For many years, people have referred to "the paradise site" as one of the best places to obtain ROMs of games. From the NES, to the GBA, to the PS2, and more, this site hosted thousands of games. Of course, doing so will bring about the ire of video game developers, and it appeared that Nintendo might have led to the site having to remove many of its ROMs from Nintendo systems as of last year. Now, after 18 years, things seem to be more dire, as Emuparadise will no longer host illegal content or ROMs. The site itself will still be around, and you'll be able to participate on their forums and download emulators, however all "warez" will be removed. The owner of the site plans to have Emuparadise be a retro gaming community, heavily changing how things have been for nearly two decades.

Many of you are aware that the situation with regards to emulation sites has been changing recently. What you probably don't know is that we at EmuParadise have been dealing with similar issues for all 18 years of our existence.

From receiving threatening letters in the early days to our hosts suddenly shutting down our servers due to complaints, we've seen it all. We've always complied with takedown requests but as you can see, that is no guarantee of anything.

I started EmuParadise 18 years ago because I never got to play many of these amazing retro games while growing up in India and I wanted other people to be able to experience them. Over the years, many folks have joined in and contributed to this vision and I think I can say that we've been successful in spreading our passion for retro games far and wide.

Through the years I've worked tirelessly with the rest of the EmuParadise team to ensure that everyone could get their fix of retro gaming. We've received thousands of emails from people telling us how happy they've been to rediscover and even share their childhood with the next generations in their families. We've had emails from soldiers at war saying that the only way they got through their days was to be lost in the retrogames that they played from when they were children. We've got emails from brothers who have lost their siblings to cancer and were able to find solace in playing the games they once did as children. There are countless stories like these.

It's been a long and beautiful journey with many ups and downs. When I started EmuParadise things could have gone either way. But right now the direction they are going in could not be more than clear.

So where does that leave us?

It's not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences. I cannot in good conscience risk the futures of our team members who have contributed to the site through the years. We run EmuParadise for the love of retro games and for you to be able to revisit those good times. Unfortunately, it's not possible right now to do so in a way that makes everyone happy and keeps us out of trouble.

This is an extremely emotional decision for me after running this site for so many years. But I believe it is the right thing for us at this point of time.

Thus, we have decided to make a new start. We will continue to be passionate retro gamers and will keep doing cool stuff around retro games. But you won't be able to get your games from here for now. Where we go with this is up to us and up to you.

We'll still have our emulators database, the community, and everything that comes along with that.

We have already made several plans of what is going to happen next. It's going to be a fun new beginning and there's going to be lots to come! We'd also love to hear from you in the comments about what you think we should do. But for now, we need to make this change. We've served the community for 18 glorious years and it's been a hell of a ride!

But every end is a new beginning and we're excited to find a way forward to continue being your #1 emulation destination.

Thank you for supporting us through this journey. We could not have done so much without you visiting us, telling your friends about us, uploading screenshots and descriptions, telling us when something was wrong, letting us know when we messed up, and more. Thank you for being a part of our community and encouraging us through all these years.

 

[Uiaad]

people are blaming Nintendo when it was literally Emuparadise who truly jumped the gun. They didn't need to remove non-Nintendo (Arcade, Sony, etc.) roms/isos/etc. I doubt Nintendo even cared about the strategy guides.

I don't see it as jumping the gun. They have a community that they have spent 18 years building and they pretty much knew they were going to be the one of the next targets, who wouldn't want to protect something that they have worked on for the last 18 years ? What EP have done is a reasonable reaction. Much like GBATemp has has its roots in Sharing ROMS and moved away EP can do the same.

As for the ROMS themselves, a lot of people already have a more or less complete archive of roms and old games (myself included) and people aren't gonna just stop sharing them.

 

[ShadowOne333]

I don't see Sega losing Sonic over fangames, romhacks and roms available.

 

[Deleted User]

Good for them if they have the money, but cartridges wear out, CDs wear out, physical media has a finite lifespan. Can't preserve games that are inoperative.

lol cartridges do not "wear out" such nonsense physical media exists physically in real life not in digital bytes and bytes land.

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You can literally buy a backup device to back them up. This is not illegal to do AFAIK, just sharing your backups or downloading others' backups is.

Once again, it's amazing how pirates will try to defend piracy as much as they can.

Wish i could like this 10000 times

 

[Uiaad]

lol cartridges do not "wear out" such nonsense physical media exists physically in real life not in digital bytes and bytes land.

Of course Cartridges can wear out what planet are you from because it's certainly not earth

 

[Deleted User]

Of course Cartridges can wear out what planet are you from because it's certainly not earth

plz dude there are millions of carts and cd's out there, there is no wide spread corruption of these games.

This is how pirates make themselves feel better.

 

[Uiaad]

There is still only a finite amount of these items out there, largely not enough for everyone who wants one to actually own one.

 

[Mrperson0]

I don't see Sega losing Sonic over fangames, romhacks and roms available.

Remember when Sega was being assholes for literally removing YouTube videos of one of their own games (something Nintendo didn't do)? Pirates probably don't.

Of course Cartridges can wear out what planet are you from because it's certainly not earth

This is true, but we are not even close to the time where even NES cartridges would stop working as a whole.

What's next, should people not be forced to buy a 3DS if they want to play 3DS games?

 

[Deleted User]

plz dude there are millions of carts and cd's out there, there is no wide spread corruption of these games.

This is how pirates make themselves feel better.

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/02/cds-are-beginning-to-rot/
https://simplicable.com/new/data-rot
https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/bit-rot
I'm just going to link these. and then tell me there is no possible way for widespread corruption.
Data rot is difficult to get more detail on. But disc rot is a thing. And that is caused by chemical reactions we don't have control over. Unless you want to put your cd in a fridge.

 

[ShadowOne333]

plz dude there are millions of carts and cd's out there, there is no wide spread corruption of these games.

This is how pirates make themselves feel better.

Carts and CDs do not wear out?
Man what a perfect world you must be living in, where there is no corrosion in cartridges nor scratches in disks.
Obviously carts well stored will not suffer from this,as they are somehow protected, but moisture in the air is certainly something that can wear out a cartridge.
Game consoles are the most known to suffer from this, as they are constantly exposed to sunlight and moisture from the air, but do not come claiming that carts nor CDs wear out, as that is a complete lie.

Remember when Sega was being assholes for literally removing YouTube videos of one of their own games (something Nintendo didn't do)? Pirates probably don't.

Removing videos goes nowhere near the level of what Nintendo is doing since decades ago.
Sega might have done that, but really it goes nowhere near what Nintendo is attempting, videos are of minimal to zero importance, reviews come by the dozen and copyright infrigement in YT is something Nintendo is not free of charge from, as let's not forget that they have a full-blown monopoly on everything even closely resembling Nintendo content on every channel, as little as a simple piano cover to a playthrough or a portion of a game from any of their consoles.

Again, Nintendo's whole pre-millenia attitude and Empire is uncalled for, as there are plenty of other franchises and IPs from other companies that haven't even gone near losing any IP due to fangames, romhacks, roms available or even media of any kind (videos in the case of YouTube) from being online.
Sega and Sonic is a clear example of this, and they still hold the copyrights and distribution rights to anything Sonic, while still letting all the other media I mentioned alone.

Nintendo could learn a lot of things from other companies, more so from their old rival Sega in this kind of regards.
Just wait until Miyamoto dies and we'll see how well they hold up against all of this archaic bullshit of theirs.

 

[Deleted User]

Carts and CDs do not wear out?
Man what a perfect world you must be living in, where there is no corrosion in cartridges nor scratches in disks.
Obviously carts well stored will not suffer from this,as they are somehow protected, but moisture in the air is certainly something that can wear out a cartridge.
Game consoles are the most known to suffer from this, as they are constantly exposed to sunlight and moisture from the air, but do not come claiming that carts nor CDs wear out, as that is a complete lie.


Removing videos goes nowhere near the level of what Nintendo is doing since decades ago.
Sega might have done that, but really it goes nowhere near what Nintendo is attempting, videos are of minimal to zero importance, reviews come by the dozen and copyright infrigement in YT is something Nintendo is not free of charge from, as let's not forget that they have a full-blown monopoly on everything even closely resembling Nintendo content on every channel, as little as a simple piano cover to a playthrough or a portion of a game from any of their consoles.

Again, Nintendo's whole pre-millenia attitude and Empire is uncalled for, as there are plenty of other franchises and IPs from other companies that haven't even gone near losing any IP due to fangames, romhacks, roms available or even media of any kind (videos in the case of YouTube) from being online.
Sega and Sonic is a clear example of this, and they still hold the copyrights and distribution rights to anything Sonic, while still letting all the other media I mentioned alone.

Nintendo could learn a lot of things from other companies, more so from their old rival Sega in this kind of regards.
Just wait until Miyamoto dies and we'll see how well they hold up against all of this archaic bullshit of theirs.

Not only that but fangames also caused someone to get a job.... and a make a very successful game that helped sega.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Not only that but fangames also caused someone to get a job.... and a make a very successful game that helped sega.

Exactly, it wouldn't hurt to take a lesson or two from them.
Nintendo is so full up their asses with their games right now that they feel they can't go wrong no matter what they do.
But as I said, they are being utterly proud of themselves, so that when Miyamoto's time arrives, they will be hit hard.

 

[Darksabre72]

shame i use that website to find roms i can't find on some websites.

 

[Mrperson0]

as let's not forget that they have a full-blown monopoly on everything even closely resembling Nintendo content on every channel, as little as a simple piano cover to a playthrough or a portion of a game from any of their consoles.

lol, this is an outright lie. Amazing how so many Nintendo haters still don't know what the status is between Nintendo and YouTube. At the moment, Nintendo will ONLY content ID (take monetization of) videos that have games in this whitelist: https://r.ncp.nintendo.net/whitelist/

And even then, if they do that, you could literally sign up for the program through a per-video basis, and get a 60/40 (in your favor) split of any ad revenue. This is basically the same split that you would normally get through an MCN (very few people directly partner with Google since you don't get paid until you reach a $100 threshold).

And if Nintendo copyright claims a video NOT in that whitelist (usually through their bots) accidentally? You can dispute it and they will usually remove the content ID match.

Sega and Sonic is a clear example of this, and they still hold the copyrights and distribution rights to anything Sonic, while still letting all the other media I mentioned alone.

You can keep on trying to bring up Sega, but they are literally no longer on the same level as Nintendo anymore.

Just wait until Miyamoto dies and we'll see how well they hold up against all of this archaic bullshit of theirs.

Wow, you guys are truly amazing. I won't be surprised if Nintendo still tries to protect their copyright after he passes away. Thankfully it's only a very small minority that cares about stealing their work and trying to profit out of it.

 

[ShadowOne333]

lol, this is an outright lie. Amazing how so many Nintendo haters still don't know what the status is between Nintendo and YouTube. At the moment, Nintendo will ONLY content ID (take monetization of) videos that have games in this whitelist: https://r.ncp.nintendo.net/whitelist/

And even then, if they do that, you could literally sign up for the program through a per-video basis, and get a 60/40 (in your favor) split of any ad revenue. This is basically the same split that you would normally get through an MCN (very few people directly partner with Google since you don't get paid until you reach a $100 threshold).

And if Nintendo copyright claims a video NOT in that whitelist (usually through their bots) accidentally? You can dispute it and they will usually remove the content ID match.

How is that a lie?
I said they have a monopoly on Nintendo content through YouTube, I didn't say they removed videos at any point nor even hinted at it.
It's the whole copyright claims and de-monetization of what could have their content in it.
If that's not a monopoly, then I don't know what is.

You can keep on trying to bring up Sega, but they are literally no longer on the same level as Nintendo anymore.

Perhaps they aren't, but if that's the case, the ones over-protecting their IP should be Sega, not Nintendo.

Wow, you guys are truly amazing. I won't be surprised if Nintendo still tries to protect their copyright after he passes away. Thankfully it's only a very small minority that cares about stealing their work and trying to profit out of it.

What I meant was what position will Nintendo be once their supreme lord is no more.
They seem to so high up due to their outstanding success with the Switch and their IPs that if something like that happens, I'd like to see how well can Nintendo stand in front of the competition if they decide to continue with their archaic decision and without him.

 

[WildDog]

Except, that's impossible because not every single game can be legally purchased on a digital storefront. How the bloody hell do you expect people to buy every single damned game in existence? You can't, because there are only small fractions of games digitally available, so please, keep on bitching about piracy ad infinitum.

Oh the game was never for sale??? Uhmm maybe, maybe, that means the OWNER of the game didn't want to release.. Maybe they don't want people using it.. But hey, who do they think they are... How can they think they have rights over a piece of software they made and wasted money on it!!! It belongs to the PEOPLE!!!
i'm right tovarisch???


It's easy, you didn't buy the game? Then you have NO right to use it. You don't like??? It's a shame but that's how it works.
Let's say that Sony wants to erase every source code from the games they hold copyright. They can, it's THEIR stuff, not YOURS. They don't own you anything.
You don't like how nintendo behaves? Well then don't buy a switch, make it flop... But people keep buying it.. So they are not going to change as long they have a good income.

 

[the_randomizer]

Wow, I voice my opinions and people piss and moan like impotent sufferers. Bitch, bitch, bitch, that's all I see.

 

[barronwaffles]

Wow, I voice my opinions and people piss and moan like impotent sufferers. Bitch, bitch, bitch, that's all I see.

There's that complete lack of self awareness I missed.

 

[the_randomizer]

There's that complete lack of self awareness I missed.

Wow, three people for me to add, that's a record. This calls for a celebration. I download ROMs, I don't support Nintendo's handling of this debacle, I suppose you want me to write it down in detail?

 

[WildDog]

Wow, I voice my opinions and people piss and moan like impotent sufferers. Bitch, bitch, bitch, that's all I see.

You are a funny guy. Everyone is free to voice their opinion, that doesn't mean people is not able to point what's wrong with the opinion you voiced.
Flat earthers can give us their opinion that the earth is flat.. That doesn't mean people can't reply to them and point what's wrong with their opinion.

- Video Games(the software) have right holder they can do as they wish with the software. They don't own anything to the public. It's their property and they have the right to do what they want with it.

-"I preserve history" is a poor excuse when you don't want to say "I pirate games because i want". The history is preserved by musems and private owners that get their stuff the legal way.

-Emulators are in no danger because of this (Like a lot of people is saying in youtube...). Can you point me to an emulator dev team that endorse downloading roms that you don't have a license from the net?? They will tell you "You must dump your own stuff!!"

-"But but media rot and decay!!!" aren't you a curator that preserve history??? then you should now how to preserve media from decay( IT IS POSSIBLE!!)!

-"But but but i want to play it!!!" Dump your own rom then preserve the media...

-"The tools to dump rom from Nes cart are too expensive!!" So?

-Are Scalpers greedy bastards? Yes, but they have the right to sell their used to stuff the price they see fit... If i want to sell a rock for 1.000.000 I CAN... If someone is soo filthy rich and silly to paid that amount for a rock, it's their problem. Too expensive?? DON'T BUY IT.. If there is no buyer, they will have to download the price..... Economy 101.....

-"Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, etc ARE GREEDY!!!" Of course they are! they are after a profit, they are not the salvation army.. They want MONEY, that's why the invest so much in hardware and software developement, to get PROFIT BACK. They are lucratives companies, they want money and there is nothing wrong with it.

-"ARGH I WON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM NINTENDO!!! That's great a way to give some weight to your opinion and if everyone acts the same, then nintendo will change their mind, when they start to see they are losing money.

 

[FAST6191]

Wow, I voice my opinions and people piss and moan like impotent sufferers. Bitch, bitch, bitch, that's all I see.

If you voice an opinion you may well get questioned upon it. It is kind of how this internet lark works.
If you want "*pat pat* you're a good boy, a fine boy, a smart boy" then you found the wrong site.

Also you are the one crying over a bloody ROM site going down, like it does not happen every other day for the last... there were BBS which got smackdowns. Then considering it some great injustice and how it is your righteous cause to grab ROMs.