Companies Don't Want You Playing Classic Games

[@ThatOneVideoGamer]

Let's keep the preservation conversation going! Read the Full Study Here: zenodo.org/record/7996492 Read The Video Game History's Blog: gamehistory.org/87percent/

[@Jesup1204]

A game series I’d like to see comeback in some form is the Infinity Blade trilogy. The first installment came out in late 2010 so it just barely misses the mark to be considered classic. It was an iOS exclusive that had players control a knight exploring and dueling various warrior and monsters across a fantasy setting. There was an overarching narrative that although not very deep was proof of concept that the mobile gaming could’ve been so much more than all the pay-to-win crap we’ve been getting since Infinity Blade 3 released back in 2013. It may not be a classic but this trilogy of games deserves to be so much more than a easter egg in Fortnite.

[@jaw3021]

Their are two a game sires I hope will have a comeback which are american magees alice and soul reaver

[@dredgenwar2375]

@@jaw3021 R.I.P. Alice: Asylum. American deserved so much better, and EA deserves so, so, so much worse.

[@9seed.]

Something I think needs to be given more attention in all this is the preservation of game manuals as well, as older games often lack basic story context, tutorials, and even - in final fantasy 1’s case - information necessary to play the game, such as weapon stats. Nintendo’s virtual console system came with manuals built in, but these almost never made any meaningful attempts to bring over the charm of story elements of the original manuals, using sterile and clinical explanations of game mechanics. NSO doesn’t even offer manuals. Most of those older manuals can’t even be found legitimately online. Even really good rereleases, like the Megaman legacy collection, don’t include manuals, despite trying to include adequate bonus materials. Manuals just aren’t being taken very seriously.

[@cornballattack3278]

​@@9seed.are you aware of if anyone is attempting anything to preserve that kind of a thing? I agree wholeheartedly with your points and I'd like to make what I have available, even if it's not much.

[@KingEgyptian]

Retro game collecting used to be one of my biggest hobbies, but thanks to covid and the scalpers it's not financially justifiable anymore. Now I sail the seven seas.

[@joshuarichard6827]

Quitblamingafake virus

[@TERMINATOR101-b8j]

Same. I used to snag SNES games at a hardware shop by my vacation cabin for $5. Those days are long gone.

[@lstairvideos1330]

Same dude, sold most of my collection as well. Sold all retro systems and only kept games that I really care about. Emulation is great 🙏

[@atonofspiders]

Your decision to sail instead of collect "classic games" says a lot about how stupid expensive it's gotten

[@arlisbartlett403]

Agreed wtf

[@matthewnoland2008]

I love this kind of thing. Preserving old games is such an important thing.

[@Otacon2099]

@@NoshikiYT even supposed "bad" games will have a bit of merit for SOMEONE out there, someone woke up on christmas and it was the game that DEFINED them (ok that might be a bit much but even shit has taste....wait)

[@colmangri]

​@@NoshikiYT I'd argue that even worse ones can give valuable historical perspective on gaming

[@veghesther3204]

Yes but theirs kind of a lack of OLD anime for DVD/Blue ray disc English dubs as well.

[@keeganmcfarland7507]

True

[@Sin3134]

@@NoshikiYTthere’s video games that are anime themed

[@RoKKr023i]

History deserves to be preserved. books deserve to be read. film deserves to be watched. Games. Deserve to be played.

[@goddessstarla]

Fuck yes! I agree 100%!

[@InitialFailure]

​@Jaegar19Ultima clearly you're sending this message from communist North Korea due to them being just so free.

[@InitialFailure]

Mein Kampf, Manos 'Hands of Fate', and Superman on N64, all treasures!

[@L33PL4Y]

And music deserves to be heard.

[@RodolfoAmbriz]

THIS

[@alrightalright4585]

I don't want to discredit the rest of your videos by saying this, but I feel like this should be the _MOST VIEWED_ video on this channel by a wide margin due to just how important this information is. It's really unfortunate how the games industry still doesn't get the respect, recognition, and tools to succeed and preserve its history that other forms of media get despite them being the biggest money maker in entertainment nowadays. Video games surpassed the film industry, more money is being generated from video games, yet we're stuck with this system that constantly loses its history due to extremely dated copyright laws and a thick fog of apathy for the classics. I need to stop ranting, Thank you for this video. If there's any sort of project people can donate to or help support in some way for classic game preservation I'll be there to assist in a heartbeat.

[@kpegc]

Hopefully in my lifetime; we can see a Senate, Congress, or Presidential candidate that wants to create a National Congress Library Preservation for video games, like what already exists for movies and TV shows, run for office.

[@caseys2698]

@@kpegcyou would think such a thing would exist, but alas… Gaming being the newest media form historically speaking, and being disregarded by many for some valid (but mostly misunderstood or not valid) reasons, I think are the two reasons video games are so behind other mediums preservation wise. Oh, and obviously that they require more than a file or disc to experience.

[@DKTronics70]

@@kpegc It's amazing how we have Museums containing old bones, bits of old wood, metal, whatever, Art Museums with questionable quality "Art", all preserved. Yet we don't have one for Videogames. There are a few Hardware museums for computers, consoles, old mainframes, CRTs, etc...but I know of no known software museum.

[@Tarquin23]

@@DKTronics70I’ve been to two: the Computerspiele Museum in Berlin, and Vigamus in Rome. They are only a very small snapshot of historical items and games from the history of gaming, however.

[@crowmaster9652]

Its sad because he talks as if the "data" can preserve videogames yet never touches the legality of what these companies can and will do with their legal ownership. If there was a classic game preservation donation it would be taken down by the companies that are associated with it for money.

[@x1toxickiller]

For me the biggest tragedy in all of this are some of the lesser known niche games that people in the future won’t get to experience

[@TheMesosuchus]

If they don't know of the buccaneer cove.

[@Blueflag04]

They can experience it if they know what to do

[@BlueSparxLPs]

@@Blueflag04 You missed the entire point of the video.

[@Noblepeanut]

Ya, its tough to see. Another thing I worry about is modern games disappearing forever. One of my favorite games ever is Battleborn, a game mismanaged and stuffed by coming out a week before overwatch. Because it was an early adopter of the “always online” system, it is no longer playable. I can’t go back and play the campaign of one of my favorite games, and it breaks my heart. There is so much great art out there completely lost to time.

[@therealjaystone2344]

JRPGs are one of the mostly affected since their prints are limited

[@ladymariska2647]

This is why I emulate so many classic games I wish they were more accessible to many others

[@CapnRetro]

About the legality side, the majority of players say as long as you own physical copies and rip the code, it fine. But honestly, nowadays it's impossible to own/find any physical copies to rip, and not everyone know how, or have the requirements to rip their own copies. Emulation is just the best option, plain and simple. When they announced the Steam deck, and showed its emulation potential, I started saving up for one. Best decision ever. I got the middle option for the case and extra space. It's perfect for me. I can replay all my favourite old games again finally. ♥ The games that made my childhood and helped me gro was Chibi Robo, OoT/MM, Banjo Kazooie and Tooie, Perfect Dark, Willow on the NES, games from NES/GB/GBC/GBA/N64/GC Just so much good memories. I will pass on my childhood experience to my kids. Classic games and movies/series

[@firstnamelastname956]

They are accessible. I can literally go into a local retro gaming store and find most games. No emulation needed.

[@CapnRetro]

@@firstnamelastname956 Not everywhere unfortunately.. There aren't any retro stores where I live. I wish. I'm happy for you though. I'm in the middle of nowhere. The only town that's near, only has essential stores. Grocery, bank, post.. Sucks for me

[@ZeroX7649]

​​@@CapnRetroPokemon is a perfect example Fuck Em. Pokemon Co. Is sitting on a literal gold mine of games they can easily port to every Nintendo console using emulator engines for the cheap 100% get rich quick and THEY DONT DO IT. Why? To protect the Executive Board's jobs. If a port of let's say Fire Red, makes more profits than Scarlet and Violet, those broken messes of games, the investors will come for the executive Board's heads. There's no motivation for companies to port old games when their new games are garbage.

[@CapnRetro]

@@ZeroX7649 Amen to that. You right though. Old classics are just better.. The new pkm games keeps getting bugier and bugier. And also bad graphics. It's easy to see how people would prefer to play the classics over the new ones.

[@amorphousblob]

I remember becoming aware of "games getting lost" when I was looking for old flash games from Neopets. I grew up on a lot of those games, even the super-basic sponsored games, but I couldn't find them anywhere online. I discovered Flashpoint and was over the moon to see all these games on there. I appreciate archival services so much. I just wonder what will happen if a centralized service goes down before enough people can make backups (that are also backed up regularly over time to avoid data loss).

[@IllyasArt]

Yeah, flashpoint is amazing! I never thought that I would be able to play all of these flash games again!

[@kalafalas246]

Meerca chase will always have a place in my heart 💖

[@RetroSmoo]

Remember that coke dj social game? It was a bit like habbo hotel but better

[@AbsoluteSkycaptain]

​@@RetroSmooCoke Music! I lost so many hours to that game when I was a kid.

[@sihamhamda47]

I want to do my part by downloading every single Flashpoint archive in case for backup, but my computer says no (my laptop only has 512GB storage and entire Flashpoint archive is almost 3TB so far) Even if I have enough storage, it would take weeks to complete because of internet connection

[@ChaoticTeal]

This is *exactly* the niche I want to go into once I finish my library science degree. Thank you, Jirard, sincerely, for using your platform to give voice to this study and other work the Video Game History Foundation is doing. It is such important work, and it's time limited, because existing hardware and physically released software is not getting any newer. Please, *please*, keep up the good work.

[@Discoh]

Library science? That actually sounds pretty sick. Best of luck with your degree!

[@ChaoticTeal]

@@Discoh Thanks! It's definitely a shift from my undergrad program, but graduating into a global crisis has a way of changing some things. Going this route lets me use both!

[@zeriel9148]

Yeah, one thing I'd point it is a big problem is the lack of CRT manufacturers. Games before the late 2000's were NOT meant to be played on LCDs. No matter what you think of the tech, CRTs were how the art was all designed to be viewed. It doesn't matter that we can emulate the software if we have no CRT monitors left after a certain point to display it on.

[@HerculesMays]

Fortunately, some of the oldest games (if on cartridge format) are likely to endure around 100 years due to the durability of their memory. Floppy disk, CD and cassette games on the other hand, are in a whole different arena and are at serious risk of vanishing forever due to their fragility

[@SpiderJayLink]

It should also be noted that a classic game library is the OPTIMAL OPTION for consumers, a middle ground like a paid streaming service will have the SAME PROBLEM we're currently having with tv and movies.

[@thatbeardedbeast]

I feel that would only be case if the studios were the ones holding the content. right now we could only have about 4 services (nintendo, xbox, playstation, and PC), thought technically 3 and a half cuz xbox/pc same shit really. now if we had game streaming from EA, activistion, ubisoft, nintendo, gamefreak, naughty dogg, etc....... (you see where im going with this)

[@Time-yo5mw]

Yeah, anything to do with streaming immediately crosses into the realm of “you don’t actually own this game” give me a physical disc or gtfo

[@lXlDarKSuoLlXl]

​@@Time-yo5mwno dude, your take is a bit extreme, while I agree that streaming is crap for owning things, that's because they generally don't let you download content. If you made a cloud service for classic games like steam, but with the extra step of letting you download the .exe or .iso for the games you purchase at any moment you want and let them stand alone IS the way to go, but greedy companies won't ever give that kind of freedom to us so, yeah, we're fuxked

[@MrGamelover23]

​@@Time-yo5mwI take it you're never going to be a PC gamer then. They're literally aren't any physical PC games these days.

[@ZacksRockingLifestyle]

@@MrGamelover23I got out of gaming for reasons like that.

[@talonblade336]

I would have loved a game library of classic games while I was going to school for game design. That would be an AMAZING tool to study these old games and compare how they have changed and grown into today's games.

[@joeygamer5387]

I tell you, with paying for DLC, we are taking steps backward now. We have to pay for the full price of a game, then pay even more just to play the game to its full extent. And if that isn't enough, Little Jimmy 2099 can't download a title from the Switch because it's a 76 year old title. Nintendo ended support for the Switch 66 years ago. Now Little Jimmy 2099 can't play Splatoon 3 like we currently can because there would be no online access to it.

[@ballman2010]

​@@joeygamer5387Look, everyone knows Jimmy 2099 is a cynical attempt to reboot the original Jimmy, but he doesn't have any of the charm or depth of backstory that surrounds Jimmy classic.

[@zephdoesthings]

This is one of, if not THE most important issues in regards to gaming in its entirety. So glad to see you shining a beacon on just how bleak the situation really is. This is why I've always been a physical game advocate.

[@megamangos7408]

The moral case against piracy used to be: "people deserve to get paid for their work." Except it appears that in almost every industry, as proven by all the current strikes, the people getting paid aren't the people who did the work.

[@HyenaFox]

I mean, you used the word "industry" already. Maybe this is too broad strokes and/or a fundamental "we don't own the means of production" thing, but still- my purchase or your purchase of a video game, or lack thereof, will not monetarily impact anyone or anything. The COD devs are on Activision's payroll and Activision has several Scrooge McDuck money pools. (Hence, never pirate indie games- smaller studios don't necessarily get to walk away when no one buys their game).

[@Waywardbiscuit]

dont try to bring the greedy actors and writers into this. They all have gotten paid for their work and signed contracts for said work.

[@HyenaFox]

@@Waywardbiscuit you have no reason to defend large corporations because they will screw you over too lmao.

[@FermentedGrumpyGrapeSqueezit]

The video game market was super fragmented for its first 40 years. Tons of small companies created arcade games and since went out of business and abandoned the work. Tons of games are public domain

[@HyenaFox]

@@FermentedGrumpyGrapeSqueezit public domain just means that their copyright licensing has expired (which is like, temporally impossible to have happen at this point for ANY video game, considering copyright lasts for the copyright holder's lifetime PLUS 70 YEARS, meaning no video game's source code can be considered "public domain" until at the bare minimum like 2085...?), it doesn't mean that a way to play them is accessible for preservation purposes. A lot of Shakespeare is at this point in the public domain, but that doesn't mean that you can read EVERY Shakespeare play ever written right now at a library- some have never been preserved. Similarly, if NES games ever fall into public domain, that doesn't just automatically mean that you'll be able to find ANY NES game ever released, as many have never been preserved. Like, 85% of the NES game library, in fact, has never been preserved. (By the way, the 2085 number was just a rough guess given my knowledge- I think the first ever "video game" was created vaguely around the late 60s or early 70s, and I would wager the person who developed it was not older than, say, 45, meaning that even assuming that, if that 45 year old were to live an average lifespan and die around the 2000s at around 85, it would then be an additional 70 years before just that first ever game would be public domain, in the year 2070.)

[@statesminds]

This is really important to me so I really appreciate people like you bringing awareness and doing what you can to help video game preservation. It really is crazy that unlike music, movie, shows, books, etc. games don’t get the same treatment. Sure some movies and shows aren’t available anywhere but far more are available than anything close to gaming industry

[@hyper_lynx]

Part of the issue is that games require very specific hardware (or emulation of that hardware) compared to other media, especially if you want the original intended experience and so need at least the original controller.

[@davidlloyd1526]

I disagree that movies are in a better state than games.

[@dallionaire8947]

I like that you’re addressing this. I HATE that my old games aren’t playable anymore. Like I bought so many games virtually that aren’t transferred over to new consoles. For no reason the companies just want them gone… and I will never understand why

[@Darkness5423]

If your playing old games, that means your not spending money on their new games. A press conference like a year or two spoke exactly why they do this. Name a game you love, how many hours did you play it for? 100? 200? 500? 2,000 hours? What gives you the right to pay 60$ and spend that much time playing that game. you should be paying 60$ playing the game beat it, then destroy/throw the disc in the trash and go and get a new game. We lose money if people play a game for more than 10-40 hours, it's why mtx (microtransactions) have become popular and gaming quality has plummeted. We need games to be always online so you can pay 75$ for the game and every few hours or every 10 spend another 10-20$ on the game on purchases or skins, that's how we make money when people play games longer than they should be allowed to. FIFA manager is the golden pinnicle of what gaming should be, spend 75$ get the game spend another 3k on card packs, buy the next edition a year later repeat - 75$, and 1-3k on card packs. I myself fell on hard times 20 years ago and had to sell my 150 SNES game collection and system, i will never be able to get that collection log back physically. i still have most of my N64/PS1 games though badly worn from use and just from test of time. Same with PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, and Dreamcast i have all of my games but their worn out and gets harder to maintain and get them to read anymore. I firmly believe once you show proof of purchase you should be allowed to enjoy said game to your hearts content. We could get to a point companies can log how long you've played a game and just "blink" gone from your library, your done, you played it enough, move on OR pay us again to regain permission to play it again :). This is why companies are against emulators or preserving games, they lose money if you do this, they lose an estimate 13.4 billion a year due to piracy and roms. This figure is hyper inflated to make it seem like their in dire need of help, in reality they lose 0$ because THEY don't even offer said games as a purchasable option so therefore they can't "lose" money on something their not even bothering to sell/market to begin with.

[@matthewkolar7560]

@@Darkness5423 It's really nonsense though, 10,000 intractable Steam Account backlogs says that people will buy new games, even when they have old ones which they have never opened.

[@sabin97]

all of your old games are still playable. just get retroarch and all your roms and you're set.

[@matthewkolar7560]

It's not that hard to understand, if you were around for the Atari collapse. A flood of shit titles, diluting focus on what should have been those years system blockbusters. All the money Atari was hoping to make on their first party titles was lost to a deluge of imitation shovelware. Not to mention the confidence lost in the industry as a whole for half a decade. What does this have to do with historical preservation of video games? EVERYTHING. Instead of a deluge of crap, image all those titles replaced with the ghosts of releases past, AAA titles fondly remembered by fans of old, all taking focus and profit away from those few titles the industry hopes to funnel the masses into. It's the Atari disaster, but worse, and forever, since the steady stream of new releases they must release to make money and continue this business model only adds to the problem in the long run! It's like yeast in a fermenting vat, eventually their own waste product (alcohol) poisons them to death. The only viable counter strategy, long term, is to remove old alcohol from the vat. To the content distributors, this means erasing gaming's past, to ensure its (marketable) future. It's the same folly of "we had to burn the village to save it".

[@edstar83]

@@DisgaeaYomawari-mf2bz No one cares about your blind loyalty to greedy multi billion dollar companies who dont give two sh*ts about you. It's thanks to "pirates" that went to the trouble of dumping the roms and sharing them for free that we have all these thousands of game roms especially from arcades of which most don't even exist in physical form anymore.

[@DanGamingFan2406]

Thank you, Norm, and the gang for your hard work. Preserving these games, like any media, is exponentially important to history, and our pop culture.

[@watershipup7101]

Agreed

[@keeganmcfarland7507]

History is important for gaming. There's many awesome games that I grew up playing years ago (DS-WIIU) like Sonic Colors DS, New Super Mario Bros-U, Sonic Classic Collection (ds), Rio (ds), Super Mario 64 DS, Nintendoland, Super Mario 3d Land/World, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon, Rayman Legends, Skylanders Trap Team-Imaginators, Splatoon, Mario Party 9/10, Mario And Luigi Bowser's Inside Story, Pikmin 3, and Yoshi's Wooly World.

[@kaijuultimax9407]

As a game developer, I worry about how loss of access will shape future developers. There are a lot of games from my youth that shaped my game design style that are completely unavailable through legal means. The idea that those games are unavailable to do the same for future developers is really sad and I welcome any change that remedies this.

[@Waywardbiscuit]

stop caring about legal and illegal. The emulation police are not out there searching for us

[@SammEater]

@@TheRogBG Americans fear downloading Dig Dug 2 to play on MAME will have the alphabet agencies knocking on their doors on the following day for that. Either that or those clowns that say "if you can't buy then that's your problem, not every game should be available to you", man, clowns defending big companies are hilarious.

[@SammEater]

@@TheRogBG I say, pirates and emulator devs are doing more to preserve games than most people.

[@SammEater]

@@TheRogBG I pretty much have the entire library of Game Boy/Color/Advance games on my phone to play on the go.

[@300IQPrower]

i very much loving this "Jirard becomes a Gaming Preservation icon" arc

[@ericpayne4424]

The hardware accessories that are essential to the gaming experience really spoke to me. I’m lucky I’ve been able to keep my guitar hero guitar in fair shape for like 15 years because buying the hardware now is a mixed bag.

[@GrandleJams]

Yeah, no kidding. If you want to get a wired Xplorer controller for the XBOX 360, one of the only few controllers that work with PC without hassle, it's upwards of like, $90 controller only, and I would expect the price to go higher, especially because of the fact that they aren't being produced anymore, and have lots of wear-and-tear because it is a rhythm game where you end up getting a bunch of buttons.

[@sihamhamda47]

Really hope someone could make any custom, open source version of the controller soon, as Guitar Hero community is still fairly big until this day

[@Glacier_Nester]

I'm so glad you're reporting on this study, Jirard! Hopefully this study can prove we need some MASSIVE overhaul to the way we handle games preservation and research!

[@Jazzman4824]

We need a real video game museum project, one that is allowed to fly in the face of industry standards in favor of historical preservation

[@DKTronics70]

@@TheRogBG Read his comment more slowly, then YOU won't look such a clown.

[@ChrisHilgenberg]

​@@TheRogBGdoes it have the ability to allow researchers remote access to play games in their collection? If not, OP's comment still stands, as all libraries currently cannot buckle 'industry' norms for preservation.

[@jessegar94]

Count me in! I want future generations to remember the games we used to play as kids. 👍

[@Eisenbison]

Vimm's Lair, baby 💜

[@michaelking4359]

This is an important issue, I've been thinking about it more recently. This video leans heavily into Nintendo specifically, but this is a reality for all platforms and publishers. My favourite game growing up was Black & White, from Lionhead Studios. They no longer exist anymore, and the IP rights are lost in legal spaghetti. As a result, Black & White is not available in any way other than original physical media and piracy. No Clip did a great video on it a while ago. It'd be great to see a national (or even international) archive established to capture these games before they disappear like that, and to see it partner with major publishers and hardware manufacturers.

[@ToyKeeper]

Rather than partnering with corporations, I think the archive will need actual power over the corporations, like being a gov't agency. Then they could effectively mandate that companies provide their retired hardware schematics, out-of-publication game ROMs, and even old source code. Because in a capitalist system, simply asking nicely usually doesn't work.

[@pauljakeman]

I didn’t realise it wasn’t available at all. I remember seeing it all the time in stores years ago.

[@michaelking4359]

@@ToyKeeper I agree, this is a better approach.

[@pungentfunk]

I'm so glad to see this issue get some serious attention. I really hope to see some progress in the world of game-preservation.

[@linklickz]

emulation

[@Zectifin]

games are art and this art and its evolution as a medium deserves to be preserved.

[@johnnoreau3570]

@@linklickzemulation isn’t it. What happens when somebody nukes the platform the emulation is on? Then your entire digital library is no more while I still am holding on to physical copies of things people want. Emulation is only best for new wave young kids who never grew up without a screen in front of them. Always have to have everything digital for convenience no? Can’t save your own money and go find and buy the products you want. Noooo that’s tooo easy when I can just play any game ever for free. You’re a thief. You don’t actually own the game. Emulating should be illegal. Shouldn’t be allowed to play a game. You didn’t pay for or don’t own. It’s dishonest. If you really wanted the game. You’d find it and save up to afford it. Like a real adult. Instead of being a child with a “everything must be free because it’s obscure” mindset.

[@sloth1992]

This is why emulation is so important! Also why piracy exists. Until these game companies make something like ITunes and Spotify but for gaming I don’t think piracy will die.

[@daniel_361]

There are so many games from my childhood that I'd like to boot once in a while. And I'd pay a reasonable price on Steam or similar to play them digitally, if I could. But either these games are only available for absolute fantasy prices of 500$ (Nintendo) or not available to purchase at all (the rest of the industry). So what choice do I have but to emulate?

[@opaljk4835]

@@TheRogBGit’s why media piracy exists.

[@MrGamelover23]

The problem is that music is pre-rendered, just like movies and e-books, anything can play them. A service like GamePass only works if you either have a great internet connection or powerful enough computer / the right console hardware. And the rights holders to those games aren't going to make emulators to let you access them, so you're going to have to get used to streaming only for that to work.

[@MrGamelover23]

@@TheRogBG That's different when it's their own hardware. When I hear something like iTunes or Spotify, I think not tied to any hardware platform.

[@jase276]

Emulation is usually ass, though. The actual hard copy is always better

[@chrisbeach423]

I absolutely love this it’s a shame that people cannot go back and experience masterpieces. My favorite game of all time Terranigma on the SNES, I would have never even known it had existed without emulation.

[@Virjunior01]

Wow. I thought of this EXACTLY. That game was so weird and awesome, and even more special because as far as video games go, the action-rpg genre is actually _really_ small. We all know of Legend of Zelda, some know of Ys, Secret of Mana's been dead for a long time... stuff like Alundra died, EVO was a neat single title, Square completely lost its identity with Nomura's rise so we'll never get another Dewprism/Threads of Fate, and we only got that awful sequel to Brave Fencer Musashi. It's a sad state of affairs, and thanks to hackers, the world gets to know and enjoy these titles. Dark Cloud and Steambot Chronicles didn't really scratch the itch in 2007 that Terranigma did for me in 2015, and that was a SNES title from the early-mid 90s.

[@GabbyWasTaken]

I actually found out about Terranigma on a ROM site, further showing why preservation is important.

[@SirMalorak]

If it wasn't for emulation I would've never played Dragon Quest Monsters and discover that there's a whole world of non-Pokemon Monster battler games.

[@Tough_luck_kid]

Love the sprite work in terranigma

[@firstnamelastname956]

You can tho. Everyone only looks online. Go out and find a local retro gaming store and you’ll most likely find everything.

[@TheRealSchmeeb]

I feel this in every single way, I've been trying to collect gamecube games and it's been an absolute hassle to get anything easily without buying resale at insane prices. I'm so happy you brought this to light thank you so much for your amazing efforts!

[@CapnRetro]

I still have all my games from the past, but all my consoles were lost when my family moved from house to house... Do you have Chibi Robo? That game is special to me. It's the best GC exclusive game. imho. Lots of love for that game.

[@finkamain1621]

I just pirate at this point and play them on an emulator at high resolutions through HDMI without having to modify my GameCube. I even use my original controller too

[@cjrstudios4100]

There's a place in texas that sells a bunch of GameCube games for cheap

[@ariner19]

@@cjrstudios4100 do you remember the name?

[@cjrstudios4100]

@@ariner19 yeah its called Culture shock/gamebros laporte

[@LoneGuitar]

Something worth looking into is the viability for companies reprinting their old games. I was shocked to learn that Square-Enix, despite the numerous ports to other consoles, does reprints of classic PS2 and PS1 games like Kingdom Hearts 2 and FF Anthology. The fact that you can still pick up a new copy of FF X for the PS2 in 2023 is insane and deserves credit for helping keep the secondary market in check.

[@nousername191]

Where?! I've literally never heard of this.

[@meyadin5844]

i think they stopped doing that a while ago

[@wwabbd1987]

​@@nousername191you can buy it from Square

[@kratosorokai1546]

holy crap thats insane

[@azure315]

On a related note, Microsoft actually provides support for a good chunk of OG Xbox games and Xbox 360 games built right into the current Xbox line of consoles (the disc one at least), don't need a subscription either. Games even run better like Sonic Unleashed (which is funny cause it's the only way to play Adabat daytime on console without getting a powerpoint presentation).

[@Kabra2012]

This is so essential. I got interested in Lost Media during the pandemic, and seeing the amount of cultural heritage (namely in cinema, which I followed the most) that was lost due to pure indifference made me terrified for the potential losses we stand to incur in gaming. With how big gaming has gotten, and likely will get over the century, the games that started us off are only going to become more essential to our historical records. We're still at a point where most games exist as living memories still - we have a responsibility to preserve those memories for the future.

[@runed0s86]

The song "winter wonderland" with the lyrics "walkin in a winter wonderland" is from a movie. There are only 2 copies left. It has not been digitized. It is on film at the library of Congress, and the owner of the movie actively denies that it holds the license to it.

[@RAFMnBgaming]

@@runed0s86 holy crap that's rough.

[@darronperryjr.3171]

For quite a while before it's rerelease, I missed the Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I got a hard copy of that as soon as it was made available generally. It's sad that these companies lock down games that they have no intention of ever releasing again.

[@purpleonblues2992]

this is something that always confused me. Every other kind of media is available somewhere, but games.. games just disappear and thats that. Great video, Jirard.

[@NetConsole]

You cannot see why games are harder to rerelease than movies, music and books are? Much more technologically vast.

[@encapturer]

Nah, games are not harder than music or movies at all. Both games and movies are just a stream of information. What separates the two is the interpreter that changes that information into something we humans can put value to. An old movie DVD is useless without a DVD player, and the PS2 DVD is useless without a PS2.

[@karlhendrikse]

​@@encapturerGames are much harder than music and movies. Every song ever recorded can be saved as an MP3 file and played back by anything that can play MP3 files. The same is not true for games. Even emulators that play ROMs don't necessarily support all games for a given platform.

[@ec5018]

@@NetConsole gamepass xcloud and geforce now proved otherwise

[@encapturer]

@@karlhendrikse once again it's the problem with the interpreter, as I said. There is a standard for MP3 files, and you can use that to interpret it. There's a standard for each console too, it's just that only one company can make the interpreters, as opposed to others being more universally available by design. Besides, there are some retro devices that run completely on hardware; no software emulation in sight. As such, when it comes to games preservation, we will need to preserve the console specifications as well and allow reproduction of them - we need to preserve the method to interpret MP3's, too, it's just that at the moment is trivially easy. I just wouldn't take it for granted in the long term.

[@Alekkarl]

I sure hope this study causes a movement where this will actually bring companies to finally take preservation seriously. It may take a while but this is a good first step

[@Stargazing_night_sky]

We need to make sure this vid is shared as much as possible for that to happen

[@PJ-sv4iw]

There is also an F ton of obscure systems and its games library almost lost to time. Sure, you can probably find a rom image online, but some systems don't have emulation/core options available, so you're stuck to using the original hardware.

[@Alekkarl]

@@PJ-sv4iw I mean in terms of the very obscure and old consoles it may be up for argument if those are preserved by the people. But from now going forward we could try to get companies to put more preservative policies for games they’ve come out with in more recent years, along with games from their consoles that aren’t as obscure like PlayStation with their PSX/PSP, Xbox, and with Nintendo they found ways to put ds games on their Wii U system, they could try to incorporate their future consoles to maybe accommodate things like that

[@Blueflag04]

Some companies still wont care

[@PJ-sv4iw]

@@Blueflag04 Yep, I don’t see this making huge waves at all. It’s just the nature of console developers and going from one gen to the next-forcing you to rebuy the same game dozens of times.

[@ZachBlackforest]

As an MMO player, and I know The Completionist's audience is mostly made up of console gamers. But as someone that has traveled through different MMO titles, I would love a chance to revisit and perhaps introduce people to the MMO worlds I loved... Anyway sorry about my tangent on this. Also shoutout to any SMT Imagine (NA Server) players here!

[@markacostajr.1584]

Her brother good to see a fellow na player from smt imagine.

[@Markosmirel32]

I don't remember much about it, but I used to play Everquest online adventures for the ps2 a ton, I would love to give that a go again.

[@stevenmedina4030]

you are talking about the same thing. digital art, being gone after no physical/digital distributors are left and servers hosting it are shut down. you are widening the view on the video. great contribution on the same topic!

[@aKiSeraphic]

mmo experience is different and is not something that can be recreate again because it requires bunch of actual people playing it at the same time that starts together, unlike single player story be it games or manga or anime that can be relive without relying on other human beings. it's a token of the past, if its gone its gone. classic games on the other way it can still be played today again and again and in the future, because the content doesn't rely on many many actual human beings.

[@ZachBlackforest]

@@aKiSeraphic okay, so what? Should old MMOs be erased and forgotten after the servers are shut down? Don't tell me that it's impossible to preserve MMOS, I know of a few where the fans got private servers going. Only shut down because of ignorant corporate heads.

[@theotherjared9824]

Companies don't want you to buy the old thing. They want you to buy the new thing and will make it the only option. They live in fear that customers will only want the old thing forever, especially if the new thing is generally considered a step down.

[@BlitzkriegOmega]

Starfox Zero immediately comes to mind. It's just a worse version of Starfox 64 with prettier graphics. I've already got 64 on my N64 and my 3DS, why would I want a worse version that costs $60?

[@TheBaldr]

It not they don't want you to buy it, it just not profitable because of piracy.

[@JF-vz1ju]

​@@TheBaldrPiracy isn't the problem, it's the solution.

[@thatrandom_canadian]

@@TheBaldr No, piracy is because they won't make it easily accessable for people to purchase. Remember how the "mini" classic consoles from Nintendo and Sony sold out near instantly? If that's not "profitable despite piracy" then I don't know what is.

[@HiSodiumContent]

Speaking as someone who may on occasion run emulators, I check regularly for stuff like the mini classic consoles. I would totally be snapping up retro systems if they were available and cheap enough. However, stuff like that is often only released in limited runs and because of that, it's cheaper to get a refurbished original system. The problem with that, as mentioned in this video, is the cost for games on old systems is on average doubling in price every couple years. It comes down to the companies and aftermarket make retro gaming expensive and difficult to get into, when piracy is easy and free.

[@TehPwnographer]

I love what you, Norm, and the lads at NoClip are doing for preservation!! My wife and I welcomed my son to this world late last year and it’s really driven home how important this is to share that part of my life and heritage with him! Thank you Jirard and crew!

[@battleon81]

One thing that no one ever mentions is that every single mobile game that gets pulled from the app store is immediately gone forever unless someone ripped the files. One of my favorite games as a kid was Song Summoners for the Ipod Classic. It was the first tactical jrpg I ever played and I still have the entire soundtrack today (which was never officially sold). It got a rerelease on the Iphone at some point, but that got removed from the app store in 2016. Even if I download the game files online, I lack the hardware to play it on. Any ipod classic emulators are still a work in progress, and I'm not really confident I can get it working on a newer iphone. I could buy a used ipod (since I lost my old one), but even people who do that seem to have issues getting it to work. If you look on youtube, the most recent gameplay is from 2013-2014, which suggests most former fans never found a way to access it again. As a side note, the vast majority of my iTunes purchases from that time were delisted without warning and today only exist as my own file backups. Someday, I'll just spend a whole afternoon digging through every possible method to play Song Summoner again. Still, the fact remains that Square Enix has completely abandoned the game in any official capacity and the only way anyone will ever play it again is through piracy and emulation. It isn't even like the game's functionality is inherently tied to the hardware. It used a gatcha mechanic based on your song files, but I've played PC games that have no problem with similar systems. They could absolutely release a new port or even just put it back on the app store. The worst part of it all is that the version for the iphone apparently has a REWORKED STORY THAT IS TWICE THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL I PLAYED. It's practically a sequel, and I have no official way to play it!

[@SuperLlama42]

The worst thing you can reasonably say about piracy is that it's a necessary evil. Always remember that Gabe Newell quote: "Piracy is almost always a service problem"

[@spankowitzmusic]

As someone who brazenly pirates games, I would be glad to pay for the majority of the games that I pirate. But... they're just not available. Also, personal problem but having basically every single 3ds title at my fingertips gives me severe choice paralysis, and having to actually think about the games I wanna buy and spend my time playing (because I'm still a kid y'know) makes me appreciate them so much more.

[@tmchannel8483]

This is very true. Given the opportunity to pay and just have the game be available and working I think most people would. Stuff like steam achievements are also a big draw for a lot of people over just emulating.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

At this point Piracy is freaking SELF DEFENSE.

[@kenpanderz]

piracy is only a "problem" because we dont pay the artists for doing art, but merely for their labor or the actual items they produce (most of the people working on a game are what i would call artists) artists should be funded by the state, not by capitalists

[@Elliandr]

@@spankowitzmusic Same. If, for example, you didn't get a chance to buy "My Life as a King" you won't be legally permitted to purchase it before March 30th 2128 which is the date that the copyright on that particular game expires. For the vast majority of games we literally can't pay them because the publishers don't want our money. At that point the argument that piracy is the same as stealing just doesn't work.

[@robTCGZ]

I like the idea of physical videogame libraries. Sounds like the logical step forward. I think the main issue with videogames is that they're still not considered art or even worthy in the eyes of the general populace. They are still seeing as just games, things you're supposed to grow out of. With books and music, we are constantly encouraged. With games even though it has gotten better over the last 10-15 years, it's stillkind of a stigma when you're an adult that professes their love for videogames Until that mindset is gone, and until videogames are truly given their place in the art category (they are by the way, there's no debate. They are literature, they are music, they are psychology in some cases. And there's even programming art in some cases), videogame preservation will be a nightmare.

[@Hauntaku]

@@NoshikiYT Games are an art form and are equal to books in every way. Boomers just don't get it.

[@akl2k7]

​@Ezionn there are some games out there with beautiful stories that tug at the heartstrings or even just make you think. Just like literature, games have themes and messages, or even complex and intricate plots. Then there's the graphics side of things, where some games have beautiful art styles that are just a feast for the eyes. And some video game soundtracks are just great.

[@supercamborg4218]

@@NoshikiYTI’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you just don’t understand

[@ltb1345]

@@NoshikiYT How old are you?

[@BugsyFoga]

Game preservation needs to be more important to these companies, and it’s genuinely sad that it isn’t .

[@Hauntaku]

Games are an interactive art form that is far more difficult to preserve than books, but that doesn't mean they aren't important.

[@koenvandiepen7651]

Companies only care about the profit. And the incentive is not there to make games available

[@chaosjoey123]

They really don't these companies make far more money not preserving. And accessibility to games spits in the face of exclusivity, which is key to the console market. Being awful is what makes the console market thrive!

[@natesamadhi33]

Thank God for ROM hacks. im living my childhood everyday for free.

[@LilacMonarch]

Companies never care about preservation of anything. All they care about is profit. This is why we need legal exemptions to make up for their intentional negligence

[@Ainulindale22]

This has really made me think about how much I took for granted growing up with video games. Having the ability to rent games & consoles to experience things you otherwise wouldn't is really important. Plus, it reminds me of all the pain in the ass games that don't want to work on modern pcs like Morrowind, and those need to be preserved too.

[@CapnRetro]

For games that don't work on modern pc anymore, for me, it's Chessmaster 10th edition. I played it nonstop when I got it, because of the fantasy character animations. It was so fun. But overtime, my favourite fantasy board became unplayable, because the game became obsolete, and new windows versions kept coming.. Same with Black and White 1 and 2..

[@rowantic6539]

​@@CapnRetroi love black and white. I hate i cannot play it on newer computers.

[@CapnRetro]

@@rowantic6539 I found an old video that showed how to play it. Look up "how to play black and white 2" and you should find some results. Next I'm gonna get Black and white 1 to work

[@Virjunior01]

​@@CapnRetroword. Can't you emulate old OSes on newer ones?

[@CapnRetro]

@@Virjunior01 I never heard of OSes. What is it?

[@markacostajr.1584]

I hope every retro game gets preserved no matter how good or bad the game was. Personally I feel I had more fun playing games on my n64 and original Playstation than I do now.

[@je19493]

The point you made about libraries for book preservation is fantastic. Imagine if old books just didn't exist anymore because their authors didn't rerelease it. Book stores and authors still make money, so why can't video games get the same treatment!?

[@clydefrosch]

typical libraries will have replace their entire lineup every decade or two so, because most titles dont get loaned after the first year and the space is limited. the number of libraries with archival purposes is a lot more limited. and most of their books are never checked out again. and mostly, the market is just entirely different. the used book and antique book market exists, but its a lot smaller. nintendo can make millions re-releasing some of their classic softwares if they want, meanwhile re-releasing even a bestseller 10 years later is gonna be lucky to recoup costs (unless the reprint is done as cheaply as possible, in which case still, it wont make much money). also, one can argue that the rise of public libraries did indeed help in continuously lowering prices for professionally published titles across the board. publishers would love to sell you a book for 60 bucks and raise the price every 6 years. they would love to sell you harry potter and hunger games for a hundred bucks per book, but they really can't. not with libraries around.

[@davidlloyd1526]

@@clydefrosch I think your comparison to the antique book market is much more accurate than you give it credit. We're turning into those "back in my day" old folk. If you look at it dispassionately, these games are niches of niches. People who didn't grow up with the stuff just won't care.

[@calebmichael1752]

Growing up with the GameCube and N64, it is so disheartening that even after preserving my own copies, they too eventually stop working and there is no physical way for me to play them or share them with my younger relatives. Hopefully, we can see a change and resurgence of cult classics like Chibi Robo, double dash, and Paper Mario.

[@Anna-dd4rh]

I would love to play Chibi Robo!! Especially if I could do so legally

[@Skazellino]

They stop working? I've had some of my games for over 20-30 years (Every Nintendo system) and not one single game has just mysteriously stopped working.

[@jminich887]

I think the Halo Master Chief Collection really articulates the port issue. While MCC is a fantastic collection at a great value, it's taken years to actually fix it from thr buggy mess it was at launch. Not only that, but a lot of the original menus and ui have been lost when adding them together as a streamlined collection.

[@yewtewbstew547]

Yeah I'd have much preferred more faithful ports that could be launched separately with the full original UI intact. Fable Anniversary is another. The original Fable/The Lost Chapters isn't even backwards compatible on Xbox, only the Anniversary edition with the graphics update. Also the irony with those "anniversary" remasters is that a lot of the fancier rendering techniques they used don't scale properly at higher resolutions, so in many ways the original versions of those games have actually aged better. When you take Halo CE or Fable TLC and crank it up to 4k, it just looks exactly the same but with less aliasing, because everything on the screen is upscaled equally. Do that with the anniversary graphics, and suddenly you've got a bunch of effects that clearly stand out as being lower resolution than everything else around them.

[@winlover37]

It's small things like that, that make me wish I was in charge of these things. I'd want 100% faithful.

[@antispiral1159]

Worst part about the Master Chief Collection is no split screen so I’m forced to play halo 1 and 2 on an emulator. But actually has better performance and let’s me play with my friends.

[@MeepChangeling]

It was only that buggy mess because the Devs were given 1/4th the time they said it would take to make it. If you look at their estimate and when the game was working, they align pretty darn well.

[@thegamerfe8751]

One interesting game is Tokyo Mirage Sessions, the western release on Wii U got censored and many things including parts of the story were changed. The game later on got a re-release on Switch but it was the censored version in all regions. Playing the Wii U Japanese version is the only way to get the original experience and now it's unfortunately impossible without piracy.

[@L33PL4Y]

In a world where Fahrenheit 451 was released, censorship should be flatly illegal. Did that book teach us nothing? Stop censorship.

[@SplitScreamOFFICIAL]

I think your team should hire a lobbyist and get some of the people who made these old games involved, along with asking them if they have support to make dedicated server software

[@Foodstamp9162]

I was thinking the same. Louis. Rossman did that for right to repair. I was about to comment this.

[@tbone8358]

Why? The more people who play old games instead of new ones the more likely game companies are going to go out of business and also their games will keep getting worse and worse until they go out of business because you keep playing old games instead of buying their new games which means they have less resources to make their new games great, these days with everyone asking for more money than they deserve especially due to HR practices in business it’s not that easy to actually make money especially with the majority of “gamers” actually being criminals and not gamers (pirating most games) If you want to play an old game then buy the old console and the old game and play it. If you don’t like that then tough there’s no other way to play it and that’s how it has to be. Unless you’re a criminal and you’re okay stealing/pirating which is as bad as stealing a physical copy. Also as a sidenote Louis Rossman is a scam artist just an FYI. He makes things up to make his videos seem more interesting and he is paid under the table to essentially make certain companies look bad.

[@Foodstamp9162]

​@@tbone8358 Idk about Louis Rossman getting paid under the table, it's possible. Downloading a digital game that made its money already, yeah it's not the same as stealing a physical copy. If you buy a used copy the creator of that game isn't getting money. Especially if there's never a rerelease of that game.

[@stick101x2]

​@@tbone8358I mean triple AAA games have already been declining in quality even without easy access to older titles and buying old games physical will be impossible In the near future due to rapidly increasing prices and failing hardware. So, Unless something changes then privacy will literally be the only way to play most older titles since game companies seem to refuse to rerelease most of their older libraries.

[@Jake-xe1wu]

@@tbone8358 AAA titles have been in decline for a long time regardless of old games being unavailable and massive gaming corporations have always made terrible financial decisions. You are basically arguing for books to go permanently out of print just because the original author won't be paid while neglecting to see that they are dead. Even resold games and consoles do not benefit the original people. Your argument is garbage.

[@dkeats6020]

The two that jump to mind are always Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Those games go for absurd resale prices and they are fantastic games

[@TheHeroOfTomorrow]

Thousand-Year Door…

[@KiwiHorizonStudios]

Agreed! These exact two games were the first thing that came to mind as well

[@Jamdouglass]

honestly this is such an important mission to undertake. i recently discorvered an arcade around me that had an original 80s game… i’ve never even seen it before and it was one of the funnest games i’ve ever played. it was just pure fun and so simple. shoot the rocks with ur triangle… so fun! i could’ve spent my whole life never being able to play it

[@Ukysseus]

Asteroids?

[@emalinedickinson7492]

Dude, Asteroids is the shit. I played old, OLD arcade games like that and Centipede on my granpdarents old ass Windows ME with some old software on it. Can't believe some people don't know about those golden oldies.

[@Jamdouglass]

@@Ukysseus i think it might’ve been asteroids!! but if i remember correctly it was slightly different/spin-off/clone… so i’m unsure. all i remember is this cool dial to control the game

[@aether388]

Asteroids... I almost forgot about that classic, responsible for some of my earliest gaming memories.

[@sethb3090]

I made Asteroids for a computer science class! It was a lot of fun putting my own twists on it and seeing what you can do to make things your own with some relatively simple code.

[@Kalviberry]

I am really glad this is getting talked about more. It's a big reason that digital games not only scare me with the thought that my WiiU could break, and all of those games will be gone, and just how much has already been lost to either old tech or prices.

[@trident042]

I sincerely hope this preservation community connects deeply with that of speedrunners, who put so much effort and time and love into discovering all the intricacies of different game versions, hardware types, and control configurations. It seems like a passion match.

[@musc16s]

I'm loving the direction you guys took since your 3ds adventure. This was absolutely fascinating and I'm so happy you've given this study attention and can now get people talking. The movie industry is big on preservation. Why isn't the gaming industry?

[@yaboil7774]

Movies are a way older industry and are easier to preserve overall. There have been many films from the older days that have been lost forever due to a lack of foresight or technology.

[@joshuaweston6531]

Good question!

[@Shoobster]

​@@yaboil7774I suppose it's because pirates do so well for game preservation. Games don't have any great tragedies of preservation like film does, with having lost half-to-most of its earliest generations to fires. Games might not be purchasable, but any shmuck can open up firefox and get a full neogeo romset within a few minutes. Even if it's illegal, at least it didn't melt. Add to that the relative youth of games as a medium and that every film no matter how old could easily just become an h264 mp4 file, while games need specialized emulators designed to play a certain system, it makes sense that film would be easier to sell. Also, many films are part of the collections of big film distributors like Paramount or Universal, while the amount of game publishers (and therefore rightsholders) on any given system are way more numerous.

[@wrinklchu]

Jirard is quickly becoming the Martin Scorsese of videogame preservation

[@RealShaun]

Honestly no damn clue what that means.

[@xXBrokenToasterXx]

⁠@@RealShaunacclaimed director Martin Scorsese has spent a long preserving classic films that have either been lost or are obscure enough to be forgotten. One of his most famous contributions was The Red Shoes and his project the World Cinema Project

[@RealShaun]

@@xXBrokenToasterXx thats really cool of him. Thanks for educating me!

[@michaelking4359]

Instead of the Criterion Collection we'll have the Completionist Collection

[@mitchellalexander9162]

@@xXBrokenToasterXx And Godspeed to that man. His efforts in clarifying: 90% of All Silent Films are Gone and 50% of all Films made in 1929 and Beyond Survive are VERY Important things to consider in the Public Domain as it nears those years. It's also Interesting that we're getting just this happening with the Death of Flash and the Earliest Created Video Games before them.

[@MistaMagic52]

This really highlights a big societal problem we have in general when it comes to culture and technology. People are consuming, and consuming, and consuming new short content, and none of it is being remembered. Just like with videogames, what store can you walk into and buy most of the movies out there anymore? These works of art are not snacks you eat and throw away the wrappers of or TikToks you watch and then forget you saw 20 seconds later.

[@Sadboy-dp2kh]

I started preserving myself and getting tons of physical games for the 360 ps4 and Xbox one also for older systems like 3ds and it’s heartwarming to know at least other people care about the history of games as much as I do in this community

[@joshuarichard6827]

No idea you have ever had is original

[@Babl069]

This has been one of the best videos on this channel like maybe ever. The topic itself is fascinating and important but the way this was edited was really good as well.

[@broccoliben7961]

2 of my favorite GameCube games ever are Star Fox Assault and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I still have the physical versions, and I sometimes replay them, but I’m scared that one day I’ll accidentally damage them to the point of not working again and that’s part of the reason why I haven’t touched them in years. If GameCube games are added to online at some point, those are the 2 I’m wishing for the most

[@HylianWindRider]

I'm kind of scared that StarFox as a whole is slowly being lost to time, as hardly anyone knows about it these days.

[@SomeoneNooneTomatoes]

@@HylianWindRideryeah if it wasn’t for smash I doubt anyone would’ve know much about it.

[@geoechidna]

If you’re really that gung-ho about it, you can always get discs rebuffed. Unless you spill maple syrup on them they can always be cleaned. The sad reality though is that eventually the discs will rot. Probably not today, probably not tomorrow, maybe not even in 15 years. But eventually, that physical copy will be unplayable no matter what you do or how careful you are. My advice? Learn to dump the rom yourself or 🏴‍☠️. If no one is making money from these ROMs then 🤷‍♂️

[@DreamerSouls]

The problem with that is that you'd no longer own the game and need to pay monthly and have internet to access it

[@broccoliben7961]

@@DreamerSouls but it also means I could play online with friends, which I didn’t get much of a chance at

[@infamousXsniper055]

Thank you for creating this. Video game preservation is an immensely important topic. Unfortunately, I fear video games will experience e the same fate as all other media where many early classics will be lost forever due to apathy towards preserving them. Today's trash is tomorrow's history.

[@aaronlebrasseur8129]

Maybe someone could literally remake all the hardware vs software?

[@nicksdaarvan3180]

I was so happy Scott Pilgrim vs the World was re-released. I wanted that game so bad. I hope everyone can get their favourite classics, old or new, good or bad.

[@Virjunior01]

I saved my 360 hard drive to keep it, and rebought it on Switch. My nephew loves it, and he wasn't even born when the game came out

[@Tough_luck_kid]

You’re doing gods work man! I’m glad someone with a platform like yours is shedding light on this. I recently ran into a weird bit of “lost content” when I was revisiting the game “Spore”. there’s specific dlc that was only made available via a dr.pepper promotion and is no longer available for download anywhere

[@TheLomdr]

And certain versions of games are unplayable thanks to their encryption or always online tethers, like Primal Rage Arcade and DarkSpore, respectively. Not even Midway, who had the LEGAL RIGHTS TO PRIMAL RAGE, ever got the the encryption code for the game, leading to the bad port on Midway Arcade Treasures 2. Granted, PR's history with Midway is its own mess

[@joshuarichard6827]

God doesn’t care about video games, kid

[@bigjohnsbreakfastlog5819]

Oh, Dark Spore was a game that technically thwarted piracy at every turn and now it's a completely dead game. You can't ever play it again. The rise of the "live service" industry has yielded more games that, when companies no longer see the value incentive in operating them, just nuke them from existence.

[@AmalaAxiom]

Been wanting a legal way to play Xenogears and Xenosaga without having to pay an arm and a limb, plus I feel preservation would be great for the fan translation community! Thank you for all the hard work!

[@Hauntaku]

I've played Mother 3 before and I'm still waiting for a port to buy

[@qrowthebird7496]

Xenogears is on PSN store for the PS3

[@insertchannelnamehere7154]

@@qrowthebird7496yeah, but you can’t add funds through the PS3 anymore. You have to add funds through the PS4 or website now.

[@justjared9985]

I came to the comments to say this. Never had a Playstation when I was younger and I only got into Xeno with Xenoblade. I've only seen Let's Plays of Gears and Saga. I want to play them myself!

[@qrowthebird7496]

@@justjared9985 Emulation is the way to go, unless you are willing to spend a decent amount of money

[@redsilversnake]

Fun fact, the US Copyright Office once ruled that "computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access" were exempt from the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause for at least a three year period. I'm not sure if they renewed that ruling at any point, but just imagine if something like that not only became permanent, but applied to the entirety of the DMCA and other parts of copyright law.

[@MrBroken030]

Before i watch this i wanna say: Without piracy we would have lost a lot more video games over the decades, piracy actually goes and in hand with game preservation imo.

[@mugi4949]

100%

[@MisterTwo-40SX]

Exactly, in the same way as music file sharing led me to discover, purchase from and attend concerts of many bands that I’d otherwise not have known. “Piracy” spreads awareness of good product and of bad products.

[@Adantenshi]

facts

[@vallum12100]

Piracy saved the global anime market in the early 2000's, especially it's presence here in the USA. When we come together and share what we love, it gets others to invest. It gets us to want to support products we enjoy, buy memorabilia while getting IP owners aware of markets they dismissed priorly.

[@spankowitzmusic]

piracy has done a number for EarthBound, such as giving us the EarthBound Beginnings official English translation around 5 years before nintendo released it, and MOTHER 3. I don't need to say more.

[@vishalkalicharan7710]

I agree there should be a Video Game registry for preservation.

[@SoyAntonioGaming]

maby some games are ment to die. 2 much shovel ware

[@rilsinbee]

im glad youre using your platform for this, Ross Scott has been hard at work talking about games preservation for years now but to a much smaller audience

[@MrJestersdaze]

Thank you man, I didn’t know how bad this really is. I’m glad it’s been brought to my attention. There are so many games I’ve wanted to replay, shout-out to anyone else who loved the forgotten M&M Blast! growing up!!!

[@Hideotronic]

The library comparison really is eye-opening! How cool would it be to have at least one legally recognized or even funded building that’s sole purpose was to preserve and catalog classic games?

[@kylespevak6781]

It's crazier things aren't being preserved considering it's just data and we have the internet

[@ballman2010]

​@@kylespevak6781Agreed, with the caveat that especially for older games, quirks of hardware design are sometimes difficult to accurately emulate in software. As a weird example, I remember whooshing "wind" sounds always sounding strange in older SNES emulators. I'm sure this isn't the only example. But maybe we are hamstrung by the legal situation, and better emulators would be available if preservation were better supported. I'm not in a place to know for sure.

[@Jake-xe1wu]

@@ballman2010 The gaming industry is lazy and fans do all the lifting. If you need any proof just go look into how many times companies have lifted emulated content for rereleases. If the legal side of things weren't garbage and fans could be paid for work or at least not hamstrung by the law we would almost certainly see much better emulators available.

[@Gehrich_]

@@ballman2010 The legal situation has a minimal impact on emulation development for older hardware. The legal limitations are practically just users needing to provide their own BIOS files from Sony machines and the illegality of using decryption keys to run Nintendo games starting with the GameCube. Older SNES emulators (ZSNES and the like) didn't strive for accuracy, but rather them being able to just run on affordable hardware at the time. Nearly every early emulator for any given system relies on intentionally inaccurate speedhacks to achieve this, and it's a practice we see to this day when emulating more modern Sony and Nintendo hardware. By the time more powerful hardware becomes standard the devs usually understand the emulated hardware well enough to achieve a high accuracy that bypasses any need to consider hardware quirks. The "wind" sounding wrong, for example, could have been due to a lack of intensive (at the time) gaussian interpolation, a speedhack of some sort, a slightly mistimed framerate (because 60fps is close enough to 60.0988), or simply putting full sound chip implementation low on the priority list. Thankfully, we now have cycle accurate emulators on many platforms.

[@Darkness5423]

@@Gehrich_ I was going to say this, but you beat me to it, nice work in accurately posting it.

[@TOXCzombiclaw]

It's insane that we just let video games be lost to time. Imagine how crazy it would be and the outrage people would have if any of the Beatles discography were locked to cassette or vinyl from release.

[@Joliie]

There are music that is not being preserved that well either I am sure, Beatles will be, because they still make money on it.

[@thelanecampbell]

@@TheRogBGplenty of the early wax cylinder records have not been preserved.

[@thelanecampbell]

@@TheRogBG my dude, the top comment here you replied to was comparing video game preservation to that of preserving the music of the Beatles. My comment was in reply to the reality that much music from the earliest phases of music being commercialized was not preserved. I'm grateful that games are preserved.

[@greengus9925]

Games like P.T. And Transformers Devastation that vanished purely due to copyright deserve to be studied like this and have solutions found. Konami took an invaluable piece of history from us and committed the burning of Alexandria for horror fans. I hope these guys who are leading the charge find justice for all of us

[@GameMaker3_5]

NOT PIZZA TOWER!!!

[@pibstarr]

P.T was the main reason I modded my PS4. I'm glad people are still sharing games that are not available otherwise. Another game I recall not being able to get purchased anymore due to licensing is TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled. Then we also have region exclusives, Mother 3 most famously. Without emulation I doubt I would had ever played Racing Lagoon or Pokemon Tetris.

[@thegameplaylibrary1723]

This was really eye opening, I've been collecting games for a long time and have seen it become harder and harder to find older titles, hopefully one of these preservation projects kick off

[@kevinr.9733]

The use of the final boss theme from Eternal Darkness while describing the results of the study seems especially fitting for my extremely specific circumstances, given that I recently discovered that the used copy I picked up a while ago doesn't read.

[@oswald5086]

Wow. This video really opened my eyes to video game preservation and how unnecessarily tough it is. Thank you for sharing this with us, and I sincerely hope that we can be able to preserve classic video games for all people somehow.

[@ViniVHSoares1993]

That's one of the many reasons why i love emulation, i've managed to play pretty much every classic from my childhood that was never rereleased, discovered lots of games i always wanted to play, and have access to a great library of games in one single device where i can upscale the resolution, improve frame rates, have access to fan translations to games that were never released here, emulation is incredible and has even helped companies like nintendo that saw great success with the virtual console, it's sad that it's such a taboo option for lots of people when it's clear that people against it are big companies that just want to gatekeep games for the sake of gatekeeping games, i think that it's incredible to see you using your channel to touch on such an important subject like game preservation, i really wish companies could offer you their official emulators and gave you an option to buy roms for the games they can put on their store, kinda like Sega did with their latest genesis collection on Steam.

[@90sNath]

Nintendo used to do that til the switch came around

[@TENRAN432]

sega, at least, is pretty decent about preserving classics in their original forms, they've been putting out lots of rerelease collections for awhile, even if there are of course many more games forgotten...

[@CFWhitman]

The publishers' stance on this issue very much parallels what publishers were doing regarding movies and wood pulp printed books in the first half of the twentieth century. The biggest differences are that the old games are in more durable forms, and there are people who are making new copies of these games regardless, because they have the technology available to do so. There are many books and movies from that time period that are permanently lost because publishers refused to make new copies of them for fear they would compete with their current offerings. It's interesting that copyright used to last from 14 to 28 years depending on whether the copyright holder renewed it or not, but it has been gradually extended to the current rather ridiculous state of lifetime of the author plus 70 years or 120 years if owned by a company.

[@solidskullz5736]

I really wish they would stop doing this because these older games are so amazing. I still have my GameCube and ds but so many people don’t have those anymore and it kills their chances of playing these great games

[@Darko1226]

@@NoshikiYTthe Wii can play GameCube games and you can easily hack a Wii and play any retro game you want.

[@doctorprepologedyedeyadede3542]

Which leads to piracy

[@Fallen_Family]

@@NoshikiYT the gamecube isn't expensive but some of the games for it are, for instance most people want to play games like smash bros melee or Mario kart double dash but those games are usually 40 dollars or more still and 40 is on the cheaper side some other games like Mario party 4 through 7 are at least 100 dollars on most websites or even at flea markets or garage sales so just because the console isn't expensive doesn't mean that the games are accessible

[@p.r.1308]

Yeah. It makes the FOMO real. Usually you could say: dont worry, you can play the game always later in your life. But no. Most games, especially on consoles, are gone with the next generation. While there are still a lot second hand consoles and games, one day, they will be gone for ever.

[@monkaWGiga]

@@NoshikiYT Still an extremely accessible way for people to play GC games and the better games on Wii like Zack and Wiki or Madworld. Whether you think it sucked ass or not doesn't matter. Not the Wii Mini though. That doesn't have backwards compatibility.

[@baneintherain]

Game preservation is so important. I love the passion being shown for this. I'm absolutely terrified that even my physical discs may degrade over time enough to not work when I go to pop in Valkyrie Profile into the PS1 someday.

[@ModestPavement]

I love when jirad makes a video thats not him completing games. Always a surprise and refreshing. Ive only been subscribed to this channel for less than two months and its quickly turning into my favorite channel.

[@mattwolf7698]

Another thing that wasn't brought up was issues around licensed content within old games. Like how the old GTA games keep loosing songs from them. Old racing games keep loosing rights to makes and models of cars and who knows maybe even loosing the rights to celebrities (like Tony Hawk games) would probably be possible. Even if a classic game library became legal I wonder how that stuff would work, I'd think it would be fine if the library actually ripped a physical disc but I'm no legal expert. Granted that doesnt affect the majority of games but it does still affect a lot of classics especially from the PS2 era.

[@mtvproductioning9811]

87% is a disgrace. There DEFINITELY should be something done about this. Everyone should be able to play whatever they want and not lose games just because they're considered outdated or just so the companies save money. Especially with newer technology, there's definitely ways to preserve these to be available. And not by "renting" them either. (I'm looking at NSO) I mean we should have the freedom to buy the games we want. After all, games are about the journey and experience.

[@Danbo22987]

Nintendo is like one of the only ones that even offers their older library at all in any form

[@bonsparksart825]

​@@Danbo22987this isn't true. Xbox and Playstation's legacy libraries are both playable on current gen consoles. @mtvproductioning9811 to be fair, part of the reason it's so high is because a lot of them are shovelware or indie projects that aren't worth preserving.

[@mrturret01]

Reduce all copyright terms to 15 years.

[@GRGCompletionist]

On one hand there are the companies which don't care at all about that and on the other hand there are the people who "claim" that older games aren't worth revisiting even though remakes and sequels are what sell more in this industry. Either way thankfully gaming and more importantly game preservation has become a passion to plenty of intelligent people out there and we have them to thank for providing us with emulators and ports and yes, even piracy which i would argue is the best and truest way to preserve games.

[@kiernanhowell-mackinley1733]

​@@mrturret01YES!!! I will never not champion truncating copyright!

[@Shadowblade1213]

Honestly every time I think of old games being stuck I think of Jet Set Radio Future. That game is amazing and I want everyone to get a chance to experience it but sadly it's only available on the og xbox. I do believe you can run it on certain 360 models but its insane that you can't get it on modern systems. Also I just want to say that I love this type of coverage. You have the power to make a difference and you are doing an amazing job!

[@Craxin01]

Love that game. Only issue I had running it on the 360 was the text on the map would flicker. Like, literally blinking on and off.

[@sabelaine6044]

Love the game. Tried playing it on my 360 and the performance fell off a cliff in certain zones and made it unplayable. Original Xbox is the only way imo. Shouldn’t be that way!

[@Craxin01]

@@sabelaine6044 I'd hook my original Xbox to my TV, but it's a 4K TV. No component or composite cable support. I don't want to try to find a decent component cable to HDMI adapter and spend a hundred dollars to play one or two games.

[@peanutluvdra2998]

I may be 19 but I was raised with a lot of old, classic, and current games. With most of those games being lost, it's very sad.

[@Fidion]

I don't think anything's being lost, that's not the issue here Its just we'd like normal people to know of these games

[@peanutluvdra2998]

@@Fidion yeah that's true, i also have friends who've never heard most of these games before.

[@AwkwardFellow]

Thank you for making this video and spreading awareness. It’s been an issue I’ve felt for a long time. The game that really hit me with “no one will be able to play the original soon” was The World Ends With you. It’s such a unique game that utilizes the DS to the fullest & so many features were removed or awkwardly adjusted to Mobile and the Switch that a lot of people got turned away from it. The Switch version had very fee copies made, & I think even the Mobile port is no longer accessible or at least the features implemented shut down. While not perfect the ports provided people an alternate way to play for those unable to get used to the dual screen, but anyone who wants to experience that original and unique gameplay are now out of luck due to the eshop & physical copies no longer being made. Even emulation of it is difficult to get that same feeling of using the DS’s every function from closing it, using the microphone, to the touch screen or flipping it upside down. I’m still not over a lot of Atlus games being stuck on the DS or worse: the PS2 or later. I tried to pick up a few of their games on DS eshop or the PS3 store but a these games being full price made it difficult to justify for a digital copy. (What am I going to do when either of them naturally become unusable?) Physical copies are going for $100+ due to scarcity and it’s awful knowing I can’t experience them unless I emulate it.

[@RAFMnBgaming]

A couple years ago they discovered a way to play legally aquired backups burnt onto DVDs on PS2 without any modding. It should not have to come to sony having accidentally left an exploit in their DVD player firmware from decades ago for people to be able to go back to play classic games.

[@NipplesTheEnchilada2323]

I knew that a lot of games from the past were unavailable for purchase on modern stuff, but around 90% being unavailable is shocking to say the least.

[@811supersonic]

I'm a sucker for classic games, anything that I grew up with as a kid. I have a really good computer that I do emulate games on but something is always missing. No emulation can top the feeling of playing one of your favorite games on its original console, and that's something I live for.

[@thatonegeeksite5251]

Yeah I’d much rather play it legit but the way these companies drip feed classic games onto their subscriptions is just unbearable. Being able to play all my favourites on Steam Deck has been a blessing.

[@Clos93]

I'm a e-hoarder lol, I have two PC's, among like 12 or so consoles, monitors, and CRTs lol. I need help...😅

[@GamerLikeDad]

We talk about this often, my dad being 70 and one of the biggest collectors I know. This was so eye opening and well done!!🔥 I hear Kelsey on other podcasts and they are doing some amazing work with that foundation!!🙏

[@elsiebartlett6808]

This was the reason I started filling up sd cards and hard drives on Wii U and 3ds to maintain access to some of these, especially considering the 3ds hardware doesn’t exist any more. There were also a lot of ports on those consoles of games that never got a western or us release. I also think about games like the Zero Escape series that actually incorporate the hardware of the dual screens and touch screen into the story line (particularly in the first one 999)

[@davidwesst]

You and the team are doing a great job on using your voice and platform to share this very important message. Keep it up!

[@coreymyers5321]

I sometimes worry if, in the future, others can experience the classics to see how video games have evolved into what they have become.

[@charlottearanea7507]

The thing that I always think about with legitimate availability is that two of my favorite games growing up were Galaga and Centipede, which both came out over a decade before I was born. I was only able to play those games because my mom loved those games back in the day and so bought the rereleases for me. If the only option was finding an old arcade machine or piracy, there's no chance I ever would have played them at a child, and they couldn't possibly have had the same influence that they ended up having for me personally.

[@rezahydra]

There has been some leeway with Galaga specifically. A 1-up Arcade Mini-Cabinet. Granted not *cheap* but definitely not expensive. There was the port to GBA as well, where I first played it, but it sadly is overall lost to time because of this as well.

[@draexian530]

I had the midway arcade collection on PS2 and the Atari game pack on GBA. They had both, and both brought me immense joy in my childhood. It'd be horrible if they simply vanished.

[@Simke8]

It sucks that game preservation is so bad currently. I’d love to see something like the video game history foundation in Canada! (Unless there already is some how.) well done sir with buying all the games on the Nintendo e shops, props and respect!

[@supergirlkels]

I just wanna thank you for bringing this up. This is something I NEVER really heard about and considered and it makes sense why It's been so hard to find some of my parent's legacy games because there's no other working ones left in the world... :( Thanks so much

[@reethewop]

Its a shame that companies don't want the new generations to see where they started. Probably because they will see how downhill games have gone with microtransactions and predatory practices

[@randomprotag9329]

angry birds had a case of an old release being the better game and effecting sales of newer ones

[@Fallen_Family]

@@randomprotag9329 unfortunately the older game doesn't work well on many android devices, though I don't know about ios

[@Howitchewstofeel5gum]

Yeah, this tinfoil hat shit must be the reason why, not that it just doesn't make financial sense for companies to keep supporting outdated technology forever lmao. Also, there are soooo many good games out there today with zero microtransactions, honestly, if you keep playing that trash that's entirely on you.

[@Herowebcomics]

This could totally be true! Shout it from the mountain tops! You used to be able to buy a game and play it for weeks without spending any more money! And you could do it OFF LINE!

[@ShadowAraun]

@@Howitchewstofeel5gum deep rock Galactic C:

[@awkwardGardener]

One of my personal favorite forgotten games is Steambot Chronicles on the PS2. It's such a wonderful game full to the brim with content, but has seemingly been totally forgotten by Irem and has never been rereleased on anything else.

[@lanisolfire5692]

I hope this movement is successful. videogames helped me through some very dark times in my life so this cause is very near and deer to my heart. Keep up the good work you guys. PS. The games im gonna mention thats stuck on old consoles are gotcha force, Skies of arcadia and shadow hearts

[@GlassOnion23]

This is going to be a long post. Sorry. But I just have to say. Those games aren't stuck on old consoles. The Dolphin emulator plays almost all the Gamecube and Wii games close to flawlessly. It's one of the finest emulators around. I feel this is a very important distinction because there ARE console games that are stuck on consoles. These are games on consoles for which there don't exist emulators on the level of Dolphin, PCSX2 (PS2) , Duckstation (PS1) or the gold standard, BSNES (SNES emulator that in terms of being hardware accurate is greater than 99.99% perfect), etc. I'm talking about consoles like the original Xbox, the XBox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3 (although RPCS3 has been making great strides the past few years), and a few others. Those are the console games that you and everyone should be worried about. Because of the absolutely incredible work put forth by the Dolphin team, and because we can be sure that at least one of the numerous platforms on which Dolphin runs will have emulators for them (Windows for example), the entire Gamecube and Wii library are safely preserved forever. I'm curious why you didn't consider emulators when it comes to the preservation of the games you mentioned. Emulators on open platforms like the PC have done almost all the heavy lifting for game preservation for the past 25 or so years. Even if you combine all the work by all the console manufactures with regards to their backwards compatibility programs and mini-consoles and what not, they still pale in comparison to the work done by the passionate, extraordinarily skilled community on the PC. Backwards compatible hardware like the Fat PS3 or Nintendo DS won't last forever. At some point in the far future, the last working example of those consoles will fail. Those consoles would need to have close-to-perfect emulators well before that happens. Backwards compatibility programs like what's on the Switch or Xbox Series X emulate only a small fraction of the game library of the emulated consoles. Compare that to PC emulators whose goal is to emulate the entire console library. If we are to have any hope of preserving all the future games going forward, it's going to be on the back of emulators built on open platforms.

[@lilFougie]

Thank you for persuing this utterly important cultural art legacy that is video game preservation. Priorities in society are all challenged by simple business profits. You are the good guys doing the good work, thank you. My eyes really opened up to this earlier this year when the 3DS eShop closed down. I scrambled to grab games that I knew would be gone forever and still missed out on a couple I discovered a day late. Would have been nice if they delayed it 1 month. For me, 2022 was the craziest year of my life and I didn't get around to playing my 3DS again until February 2023 and literally went to the last minute researching games to grab.

[@ztk1138]

We need to do something to preserve the games for future generations.

[@deathproof8732]

Future Generations will sell what you love and continue playing Roblox

[@Jared_Logan]

That's the video. Now what's your opinion about it?

[@Jared_Logan]

@@NoshikiYT I'm asking ztk though.

[@keeganmcfarland7507]

​@Ezionn It's better to stop buying remakes/remasters of retro triple AAA games (including the Nintendo ones) and instead, start buying indie games and AA games.

[@christopheradams6340]

Agreed

[@JasonNZ42]

If Jirard ever opened up a gaming museum, I would put a ridiculous amount into the "suggested donation" box in order to hopefully keep it afloat

[@clydefrosch]

museums are hella expensive and they typically can't survive long without government support

[@Relativity404]

There's two more things to consider which I was hoping would be brought up, but wasn't, so here they are: 1. It shouldn't matter if a game is good or succesful for it to still be preserved and/or still playable/available in the present. Even bad examples can be a valuable learning experience. 2. Due to updating being so frequent, it's very possible for a game to undergo a significiant amount of change during its lifespan, meaning the version 1.0 becomes lost to time and replaced by the newer version.

[@phildirt4059]

As a big fan of media preservation as a whole, this video is incredibly important. With the the recent outcome of the lawsuit against the Internet Archive, this argument is more relevant than ever now that there is legal precedent against digital archivism. Thank you, Jirard.

[@k00_ma]

i feel like another point that should be brought up is older games from other countries that never left their country (like mother 3, castlevania rondo of blood, ect) even if we cant necessarily have a direct translation, i think it’s important to be able to still release these games

[@supermariofan03]

Well last year was a step in the right direction with the HD-2D remake of Live a Live. Hopefully it’s a sign that more will come like Terranigma, Clock Tower, Mother 3, Sin and Punishment, etc

[@bearwocare93]

Game preservation is such an important topic that sadly never gets the attention it needs

[@WhateverWhenever888]

Important? No

[@2emo2function]

@@WhateverWhenever888 as important as any other form of artistic preservation

[@mihailcirlig8187]

​@@WhateverWhenever888yes, a lot of videogames are art, they are important

[@davidlloyd1526]

@@mihailcirlig8187 Sure - but realistically they'll just sit in a dusty museum room along with all the other art.

[@mihailcirlig8187]

@@davidlloyd1526 no, almost every other type of art can't be interacted with, it's mainly passive like listening or watching, you can't control it, it's a very different type of art and maybe the most unique

[@Jason_Strawberry]

My library doesn't have video games but a library in another county has a few. They also let people borrow or loan some other cool stuff like telescopes. Having hardware like e-readers and Wii U's at libraries could be a way for people to experience the original content of games