That probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to retro gaming enthusiasts, but those outside the gaming community might not even know there is a problem…
Piracy is the only way to preserve most retro video games.
If the game is complete abandonware, and not sold on any digital storefronts, is it even still piracy?
Not in my book.
Nintendo: noooo, my monies!
It’s archaeology!
That’s really the only time it’s ethical to pirate. The rest is just stealing.
How could you steal something you don’t even ever own you just buy a license to play it essentially. Either way piracy is not theft in my eyes it is called piracy for a reason. You cannot claim a pirated copy of a piece of software is a lost sale.
Stealing implies you are taking something from someone, not making a copy of it.
Piracy isn’t about preservation. Piracy doesn’t create the roms. It’s the dudes with rom dump devices who do that. And making archival copies isn’t necessarily piracy.
But yes, piracy is the only practical way for new customers to access older content that is no longer sold.
sadly with the increasing DRM protections, the legality of it isn’t as clear anymore. Breaking a protected standard is still illegal, which in my opinion is really stupid because if it was for archival purposes from something you own, I feel it should be in the same category as self repair/right to repair acts.
Yeah agreed
Legally speaking, you don’t own any copyrighted work; you own a license to consume that work.
Copyright law is kinda stupid in concept.
Who wants to admit that there are a whole hell of a lot of bad classic games?
True, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t preserve them just the same.
I mean sure, preserve them. But that’s like saying we should be preserving poorly written trashy romance novels. I guess we could, but shouldn’t be a top priority for anyone.
“Pirates” are actually “Archivists”, saving digital information for future generations to enjoy. Really, I’m not a selfish data hoarder, I’m preserving history!
Culture provides a shared experience making it easier to communicate with each other. Importantly it also provides a way for society to discuss and think about ideas as a group. That culture includes books, films, TV shows, songs, video games, oral storytelling, folk songs, etc. Each bit of culture builds upon what came before, and what is happening at the same time. The record of culture is forever imperfect, but that becomes more of a problem when parts of culture are lost for the future to be able to look at it. That loss makes it progressively harder for us to look to the past and actually understand it, besides making it harder to communicate with each other. Lack of the reference and understanding can help to perpetuate stereotypes, misunderstandings, injustice, or even actively damage stability of a society. While we are resilient, why would we want to make it harder and lose the knowledge of how we got here?
This article is arguable about forgetting a bit of history which has helped to perpetuate racism. Be aware this is about a “virulently racist song”, if that is a problem or trigger you probably shouldn’t read any further. Just know the roots of the ice cream truck song in the US at least is horrible and we should not use it. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/11/310708342/recall-that-ice-cream-truck-song-we-have-unpleasant-news-for-you
They’re flotsam, now. Only one way to get hold of flotsam.
Surprised that it’s that low TBH
A good chunk of it is due to archaic licensing rights, especially when franchises have switched publishers.
Likewise, music licensing is also notoriously a massive hold-up for these too. It’s not really Vice City if Billy Jean isn’t the first song you hear on the radio. Not to mention all of the games with EA Trax, those will likely never see a 1:1 retail re-release.
All the more reason why I’m not hopeful for the future of gaming, it feels as though the current generation will likely be the last with physical media.
Thankfully, there’s plenty of retro options available through emulation for those unwilling or unable to become retro collectors, and there’s enough quality gaming available that an individual would ever need to go past the 7th generation of consoles.
Imagine if you couldn’t buy classic movies or albums…
I’d be interested to know what the % is for movies and TV to be honest. I know Dr Who for example has like 100 episodes that have just been lost. There’s no copies of them anywhere that anyone knows of.
A lot of old films were lost in studio fires, or simply not putting in the effort to preserve. The software industry, and games in particular, have not learned from this at all.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937_Fox_vault_fire
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_MGM_vault_fire - tellingly “Despite the fire, 68 percent of silent films produced by MGM survived, the highest rate from any major studio.”
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Universal_Studios_fire - reportedly nothing irreplaceable was lost. But master recording for a lot of muscians were lost.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lost_films - “half of all American films made before 1950 and over 90% of films made before 1929 are lost forever” and “A study by the Library of Congress states that 75% of all silent films are now lost.”
Ever heard of RetroPi or Recalbox?
This is awful, to think that all this legacy would go to waste someday, I can’t fathom having all these unique experiences, all these stories and love letters to genres and cultures getting lost in the vortex of time.
I feel sad for the people that are just getting into gaming and them not experiencing games that made history, the good and the bad.
Something like this should be preserved even if just for study purposes, for those games before the digital era, the only options that are left for us are either piracy or emulation, and thankfully we do have these options but yeah we really should have future proofed this industry in some way.
I can’t fathom having all these unique experiences, all these stories and love letters to genres and cultures getting lost in the vortex of time.
Something something lost like tears in the rain. (Blade Runner)
Just know that every generation before you and every generation after feels the same about their culture/experiences. C’est la vie
I don’t want to minimize the impact to gaming history but for my retro needs de-makes on pico8 (https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php) help scratch the itch.
I’m not spending money on a game older than 20 years anyway. I can find that shit free online
Oregon Trail gone forever
