink: irc://irc.link-net.org:6667/scnsrc
Spidernet.org:
Server: irc.spidernet.org
Ports: 6667
Channel: #pre
Hotlink: irc://irc.spidernet.org:6667/pre
Zenet.org:
Server: irc.zenet.org
Ports: 6667
Channel: #pre
Hotlink: irc://irc.zenet.org:6667/pre
Other IRC Channels:
- #tvrip.se on EFnet
- #dvdr.se on EFnet
- #xvid.se on EFnet
- #console.se on EFnet
- #NFO on EFnet
- #isonews on EFnet
- #vcdquality on EFnet
- #dnbforces on EFnet
- #RiPS.LV on After-All
- #xRel on WiredIRC
- #nfo-base on insiderZ.DE
General
