Current Events > 87% of retro games are now "lost to time"

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://kotaku.com/classic-games-history-foundation-preservation-yakuza-1850623857

I find this hard to grasp unless the study is just referring to retro games being made available on official modern distribution platforms. As far as emulation's standards go, most game consoles' libraries have been 100% dumped and now we're getting into the phase of people dumping prototypes and alphas/betas.

CRON posted...

I find this hard to grasp unless the study is just referring to retro games being made available on official modern distribution platforms. As far as emulation's standards go, most game consoles' libraries have been 100% dumped and now we're getting into the phase of people dumping prototypes and alphas/betas.

It's basically talking about availability outside of emulation.

yeah lost to the time it takes to plug in my other hdd wuzzzzzzzz

For real though i wouldn't shed a tear if every bit of DRM-stuffed always-online shovelware the likes of Activision and EA crapped out silently disappeared off the face of the earth forever.

I wager that around the same number of paintings are lost to time. Artist's names included. I don't think it's that big of a deal as long as the important landmark titles are preserved.

Tyranthraxus posted...

I wager that around the same number of paintings are lost to time. Artist's names included. I don't think it's that big of a deal as long as the important landmark titles are preserved.

How elitist. Since it is the wealthy that decide what merits an "important work" and not the quality of the work.

BakonBitz posted...

It's basically talking about availability outside of emulation.

Maybe people should view emulation differently then...

If original manuscripts of classic literature were all destroyed and the only way to access these works was digitally (or printed versions of those digital versions) no one would bat an eye

Sadly, there are DOS games where only the shareware version is available and the full release are long gone.

Not to mention the older arcade games including ones that were cancelled but had cabinets that were built and given location tests that are long gone. For example in the movie Ninja III: The Domination, the MC has a cabinet of the arcade game Bouncer but all cabinets have been lost.

Shishiwakamaru posted...

If original manuscripts of classic literature were all destroyed and the only way to access these works was digitally (or printed versions of those digital versions) no one would bat an eye

Homer isn't going to send a legion of lawyers up your ass if you have a txt file of the Illiad setting around in your blog or something.

The root issue is that copyrights linger too long.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


This. The title of this topic is highly misleading.

That said video game preservation is still an important issue that most of the industry doesn't take seriously.

Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are the most capable of trying to solve this issue as a lot of these games are tied to licenses to be released on their platforms.

But for the most part they ain't interested. Microsoft had a decent effort with their Xbox program but they're still pretty limited.

At the end of the day it's easier for them to monetize the small number of notable games over and over than caring about this.

Torgo posted...

How elitist. Since it is the wealthy that decide what merits an "important work" and not the quality of the work.

The quality of the work is subjective. The influence a work has on culture and industry is not. E.T. for the 2600 is literal garbage but it's still a landmark title for its influence and the history around it.

Tyranthraxus posted...

The quality of the work is subjective. The influence a work has on culture and industry is not. E.T. for the 2600 is literal garbage but it's still a landmark title for its influence and the history around it.

It's also a landfill title hehehe

yeah I would expect most people who were parents in the 80s and 90s and 00s are just throwing all those boxes full of old games out.

my parents still have like 100 issues of EGM in a box in their basement somewhere. and one day they'll die and I'll be like "yeah now I have to throw this out"

If anything this shows how absurdly long copyright is. Virtually all video games are still under copyright (games that failed to have the copyright symbol on them before 1989 are in the public domain). Despite this, video game copyright owners are only selling 10% of their pre 2010 games. For most video games copyright is just limiting access to these games and making preservation more unlikely.

KFHEWUI posted...

Sadly, there are DOS games where only the shareware version is available and the full release are long gone.

I noticed that too. Couldn't find full versions of a lot of DOS games I wanted to play.

This is why emulation and ROM hosting is far more than than mere "piracy"

So many games are nigh-impossible to play "legit" unless you want to fork over a ton of dough to third-party sellers

Honestly I don't really mind. Most games aren't really worth playing anyways