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WetWaffle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,603
Reopening the thread - there are largely good discussions happening in here, but keep in mind, admitting to piracy on this site is not allowed.


So EmuParadise is pretty much dead, or at least it'll no longer be what it once was. Pour one out, people. One of the greats are gone.
[Mod Edit: Link to piracy site removed]
pou_7153.png

EmuParadise is Changing
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.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Hayama Akito

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,326
...can we talk about this here?

Well, this sucks. Of course ROMs and ISO sites will never die, but this is a big hit.
 

Garou

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,623
So we are supposed to be unhappy about a site going down that enabled piracy on a large scale?
 

Llazy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,073
Damn I downloaded so much stuff from here, so sad that's its gone. End of an era. Pours one out
 

TubaZef

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,565
Brazil
Yep, it was piracy but sadly pirates seem to be the only ones that care about preserving old games. There's a lot of stuff that you can't get legally anywhere. It was a good place for that.
 

Durante

Dark Souls Man
Member
Oct 24, 2017
5,074
It was almost exclusively old games, most of which were no longer available for sale anywhere. Emuparadise is basically the world's greatest abandonware site.
In terms of preservation of old games for defunct systems, it's not really a big deal. There are plenty of full archives of roms for those out there on distributed networks (which have better resilience against takedown attempts).
 
OP
OP
WetWaffle

WetWaffle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,603
Just a reminder, Emulation =/= Piracy, some used the site for ill intent, there's no doubt about that, but I still think it didn't deserve to be shut down.
 
Last edited:

Thriftweed

Member
Nov 2, 2017
293
Saw the statement this morning when I was hunting for a couple of ROMs for patching purposes. I didn't realise they'd been operating for 18 years.
 

Rikucrafter

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 28, 2017
900
Australia
There may not be a place for piracy in this world, but I certainly separate playing a game through those means that isn't made available by the creators elsewhere to pirating the latest releases. I'll certainly miss the wonderful community atmosphere that Emuparadise has fostered for people with a love for the classics.
 

Mechanized

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,442
Damn that fucking sucks. Also, how is it a piracy site if all the downloads were removed? lmao

There are old 3rd party games that are just impossible to get without emulation or being rich. They will never be re-released so this a big blow to the emulation community. There are more sites of course, but this was one of the best.
 

JuicyPlayer

Member
Feb 8, 2018
7,311
I'm not gonna lie but I used to go to that site a lot in the late 90s and early 2000s. I remember wanting to download Rondo of Blood and remember having to download like 12 files for it on a 56K and figuring out how to make a cue sheet to have it run on an emulator. I was so glad for Virtual Console when Nintendo first announced it on the Wii.
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,494
The links are still there but they're all undownloadable now. That's the situation.

Oh, well, my bad then.

I'd rather not talk about anything more, in case I overstep and break the rules.

It was almost exclusively old games, most of which were no longer available for sale anywhere. Emuparadise is basically the world's greatest abandonware site.

Nah. You could get Wii games during the Wii days. The same goes for the DS. And you could find links to newer console games in the forums.

Let's not try to fool ourselves into thinking that it was something like Archive.org. EmuParadise is (was) a piracy site. There's no dancing around that.
 

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,925
In terms of preservation of old games for defunct systems, it's not really a big deal. There are plenty of full archives of roms for those out there on distributed networks (which have better resilience against takedown attempts).
Yeah, DMCA has really made dedicated websites untenable for archives. End of an era.
 

Bomblord

Self-requested ban
Banned
Jan 11, 2018
6,390
Honestly don't have any real sympathy for the site they enabled widespread piracy of games many of which were obtainable through legitimate means.
 

Madjoki

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,230
Surprised they lasted this long. Usually pirate sites get taken down fast.

Damn that fucking sucks. Also, how is it a piracy site if all the downloads were removed? lmao

There are old 3rd party games that are just impossible to get without emulation or being rich. They will never be re-released so this a big blow to the emulation community. There are more sites of course, but this was one of the best.

The still offer downloads for soundtracks at least.
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,826
Rom and iso sites are living on borrowed time from day 1, but Emuparadise always had a level of quality and stability that kept it a step above its contemporaries.
 

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,925
Honestly don't have any real sympathy for the site they enabled widespread piracy of games many of which were obtainable through legitimate means.
Would your mind change if sites like emuparadise were only to offer archives for software not currently available to purchase on active storefronts?
 
Nov 1, 2017
2,904
It might actually be impressive when Nintendo snatches up channels and fileservers on IRC where all the real dirty gets done as far as emulation and ROMs are concerned. Taking down websites doesn't actually do anything.
 

test_account

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,645
How are you supposed to buy most of those games legally?
Buying them used is legal. But yeah, a lot of these games arent being sold through official channels, so that the publishers wont get any money regardless if you buy it used or download a ROM, so from the economic perspective, it doesnt make any difference.
 

Bomblord

Self-requested ban
Banned
Jan 11, 2018
6,390
Would your mind change if sites like emuparadise were only to offer archives for software not currently available to purchase on active storefronts?

I'm personally only in support of downloadable archives of games that cannot be obtained through any legitimate means. If you can go down to a retro game store, a reprint provider, or ebay and reasonably find a copy then I'm not in support of pirating it. An example of something I would be in support of downloadable archives for would be unreleased games, arcade cabinets, etc.
 
Last edited:

fiendcode

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,925
This is an outright lie, it has literally hundreds if not thousands of roms and isos that are still available for sale on various platforms.
Honestly it's probably less than 2000 total games that are available across Steam, GOG, PSN, Win/XBL and eShop. Even including "dead" platforms like Vita and Wii U in that.
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,494
Damn that fucking sucks. Also, how is it a piracy site if all the downloads were removed? lmao

Because it still is. Links to ROMs hosted on external sites (MEGA, Google Drive, etc.) are still present in their forums. That's the loophole most of these sites use to stay afloat, since they aren't legally responsible for the contents their users post. If any company asks them to remove the links, they comply without many repercussions.

And EmuParadise still hosts OSTs and magazine scans.
 

Chessguy1

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,803
Here is their statement since it can't be linked:

EmuParadise is Changing
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.
 
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