Retro emulation site Emuparadise has completely wiped its collection of old-school game ROMs.

In an extensive post, the site announced that while no particular event has triggered the decision to take down its catalogue, it can no longer operate with the risk associated with hosting so many old titles.

It's likely that the decision comes in the wake of Nintendo's action against similar ROM distributors. Last month, TorrentFreak reported that LoveROMS and LoveRETRO were hit by lawsuits by the Mario maker, and shut down shortly thereafter.

“It's not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences,” said EmuParadise founder MasJ. “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.”

For now, the site continues to offer its console emulators, but without hosting the games to play on them. According to MasJ, Emuparadise has been threatened by takedown requests, server shutdowns and legal action since launching 18 years ago.

“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 in time.”