still waiting for evidence that this is nintendo's doing

Can't wait to see all the Nintendrones defending this.

Well, tell me. How many times have you seen Sony, Sega, Microsoft, or other companies try/attempt this? No point in looking for zebras outside of Africa if you hear a hoofbeat.

This is a pretty big blow to old schoolers like me. Maybe not as big as when Underground Gamer went down, but pretty big. I was just getting into PSP emulation too, as I finished Star Ocean Second Departure last year

What exactly is Underground Gamer, as I can't seem to find anything about it on GOG's forum.

It's not the question if there will be ROMs on the Internet for download. The problem is than other sites are less convenient - lower download speed, ROMs for only one platform, etc. Also some unknown site can host viruses. That would be really a pain to get ROMs you want to play.

It was the largest repository for pretty much every game up to the year they took it down, in 2014 I think it was. It had incredible curating, every official artwork and all the info you needed to run the game on modern computers. It had very obscure, hard to find games. Just a treasure of video game history. It was invite only to get into, but sadly that didn't save it

Yeah, I searched around with google and found this.

The last line tells its sad ending:

"When the site was officially closed, the Unofficial UG Refugee Board (UURB) housed a lot of its members while plans were made on where the users would go. There were talks of the tracker coming back under a different name with the same staff however the discussions ended without a clear answer."

Well dang. EP was one of my primary stops for MAME stuff, as well as PS BIOS files, along with backup roms for games I own on both the PS 1&2. Good night sweet prince, I guess. :(

I don't think the argument against ROMS is that they've been made available to download because the companies that own the games aren't selling them anymore. Nintendo DOES provide (usually very poorly emulated) versions of their older games to play.
The argument I've most often heard being made is that it is meant as a backup to users actual cartridges/disks. Obviously, those who want to pirate will still pirate, but most such ROM archive sites add a little (probably meaningless) note to "Please only download if you own the actual game".

Nintendo's boggle seems to be with the idea of emulation itself. They want to very strongly push the idea that emulation in and of itself is piracy, something which is totally and patently false (and also very hypocritical, because it turned out that Nintendo had been using available emulation programs to sell their older games).

Well, it's not a loss on par with the mighty Underground Gamer but it's a loss nonetheless... The Nintendorks have added another THIRTY YEARS to my policy of PIRATING THE F*CK OUT OF EVERYTHING THEY MAKE because it's the only thing they deserve at this point.

Where will all the emu's go now?
It will back soon I am sure.

Really sad about the site. :(
It led to a LOT of great memories as well as some games I didn't know about before.

Some of those games can't even be bought anymore and even if they are found, it's through sites like Ebay so the original company (or the current rights holder) doesn't get a cut either way.
I understand that they have the legal grounds for such a move, but isn't it pointless?
It's not like they can save their sales.

Glad to have good ol' back up hard drives. ;)

Interesting.
I'd like to look into this further.

Would you happen to have any reference links or some advice to point me in the right direction?