Search Within This Episode
About This Episode
In this episode, John and Dave talk about discovering ZimaOS and building an affordable home lab using repurposed hardware - and how that single setup quickly expands into media streaming, network-wide ad blocking, ROM organization, browser-based retro gaming, backups, and local services. Along the way, they also touch on the Commodore 64 Ultimate, a Sega Channel preservation project, a retro electronics repair simulator, and why digital preservation and self-hosting matter more than ever. Topics & sub-topics discussed: ZimaOS - app-based operating system that makes home labs approachable https://www.zimaspace.com/zimaos Home lab fundamentals - NAS, backups, ad blocking, VMs, and always-on servers ROMM - organizing ROM libraries with metadata, artwork, and downloads https://github.com/rommapp/romm EmulatorJS - play retro games directly in your web browser https://emulatorjs.org Jellyfin - self-hosted media streaming without subscriptions https://jellyfin.org The 8-Bit Files Podcast & Discord https://the8bitfiles.com