EmuParadise Will No Longer Offer ROM Downloads

Megalith

Megalith

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Popular ROM destination EmuParadise has announced it will no longer offer game downloads. While the resource is no stranger to threats, takedown requests, and server shutdowns, Nintendo’s recent lawsuits against similar sites have forced the owner’s hand.

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.
 
One by one they're dropping.

I can see both sides. On one hand the rights holders to the IP's. On the other those who have no other legal way to play some awesome games. Needs to be a better middle ground where all can enjoy.
 
They'd have just been discarded like a ET Atari game if it weren't for emulators is the rather tragic irony. Nintendo may as well take it a step further and go after VGMusic and TheMidiShrine along with radio stations that play retro game music as well to piss off even more people.
 
pendragon1 said:
not really that surprising but still a shame.



im sure that's where all this is going. just hope the old games are cheap...
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They won't be based on the Wii and WiiU emulator costs. $5 for Tecmo Bowl. If I remember right they made it rather annoying but possible to transfer digital games from the Wii to WiiU at least. I didn't bother myself for the 1-2 old games I had on the Wii.
 
ehh websites are one thing, there still tons of places to get roms like IRC and usenet, especially if u want to download complete collections all at once, still im not sure why nintendo alwase wants to be dooshbags when it copmes to emulation, snes and nes mini have sold like hot cakes, its not like there not making money on old games, people that are into emulation are a very small percentage of the poplation
 
greenman said:
Tomorrow: Nintendo releases the Nintendo store for digital downloads of their past catalogues.
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If Nintendo actually did release a store, I think this would be great. However, I'm not so sure they will release a store. They might release more NES, SNES, and other devices that have a small selection of their roms.
How many times have I seen "I have a Pi, why do I need the NES|SNES Classic?"-type posts? (It's a good argument to make, but since Nintendo might count this as a missed sale, they lawyered up.)

What about the abandoned roms? There are thousands of them that would have been lost had the community need extracted roms from some of the devices. There is no legit way to obtain some of these. Oh well...
 
Well, when they said they took Nintendo's ROMs off, they forgot to remove the sets that had them still......
Glad I got the sets before they stopped the DLs, got N64s and earlier, think I DLed the GBAs set.
Shame they removed all non-Nintendo stuff. :(

auntjemima said:
It's a good thing I have them all.
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Even the ISOs? :p

pendragon1 said:
not really that surprising but still a shame.
im sure that's where all this is going. just hope the old games are cheap...
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I'm sure they milk it.

knowom said:
They'd have just been discarded like a ET Atari game if it weren't for emulators is the rather tragic irony. Nintendo may as well take it a step further and go after VGMusic and TheMidiShrine along with radio stations that play retro game music as well to piss off even more people.
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Only a matter of time til OCRemix gets sued. lol
 
Did they only offer Nintendo roms? Surely they could have just got rid of Nintendo roms and carry on.
 
fs123 said:
Did they only offer Nintendo roms? Surely they could have just got rid of Nintendo roms and carry on.
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They were a great site for years and offered pretty much every ROM from 16/32-bit era and back.

IMO if Nintendo were smart they'd tell websites like EMUParadise to give them a cut of their revenue and even allow them to sell the ROMs and then give Nintendo like a 50% cut or something.
 
fs123 said:
Did they only offer Nintendo roms? Surely they could have just got rid of Nintendo roms and carry on.
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Probably presumed Sega/Atari and others would follow Nintendo's lead on this if they weren't already getting harassed by them over the site.
 
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If Nintendo sold the ROMs that played on every emulator already out there for a nominal fee, I'd have no problem with this. Rereleasing the games when they can only play on new hardware isn't an excuse. Some games were changed in fundamental ways and don't play the same way as the original. Nintendo also shouldn't be able to go after anything they don't have license to anymore. I don't understand how the industry is just fine with old games dying and completely disappearing from the world.
fs123 said:
Did they only offer Nintendo roms? Surely they could have just got rid of Nintendo roms and carry on.
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No, they offered everything up through the PlayStation era on main consoles and DS on handhelds. I don't think they offered PS2 ISOs on their front page, but you could find them in their forums.
 
Armenius said:
I don't understand how the industry is just fine with old games dying and completely disappearing from the world
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This is why I believe there should be a "use it or lose it" clause in copyright law. The perpetual extending of copyright terms is to continue commercially exploiting less than 10% of all copyrights ever filed. More and more works will fall into the abyss of time.
 
Ethical or legal stuff withstanding, I'm glad the retro-bug bit me again and I spent a few weeks this past spring re-grabbing all my favorite roms/iso's.

Like most have said, if they put forth their own affordable online options, w/o changing the games, I'd pursue it in a heartbeat.
 
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