June 07, 2008 by sharky
Registration at Blackcats - A Recipe for Futility?
Blackcats has always been a bit of a quarky site to register at. During the five months between November ‘07 and March ‘08 they hardly let anyone new into the tracker. Yet, April and May have seen a steady influx of new members, and in June they’ve already added an additional 836.
As of June 4th, Blackcats has moved over to new hosting which may solve some of the registration woes. Looking to get in? We can only recommend you keep trying - use the traditional approach by knocking on their front door, and click the ‘Register’ link - they’ve been open sporadically during the this past week. However, here is a popular post that outlines how to get in to Blackcats using a few Firefox add-ons; we should note that it’s been met with mixed reviews.
Torrent Categories
If it’s game-related, you’ll find it on Blackcats. Here’s the categories listing:
Here’s a look at the torrent count by category / console:
| Dreamcast | 34 Torrents |
| DS (Nintendo) | 415 |
| Game Dox | 100 |
| Game OST | 173 |
| Gamecube | 141 |
| iPod | 3 |
| Linux & Mac Games | 23 |
| Mobile & PocketPC/Palm | 38 |
| PS1 | 176 |
| PS2 | 1411 |
| PS3 | 16 |
| PSP / PSXPSP | 830 |
| ROMs | 83 |
| Saturn | 26 |
| Wii | 676 |
| Wii VC | 145 |
| Wii Ware | 32 |
| Windows (PC) | 1198 |
| XBOX | 327 |
| XBOX 360 | 502 |
Blackcats Forums
The BCG forums are another huge reason why this tracker is a cut above the rest. They’re a busy place, indeed - and there’s also a Tutorials thread for each category of game. Here’s just a sample of the XBOX 360 tutorials:
Blackcats Stats
Here’s the stats for the tracker, as of June 6, ‘08. There is currently a 100,000 users max. limit, but accounts get pruned ‘often’ which makes room for new registrations/invites.
‘Seed Points’ System:
Aside from the regular UP/DOWN ratios, users can also benefit from the BCG "Seed Points" system, whereby upload credit can be bestowed onto the account holder:
Q: What is the purpose of the Seed Points mod?
While leaving torrents running after completion until they have reached a ratio of at least 1.0 by uploading to others is the preferable means of seeding, at times it becomes difficult to do so. In particular, there are times when after completing a download, members will be left with no downloaders to seed to, or, on newer, popular torrents, there may be so many seeds compared to the number of downloaders that they are unable to connect with them to seed properly. This is where Seed Points will help them.
The system is designed to assist the members by raising their ratios and awarding them upload credit on those difficult torrents, following a set of strict criteria.
Blackcats ‘Scene Releases’
Most serious torrenters are already aware that the best stuff comes from release groups in the form of proper "scene releases". Well, unsurprisingly, Blackcats knows it, too - and has a ‘Scene Releases’ feature that feeds from NFOHump.com’s (formerly ‘NFOrce.nl) listings of recently released games.
Here, users can check out what would be classified as ‘official’, and then conduct a search for it on BCG - more often than not, it’ll turn up at Blackcats.
We were thrilled to see this feature - games are broken down into each category / console:
BCG Rules / Classes
Nothing special here. The ‘Download Rules’ are specific, though:
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