An Introduction to Video Game Preservation

[@Nzcade]

It is really interesting to go back to video games, there is a lot of history throughout them and it makes me really curious. It feels so satisfying discovering games you would have otherwise never heard of before. It honestly makes me want to do retro gaming to see what I’ve missed out on.

[@foxxarie]

As someone who is passionate about game preservation for years now, I gotta say this video does a great job expressing why it's important! Wonderful work!

[@megapokesonicx]

If Nintendo put all their games on Switch, the world would heal immediately and the retro game market wouldn’t be so awful

[@heythatsprettygood6492]

+1 engagement point. Great video!

[@l.j.nguyen2586]

Amen, good sir. Love the video. It made my day.

[@Jan12700]

That is also why Stop Killing Games matters

[@albertocamacho2261]

you have a great voice for this! great video!

[@99duvs35]

That noise at 0:46 made me jump LOLL great video though!

[@abdu_guts]

keep it up bro, i really enjoy your videos❤️

[@coralcat5706]

Quick thing about lives and game overs: I don't believe they are needed in modern games, but I do think that they made some retro games like Mario and Sonic more fun. Lives can be a good tool for game design.

[@SylvesterAshcroft88]

It frustrates me how hard it is to legally emulate some retro games on modern consoles, like Commando on the SEGA Master System for example, which i played as a kid, and i think it was only available on the PS1/PS2, and as far as they know they haven't released a collection with the original game ever since. Some companies like SNK, and SEGA seem to be flying the flag for legal emulation, and hopefully it eventually becomes the standard, in the industry.

[@Cashew1405]

the goat is back

[@MisterSpeedStacking]

lives aren't an "archaic system" they're an essential mechanic in arcade-like games. having to master a level so you can beat it consistently will always be more fun than bashing your head against it until you brute force it once and never play it again.

[@antoguino]

perhaps I should have elaborated further later in the video, since I was talking about looking to the past, but I think in general lives only served to slow things down or add replay value, and lots of series have done away with them pretty successfully. You still get that mastering a level feeling without lives

[@BamdTheBamd]

@@antoguino i fail to see how lives could possibly "slow things down", but i suppose resource management is too methodical for gamers these days. i also fail to see how games removing lives "successfully" is any evidence when it's clear that developers are not interested in honing or improving upon the strict, rigorous system that is lives, and instead replacing them with the far less punishing health bar to appeal to a casual demographic then again i shouldn't really expect much from a zoomer who claims to preach the importance of video game preservation only to then disregard lives as "archaic"

[@antoguino]

@@BamdTheBamd Take Celeste, for example. Is it suddenly not a hard game because it doesn't have a lives system? I don't think so, you lose nothing by a little tick counter not going down every time you die. Really, what is the point of a lives system in modern games? Checkpoint systems are the same, enemies still damage and kill you, so why is it so necessary that an arbitrary number go down and boot you to the title screen when you hit a game over? I don't think it's as simple as you're letting on. Although, if you're just going to resort to attacking "gamers these days" and "zoomers" rather than engaging in a pretty interesting discussion about the supposed necessity of lives in game design, I'm not going to continue to discuss it with you either.

[@BamdTheBamd]

@@antoguino i think it's funny you use celeste as an example since the only challenge you'll get from it is when you're going for goldens, which of course eliminate the use of checkpoints with checkpoints, there is no incentive to getting consistent at individual stages or rooms, since beating them once is enough to reach the next checkpoint. because of this, the player is encouraged to just brute force their way through until they get lucky and happen to make the right sequence of inputs. when you remove checkpoints however, you're forced to become consistent at individual sections. if you only have, say, a 10% chance of beating a room, then your chances of beating the entire level is 10% *at best*, and that's before even factoring in your odds of beating all other rooms *in a row*, but checkpoints would encourage fishing for that 10%, since the time loss from having to replay a room is minimal compared to having to replay an entire level "bUt ThIs pUtS pReSsUrE oN tHe PlAyEr AnD mAkEs ThEm AnXiOuS!!" yes, that's the whole point, and there is immense satisfaction in overcoming that pressure and anxiety. if farewell golden had checkpoints, it wouldn't be anywhere near as challenging or impressive, since it actually forces you to consistently beat every room, rather than just once and then never again modern gamers are obsessed with "accessibility" for some reason and demand an easy mode or checkpoints from every game, but if they truly cared about accessibility and didn't use the disabled as a cover for their own lack of skill, they would instead demand every game to come with good practice tools such as replays, save states and stage/room select, but you never actually see anyone ask for this, because it's almost like the average gamer has no clue on what practicing and mastering a game actually looks like, nor do they have any interest in bettering themselves. developers should take notes from fighting games and shoot em ups and make the act of practicing and learning easier instead of making games mindless junk food that anyone can beat with zero effort required

[@antoguino]

I'm not going to argue about the challenge itself since that's mostly subjective, but yes I do agree that the goldens are much more difficult and bring their own level of fun to the game. However, I really don't think that adding or removing lives has a significant impact on the game if it isn't explicitly designed with them in mind like old arcade style games. Celeste isn't trying to be an all in one go platformer with lives that boot you back to the beginning, and I think that's fine. having lives wouldn't add anything to the game, plus it already has even more challenge for people who want it. Everybody wins. I actually do agree that more games should have practice mods to lab out controls, it'd be sick as hell to figure out the best movement in a little area meant for solely that, but I also do think accessibility features are pretty important, and unfortunately do get lumped in with people just asking for an easy mode. To be perfectly honest though, I say just give them an easy mode, it doesn't hurt my experience and the more people that can enjoy games, the better.

[@gtPacheko]

I like Urban Champion 😢

[@gabemyers4516]

Persona music is superior music

[@AquaTwist_]

Game Preservation is important for teaching the next generation of Game Designers/Developers how to produce future titles. I made a video documenting this myself, and it’s sadly gotten worse within a year alone.

[@KINO.mp4]

Is there a playlist for the background music you used for this video, it's great, great video too

[@AquaTwist_]

I know that these songs were at least used: -Persona 4 - Like a Dream Come True -Super Smash Bros Brawl - Stickerbush Symphony There were a couple other Persona 4 tracks too but I can’t remember the name of them.

[@antoguino]

This Horizon - Knuckles Chaotix Extras Menu - Sonic Mega Collection Iwatodai Dorm -Reload- - P3 Reload Overture II - We

[@KINO.mp4]

@@AquaTwist_ thank you

[@KINO.mp4]

@@antoguino thank you

[@primereaper]

4:16 skyward sword stray is crazy💀

[@otomegrandma7472]

I don't think remasters and remakes are 'preservation' at all. Setting aside them being new products, which will themselves one day be no longer available, a remake or remaster, by virtue of being changed, is not a replacement for the original game. If we think that preservation is a good in and of itself, then HD ports or remakes shouldn't be considered a solution to the issue of preservation.

[@antoguino]

it is and it isn’t, i see it kinda like a rescan of old movies into better formats like 4K and HDR, it’s probably considered the “definitive” version, however if it’s really bad like those AI upscaled ones, the old movie is still archived and preserved online, that’s why i go into roms and emulation right after ports

[@otomegrandma7472]

@@antoguino A remake or port having changes that are largely liked makes it a good product, but not a suitable replacement for the original. The characteristics of the original release are what what make the game what it is - Ocarina of Time has a resolution of 320x240. You can play a version of Ocarina of Time with a modern aspect ration at a much higher resolution, and it's still a very fun game, but I think part of appreciating what the developers were able to pull off involves viewing the game as it was initially released. Players emulating Ocarina of Time at a higher resolution may enjoy the sharper image, while saying "wow, I can count the polygons..." but at a lower resolution, the textures and particulars of the models are less visible, while the fundamentals of the art design are still present; you can appreciate how many of the cutscenes are well composed, how well the game uses lighting and color. In some cases, even emulation can create an inaccurate impression of how the game originally played or looked. Even if the original release was somehow strictly worse in every possible sense, it being worse is still something that should be preserved for people to experience. This isn't a bad thing on its own, and the reality is most players may still prefer to play the game in an 'enhanced' form. None of this is to be elitist about how people can or should enjoy a game. But it's not possible for a game to both be 'enhanced' and a preservation of the original game.

[@antoguino]

i agree, i do think it’s important to preserve the original experience, and there are pretty big examples of an artist going back and messing with their work in a way that ruins what people liked about it, like star wars or majora’s mask. but i also think it’s cool to be able to convey things that may have been impossible to convey with graphical limitations or gameplay limitations, and could allow for a more accurate depiction of what the author wanted to be clear, im not advocating for old games to be replaced with better looking versions, i think they should both be readily available, and they should still be appreciated as a “preservation” of sorts, however it’s up to us to determine wether or not they did a good job maintaining the original vision as a sidebar, i really appreciate the comment

[@Donut117]

You both make good points. I think a good example here is the original 2005 Yakuza vs it's 2016 remake Yakuza Kiwami. The remake has shot-for-shot recreations of all the main story cutscenes, as well as some new ones to fill in some missing context. The most obvious changes are 11 years of improvement to the battle system and a lot of additional side content. However, the remake also changes the music, the lighting, *omits* some cutscenes from the original, lacks certain effects that enhanced scenes in the original, has different minigames, and in some cases actually loses the nuances of the facial animations in cutscenes. Both games are worth playing, and both games do things better than the other. Kiwami is certainly more accessible. It's available on modern systems, frequently goes on sale, and is generally just much smoother to play than the original. For these reasons, most players will probably only ever play Kiwami. But Kiwami is not a replacement for the original, and it's a shame the things the original did well aren't as well known. Sega did do reprints of the original PS2 releases of Yakuza 1 and 2 though, which is really cool. I don't know if I've ever seen a remake that could be called a definitive replacement.

[@Kriseiri]

Sony re-release Ape Escape 3 challenge

[@WizPizPresident1]

entertaining vid bro this vid entertained me bro i liked this vid

[@evanepic3599]

video games are cool

[@stevenc2149]

uhhh ps3 was not compatible with ps2 because only the first launch model had basically a PS2 built inside of it

[@antoguino]

did it really? i always thought it was emulated on the ps3 itself, that’s really interesting

[@stevenc2149]

@@antoguino no, I'm pretty sure most of the ps2 insides were in the launch ps3, hence the staggering price

[@AkiDave]

Cooked!

[@BallinLikeMike23]

I hate big bomb

[@pizzabella3924]

i play video games😀

[@JagGentlemann]

"some of these remasters have good prices for a good overhaul" >shows the 60$ 20 year old game that runs worse than the original.

[@antoguino]

i’ve generally been having a good time with the game, it running at 30 fps honestly hasn’t been an issue for me but i can see how it is for some i would consider skyward sword HD to be at a bad price point since it’s just an upres with updated controls rather than the full graphical remake that TTYD is

[@megapokesonicx]

Paper Mario TTYD runs completely fine at 30 FPS, it’s an RPG which really doesn’t have any issues in the remake

[@JagGentlemann]

I wouldn't mind 30 fps if it was a new game or it wasn't full price, but neither is the case.

[@gabemyers4516]

What are some good sites to download old games?

[@gabemyers4516]

If you could specifically help me find Spider-Man Web of Shadows that would be greatly appreciated

[@Onewigngedeagle]

Maybe on the internet archive? I was able to find reliable roms there

[@marcoalves9029]

I personally use mainly Vimm's Lair and the "ROMs Megathread"

[@megapokesonicx]

Google

[@ianthemerc7016]

Spec ops: the line 😢

[@justinmercado1185]

It’s irrelevant. Game comps already preserve their games. You just got to pay for it