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.

 

[EddieEddie90]

If you guys think about it, warez won't entirely dissapear from the net. Say, if all the rom sites were taken down, new ones will always be rising up. But it wouldn't hurt to backup all of your favorite games and stuff anyway.

 

[EpikJimmer]

Welp... too bad!
Nintendo is getting serious this time, I guess...

 

[gman666]

Why are so many people paranoid on this.
I don't think backing up anything will help. Hdd have more possibility of failing than server stuff (actually no but servers are maintained daily to avoid those type of things). And even if people are wanting to take stuff out of a server, well two other stuff will pop out and blablabla I guess.

Creating redundancy in your personal file server is pretty easy nowadays.. Better than relying on someone else's server that might go down or in this case "No longer offer roms or warez"

 

[mariogamer]

Creating redundancy in your personal file server is pretty easy nowadays.. Better than relying on someone else's server that might go down or in this case "No longer offer roms or warez"

That would be it if we weren't in the magical world of internet.

(Also not everyone have file server (and a nice dl speed :/))

 

[EmBlaze]

Paradise has gone to digital heaven... By my adblocker's saving grace, I may move on to greener pastures... Fun times.

 

[Deleted User]

damn ive been using emuparadise since i was a little kid guess i need to find somewhere else to find games to put on my snes classic now

 

[MaxiBash]

At least they still offer No-Intro collections. They eat up the space on your hard drive, but who even really cares nowadays.

 

[gman666]

It's like a mass scatter of retro enthusiasts... People are losing their minds on Reddit "Where else will I get my roms?" Emuparadise definitely left a huge hole for most people

 

[aos10]

I used to download ps1 to PSP games from it.
RIP

 

[Deleted User]

Dang, this site was kind of my go-to for older games. Guess I'm going to have to find another site to use that won't infect my computer.

Now that I think about it, though, this restructuring is not too dissimilar to what happened with GBAtemp, so who knows? Maybe the owner's vision of creating a sustainable retro gaming community with the site isn't just a pipe dream.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Smart move to do it now rather than when a real legal battle ensues.

 

[the_randomizer]

At least they still offer No-Intro collections. They eat up the space on your hard drive, but who even really cares nowadays.

Not anymore, they don't.

 

[|<roni&g]

It's faster for me to rip than to download because my Internet connection is so slow e.e

It would also be faster for me to rip them, but I'd be sat there like a robot constantly waiting for one to complete and swapping discs, already did it a few months ago but winhiip messed up my drive so thought I'd just download them in the background over a few days

 

[aos10]

GBATemp did this a long time ago, and it's still going strong. we are now discussing it instead of sharing illegal games.
I guess they are doing it because they also care about their website and communities and don't want to risk all of it due to recent actions and decision.

Good luck to the website going "clean".

I hope they will manage to achieve what they want and keep a good place for all emulation discussion. (don't forget to come here too!)

edit:

oh, you beat me to it
yeah, seems to be exactly the same.

When did gbatemp stopped providing roms? 2005?

 

[Cyan]

Much early I think *verify*
2003
it didn't even last a year until we took the decision. (well, I wasn't staff at that time, I wasn't part of the decision)

 

[bennyman123abc]

Now I'm going to have to fill surveys to get ROMs? Damn it!

 

[aos10]

Much early I think *verify*
2003
it didn't even last a year until we took the decision. (well, I wasn't staff at that time, I wasn't part of the decision)

Was there any message from Nintendo to remove the files?

 

[zoogie]

Since it's evidently ok to mention warez sites that have closed down or aren't serving warez anymore, damn I miss nitroroms.
Even with their stupid Quota system. It was a nice place to get small, old titles. I liked the site's old-school web 1.0 style as well.

 

[Cyan]

I don't think there were, but I wasn't "behind the scene", only a simple user.
The rom hosting websites were usually closed directly from the hosting company for copyright infringement. they didn't ask nicely.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

That paradise site, you will be missed. You were my go-to for all the retro games I could want for so many years. A shame it had to be like this, but the reasoning is understandable, and a site like that was in the legal red anyways. It's been a great run.