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.

 

[Song of storms]

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

How difficult is a Google search before posting?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Bitch, bitch, bitch, that's all I see.

Funny, that's what I see whenever you post anything :hmm:

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

Let's not forget the guy behind Jenesis DS that helped Sega make the DS port for the original Sonic games!

But Sega is different than Nintendo. Remember that they were biting really hard on people for the smallest things when they were a little more relevant than now. Remember this? https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/13glp8/sega_starts_quietly_removing_youtube_users_videos/

 

[Kourin]

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

To be fair, said things are literally keeping Sonic alive. Mania was made by the author of a really good fangame.

 

[WildDog]

To be fair, said things are literally keeping Sonic alive. Mania was made by the author of a really good fangame.

That's why Sega doesn't care about fan content, because they need it to keep the fire lit.
Nintendo in the other hand doesn't need a lot from Hardcore fans, they will sell systems and games, because they are Nintendo and more people knows about them than the bible.

They are business, they want money and they will act on it's profits, that's why Sony killed the Vita and Nintendo killed the WII U, yet they kept alive older systems. It goes down to the profit.
If capcom can get a shitload of money from the Resident Evil 2 Remake, then soon you will have Re3 remake, Dino Remake, etc... They got the idea to remake 2 after releasing the Remaster of "Remake" and Zero, they saw the market and the profit.

 

[the_randomizer]

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.

I didn't realize opinions on the internet could be taken seriously or actually matter, how silly of me. Anyway, I'm done here, this bullshit has gone on ad infinitum. Screw this.

 

[banjo2]

I didn't know people liked old games this much tbh

 

[Deleted User]

I didn't know people liked old games this much tbh

joke?

 

[FAST6191]

I didn't realize opinions on the internet could be taken seriously or actually matter, how silly of me. Anyway, I'm done here, this bullshit has gone on ad infinitum. Screw this.

So you were effectively just spamming up the thread before now? And you wonder why people take exception.

 

[the_randomizer]

So you were effectively just spamming up the thread before now? And you wonder why people take exception.

Whatever you say. I don't need an excuse to download ROMs, I'm sick of trying to defend myself, so I give up on my opinions, and what I say, it's not worth it. You're more than welcome to block me, if that'll make you feel better. I'm done, I'm fucking done, stop following every damn thing I say, okay??

 

[kuwanger]

I imagine an alternate past. One in which Sony and Sega and Nintendo all were able to effectively crush piracy. Instead of people huddling around their own computers and systems with "backups", we'd have seen lobbying to severely curtail the length of copyright. Instead of having "the Tea Party" we would had "the Pac-Man Party"* that reduced copyright down to 20 years. Instead of seeing things like the touring King Tut exhibit, we'd have libraries hosting the touring "Panzer Dragoon Saga (and Saturn) Collection". Every library would have a game room where older and newer games were preserved and routinely played.

I'm not sure if it'd overall be a better world. I just don't like to pretend the absurdity that without pirates all our precious games would be lost. We have hoarders who want people to freely use their warez^W wares. That's what libraries are all about. We don't have that alternate past. But parts of it we could make part of our future. Preservation through trust-worthy foundations and reduced copyright. That's the real thing we should be championing.

* Pills and trance music optional.

 

[the_randomizer]

I imagine an alternate past. One in which Sony and Sega and Nintendo all were able to effectively crush piracy. Instead of people huddling around their own computers and systems with "backups", we'd have seen lobbying to severely curtail the length of copyright. Instead of having "the Tea Party" we would had "the Pac-Man Party"* that reduced copyright down to 20 years. Instead of seeing things like the touring King Tut exhibit, we'd have libraries hosting the touring "Panzer Dragoon Saga (and Saturn) Collection". Every library would have a game room where older and newer games were preserved and routinely played.

I'm not sure if it'd overall be a better world. I just don't like to pretend the absurdity that without pirates all our precious games would be lost. We have hoarders who want people to freely use their warez^W wares. That's what libraries are all about. We don't have that alternate past. But parts of it we could make part of our future. Preservation through trust-worthy foundations and reduced copyright. That's the real thing we should be championing.

* Pills and trance music optional.

Copyright law as it is, is a convoluted mess and is in serious need of a major rewrite, especially for video games, but that's just me. 75 years is too bloody long.

 

[ShadowOne333]

How about this:

We wait 40 years and then we'll be able to have roms gallore without any stupid company annoying us about piracy, suing and shit

 

[the_randomizer]

How about this:

We wait 40 years and then we'll be able to have roms gallore without any stupid company annoying us about piracy, suing and shit

Agreed, reduce the time to 40 years, that's a lot more reasonable IMO Being overly litigious with no real good reason, other than "just because" is absolute bullshit XD

 

[Chary]

That Zone site is dead, too. No more download links to warez. Will write up a thread

 

[the_randomizer]

That Zone site is dead, too. No more download links to warez. Will write up a thread

Really getting sick of companies' overly litigious, paranoid bull crap.

 

[Kioku]

2

That Zone site is dead, too. No more download links to warez. Will write up a thread

Really getting sick of companies' overly litigious, paranoid bull crap.

The "zone" (not THAT zone you sick bastard) is just changing hosts it seems. New site, same links.

 

[the_randomizer]

2


The "zone" (not THAT zone you sick bastard) is just changing hosts it seems. New site, same links.

I still stand by bashing Nintendo's overly litigious bullshit paranoia.

 

[Kioku]

I still stand by bashing Nintendo's overly litigious bullshit paranoia.

Not paranoia, just abuse of power (right or not is a different discussion entirely)

 

[the_randomizer]

Not paranoia, just abuse of power (right or not is a different discussion entirely)

What's weird is that this came out of the blue, before, they barely even done such widespread lawsuits, but now, many major sites get hit. And for what? Unless they're planning for something big on Switch,
I'm going to keep accruing ROM sets from anywhere that has them. So far, I've 20 GB on a backup HDD, they can suck it and quit acting like it's hurting their sales that badly.

"Oh no, those downloads of those ROMs whose company doesn't exist doesn't make money for us, let's sue the ROM site" Like secondhand sales of carts is helping them, either.

 

[FAST6191]

Whatever you say. I don't need an excuse to download ROMs, I'm sick of trying to defend myself, so I give up on my opinions, and what I say, it's not worth it. You're more than welcome to block me, if that'll make you feel better. I'm done, I'm fucking done, stop following every damn thing I say, okay??

You don't need excuses or rationales, however the ones you provided were pretty weak and thus could stand to be contemplated further.

"I'm sick of trying to defend myself, so I give up on my opinions, and what I say, it's not worth it"
You seem to often do that when pressed even slightly on your opinions. Can't say it is a way I would care to approach the world and find it unfortunate that anybody would -- make a convincing argument and anybody can change my opinion on anything, it has happened on many an occasion and if I were to run away after the first encounter that would not have happened.

I don't block anybody, indeed I actually even removed my new search filters for the non ROM hacking 3ds sections the other day. Blocking people seems to be counter productive. Likewise I don't follow anybody -- anybody I happen to meet in a given discussion presumably got the same search result or saw the title/description in view new posts, if it happens more than once I would guess we share similar interests.

 

[kuwanger]

Agreed, reduce the time to 40 years, that's a lot more reasonable IMO

IIRC there was actual research paper that did some calculations that suggested 14 years was the optimal copyright length. I presume the exact figures would actually vary based upon a lot of presumptions made, but I'd say 40 is a lot longer than a really necessary term. Consider, 40 years means literally all IBM PC (released in 1981) compatible software would still be copyrighted. Space Invaders would just be being released into the Public Domain. All the works of companies like Broderbund, Hal Labs, and many others would still be copyrighted (they formed in 1980). Pac-Man (released in 1980) would still be copyrighted.

Compare that to 14 years. With that term, Doom 3 would just not be going into the Public Domain. [Near?] All Nintendo 64 games and older would be Public Domain. The general environment would have 100s of Mario, Sonic, etc rip-offs and maybe we'd see a lot less sequels because it wouldn't be worth it to invest into a mascot so heavily that could be effectively reused in 14 years. I mean, we effectively already see that sort of thing now on mobile, but it'd no longer be the case that people would seriously spend $60 for a game unless it seemed worth it.