this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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I apologize if this is already answered somewhere but I'm curious what exactly a fitgirl repack is? I know it's a pirated version of a game but like is it just an installer or something? And if you imported the game into steam for example can you be "banned" or VAT (idr the term)

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 year ago (2 children)

is it just an installer or something?

It's a compressed installer to be precise. Usually crackers only put up the patch files, which is pretty useless for anybody wanting to pirate a game. Fitgirl repackages (and compresses) the game files together with the crack patches into a cracked installer, hence "repack".

And if you imported the game into steam for example can you be “banned” or VAT (idr the term)

Nope, though it will look funny in your Steam Status there is nothing to worry about. After all for all Valve knows you could be using a renamed version of a legitimate App, for non-steam entries in steam only the .exe name is known, nothing else.

Just a word of warning: be careful when torrenting the games, while Valve will not ban you for using them game publishers are known to sue when catching you torrenting them (usually the upload part in the torrent is what gets people but the downloading is not 100% safe either). You should definitely look into how to safely torrent stuff before committing to it in order to avoid any nasty cease-and-desist letters flying in your door.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never torrent unless my windscribe is on which is bound to qbittorent

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A man of culture. Whatever we write on th wind is anonymous.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The warning part totally Depends on where you are . I'm not American nor Europeans. I'll continue sailing the high seas 😎

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Arr, me heart be green with envy, it be!

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago

The compression was already explained - I would add that if you're not deep into scene groups, popular repackers are in general a safe choice, i.e. no malware included. Of course it's never 100% safe, but in my opinion safer than picking from a list of torrents what could be the scene release.

I never had issues with fitgirl and Dodi, maybe other users can drop some more names that have proven to be reliable over a long time.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'll add that if you want to archive games forever, storing repacks is a good idea because of their extreme compression. From what I've observed, Fitgirl trends towards heavier compression while DODI trends towards faster install times.

KaOsKrew is another respected repacking group that you can trust.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like how Kaos installer show you how much CPU, RAM and SSD is being used

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Has anyone done a true up between those and a system specific hw monitor? If I was going to hijack CPU and download a shit ton of malicious binaries I'd want to obfuscate that, and adding a CPU monitoring window with fake values is a great way to deflect/create false confidence

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Any sort of malicious activity that's not bitcoin mining can be disguised easily within the background noise of normal CPU usage. If you're getting pwned, assume you're getting pwned for longer than the duration of the install program - any strenuous pwning could be spread out across hours or days if they really wanted. If you're ultra-worried about whether repackers are trustworthy, you can always source clean game files and crack the game yourself.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Idk man dodi's releasees seem to have the same size as fitgirl while also install faster and less CPU intensive when installing

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

No way we're downloading the same repacks, it's rare to see anything as small as fitgirl's releases in my experience. Your CPU had better be ready to step up to the plate though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I've had random errors, lock ups, etc. with Fitgirl's repacks, however Dodi's repacks have been incredibly smooth. Miles Morales installed in less than 4 minutes, using his repack.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So I should get games from kaoskrew?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They're available as an option. You can source from any of Fitgirl, DODI, or KaOs if they have the game you want. Other repackers do exist and they're all generally trustworthy, but those 3 put out a lot of content and have a good track record. ElAmigos is another good one that puts out a lot of releases.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So I just download game from over, run installer, and that's it?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah. What repackers do is they source the game, source all the updates, source the DLC, and source the cracks, then put it all together, make sure it works, compress it into an installer, and distribute it. As an end-user you run the installer to decompress the game and then click play. Repackers don't actually do any of the cracking themselves, they just put it all in one package and make it easy. The installer will run CPU-heavy while it decompresses their heavy compression so don't be alarmed by that.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a cracked version of the game that has been heavily compressed to reduce download size. This is why the installer will eat a lot of CPU resources during installation. While you probably won't be banned, I would generally avoid playing these games through steam as a precaution. Usually multiplayer doesn't work normally anyways.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Playing through steam might be useful for linux users, because proton is on there (but idk if it works with self-added games).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It works amazingly well for me, I install fog games with proton and it just works.

I tried with lutris and bottles but I was always having issues.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fitgirl repacks rarely work with Linux

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Always worked just fine for me

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm sure they work for some but if you check online (Reddit for example), there's loads of issues and the general recommendation is against them because of the issues

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That's because you get an error a lot of times if you use proton-ge or wine-ge in lutris or bottles when installing. The trick is to use system wine for installing and then switching to wine-ge when the install is done.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I've just had poor success with any wine, it just has that error. Others might be more successful but it's definitely a common problem, which is why I think DODI repacks are preferred

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I meant to say pirated games in general, sorry for not clarifing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Repacks are stripped down & compressed versions of other releases from scene or P2P. Stuff like VC/DX redistributables will be removed, and extra languages are usually separate so you can choose not to download them. They are usually a few gigs smaller than the original releases, but come at the cost of much longer installation time & CPU usage to decompress everything. They also sometimes come with updates and DLC pre-applied.

In my opinion if you have decently fast internet there generally isn't really a reason to prefer them over original scene/P2P releases. You also implicitly have to trust both the original release and whoever made the repack - FitGirl in this case. But even if you trust them there are impersonators and reuploaders that will bundle legitimate repacks with infected junk.

Edit: There is also no risk associated with adding pirated games to your Steam library as a non-Steam game.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

+Patches provided with the one installer versus having to download multiple torrents with some of the patches not being actively shared.

+Lots of people sharing FitGirl repacks so better chance of finishing for those a little bit harder to find releases. This could just be a function of me using only public sites.

+Ease of install. It just works. I don't think I've ever had a FitGirl install go bad. Or Dodi. But it can take for-fucking-ever especially if you choose the low ram option (I've tried it a couple of times).

If you get from a reputable site like 1337x.to you don't have worry as long as you are also downloading from one of their reputable uploaders.