When eShops Close: The World of Video Game Preservation

[@reallycool]

Help promote this video by retweeting twitter.com/MRIXRT/status/1539669903803817990 Thank you so much to my patrons. Notes on this video in this comment Notes: -While I believe the interviews are valuable and help tell the story, they are always at the end of a chapter unless directly related to the subject at hand. You can safely skip to the next chapter if you do not care about interviews.

[@_-Lx-_]

I linked it on the NieR Automata Steam Forums while discussing a related fear for the game if that helps at all.

[@reallycool]

Every share helps

[@_-Lx-_]

@@reallycool You're welcome, you seem like a real underrated channel and the video got me thinking about some concerns of how the games very unusual ending will be preserved when eventually the online additional features cease. Stumbled across your channel yesterday getting reccomend the Limited Run video and you seem to cover a whole bunch of interesting topics usually not discussed. And I'm always down to listen to a good video essay while I play games, and you make very nice content my dude.

[@baxterbunny4403]

Will you review Simpson Hit and run

[@thechugg4372]

BS Zelda has actually been completely patched with the original "episodes" format. We truly don't deserve how amazing emulation is.

[@JanoschNr1]

“One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

[@tiagotiagot]

When it comes to games that got multiple versions; I think all versions deserve being preserved. From the perspective of preserving history, it doesn't make sense to throw out something unique just because something somewhat different existed before or after it when you have the choice to preserve it; with that kind of thinking, you might as well not preserve history at all and just stick with what's the present.

[@Zinkolo]

Indeed. That's my main problem with the video as he's focusing too much on this abstract notion of experience and not enough on history or preservation of each title. I don't want to focus on "experience" The code base and everything about it matters too. I don't care if we can't get it working exactly the same, it matters that we have the game itself and we get it running as close as possible regardless of the experience. It's not about sentimental value and which game is most popular it's about history. He has a very defeatist take on this belittling those who wish to preserve as much as possible. I cannot stand his point of view that we should all just stop and preserve very specific titles so we can focus on "his" definition.

[@slapshotjack9806]

bruh game preservation makes no sense electronic media ages like spoiled milk and most likely will disappear in 60 years

[@tiagotiagot]

@@slapshotjack9806 Doesn't the fact electronic media has a short lifespan actually reinforce the need for preservation?

[@slapshotjack9806]

@@tiagotiagot not really because it’s a form of entertainment not history so nobody really cares

[@tiagotiagot]

@@slapshotjack9806 So you think we should tear down libraries, museums etc?

[@benjaminmuratore9341]

I personally think that arcade game preservation is pretty underrated. It's arguably one of the more consistent forms of preservation thanks to stuff like Arcade Archives, yet people don't talk about it that much.

[@drachenzahne9262]

Hamster's Arcade Archives series kicks ass! Got Karnov's Revenge, Xexex, and Sunset Riders, all excellent ports. They deserve much praise

[@KlausWulfenbach]

Part of the problem with "piracy" is that we've let the definition become muddled. Originally, media "piracy" meant unauthorised and unlicensed selling of physical media. e.g. video taping a movie in a movie theater and then selling copies of the tapes. We've allowed file sharing, unauthorized and unlicensed free distribution of digital media, to become not only equivalent but definitively a part of "piracy". But morally file sharing and piracy are not the same thing. Piracy in most cases can be categorized as a type of theft because the person buying the pirated media has the money to do so. So it is likely depriving the original rights-holder a sale of the product. File sharing is different because there are a lot of completely legitimate reasons for doing so, the law be damned. Perhaps the person torrenting the files is in a country where they cannot purchase the product in any form. Or the product is not available for sale. Or the product will never be available for sale again. Or the product was never available for sale (prototypes and such). Or it's not actually a product that can be bought, but is still under copyright for some reason. Or my copy was defective and I can't get a replacement without torrenting it. Or the publisher attempted to replace all legitimate licensed copies with an inferior version. Or the current publishers come along ten years later and censor the remaster because of their political agenda. Or the current publishers just refuse to republish the product in question. And in none of these cases is money being exchanged. Alternately, we could all wait for everything to become public domain. Remind me again how long that takes? At least eighty years after the "death of the author"? So like I said: the law be damned.

[@qactustick]

But...isn't attempting to give a 'legitimate reason' for doing something while also saying 'the law be damned' kinda contradictory? If you're saying you don't care about the law, that sounds like you're willing to break or ignore it to get something that you want, and you can't really get any further from 'legitimate' than that.

[@thechugg4372]

@@qactustick Pretty sure this just means that the law isn't keeping up with the world.

[@qactustick]

@@thechugg4372 Regardless, the law is the law. How old or whether or not someone personally agrees with it isn't going to change whether or not someone's allowed to break or otherwise disregard it, until or unless that law is changed/eliminated.

[@skelreal]

@@qactustick "the law is the law" 🤓🤓🤓

[@KlausWulfenbach]

​ @Thechugg That's more or less exactly what I meant. Although, to be specific I'm more irritated by the aging boomers that were out of college before they ever saw a Pong machine than by the legal system itself. @@qactustick If you don't bring a bale of hay with you next time you take a taxi ride in London, you need to turn yourself in to the police. The law is the law. It doesn't matter how obsolete a law is. No excuses.

[@Gruntvc]

I'd say yes, but officially? The Games Industry has done a terrible job preserving a lot of games. Japan in particular, as they love to throw away or lose the original source codes. Recent example, Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2. Microsoft made a good attempt with their backwards compatibility system on Xbox One X and Xbox Series X, but they are no longer updating it. Sony's classic game lineup for Plus Premium is a joke. And Nintendo is well, Nintendo.

[@reallycool]

None of the big boys seem to have any real demonstrated interest in making preservation a priority, but I'm hoping more information can at least start the conversation

[@Cruxis_Angel]

Oof Japan hurts the most. Feels like 70% of all Japanese games up until the PS3 era had their source code thrown away after development. So many classics will never have proper remasters.

[@TNinja0]

For a country that grew up around togetherness, they sure are very possessive.

[@kaisarr7632]

microsoft does update there backwards compatibility catalog they literally just did like a month ago

[@nickelakon5369]

Sony isn't Japanese anymore, it's been a California company since 2016.

[@ArimaHato]

It's a shame you don't have more subscribers. I don't think your current amount reflects the well written, long-form video essays that plenty of people like me enjoy. Hope you get the recognition you deserve

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of this, i might not be the biggest gamer but you did help me realize how important games have been for me throughout my lifetime 🤗

[@reallycool]

Loved talking to you

[@ItchHeSay]

Game preservation sort of fascinates me. Video games are not like other mediums, like movies or books where you can just easily keep a record of it. Games have a mixture of code and assets designed to work within certain digital environments that can become difficult to replicate as time goes on. However, I think one of the biggest misconceptions I see around game preservation is that physical media is the most effective form of preserving games. Sure, it's the easiest form of preservation, but you're really only preserving the game for yourself. Game consoles, PCs, and game discs will eventually degrade over time, stop functioning, and their only value will be as artifacts for people to look at. There's a lot of hurdles when it comes to preserving games, but I see the biggest one as being DRM. I don't think there's an industry that's as strict about copy protection as video games are. Sure, the music industry gives games a run for their money, but you can still easily access most music files and copy them. I believe that if you can't gain access to the files of something and copy that thing, you're going to have a very hard time preserving it for future generations to see. Piracy is a very nuanced issue and people's opinions on it may vary, but it cannot be denied that it is the most effective form of game preservation (please note that I'm not saying that you should go and pirate every game in existence). It gives the general public the most direct access to game files to be shared and kept around for years to come. What's required to preserve games can bring people out of their comfort zone and into more legal issues than any other medium, and that's why I think there's been so many debates over things like emulation over the years, even though it's basically necessary for game preservation. Video games are still a fairly young medium, and it should be no surprise that corporations don't see the value in preserving them as much as other mediums. This happened when film was still a young medium. There are so many films from the early years of the medium that are just lost to time because the companies that produced them never saw any value in preserving them. I think it's unfortunate that we'll never be able to see most of those movies ever again, but it just goes to show that corporate mindsets are at odds with preservation. I am not inherently against remasters and remakes either (The RE2 remake was one of my favorite games of 2019), but companies only produce these when they see value in doing so, not to preserve anything out of the goodness of their hearts. If we truly wish to preserve games, we need to take matters into our own hands to a certain degree. Video games are possibly the most challenging type of media to preserve, and for some people the struggle of preserving many games may not seem worth the time, effort and legal issues required. I believe that it's important that we preserve games for historical purposes, but I don't necessarily blame some people for turning a blind eye to it. Actual game preservation is a legally grey area and is rarely ever thankful because of that. Game preservation often lacks in easy or quick solutions, so if you think it's worth it, you may have to accept some measures that are outside of your comfort zone, and that's the main problem with it.

[@reallycool]

A very succinct summation of many of the problems

[@Kevin-jb2pv]

I think that the idea of remastering games is interesting altogether. Like, yeah, some "remasters" are obvious, soulless, greedy cash grabs, but then there's lots of them that actually do feel like they're made with love and care. And there is something to be said for making these games more accessible on many levels. It's not just graphics in a good remaster. A lot of the time it's also UI and QOL improvements like adding saves to a game that only had level codes or none at all, fixing jank that might have been acceptable in the past but are borderline unplayable today, modern aspect ratios and FOV - which is actually really important for preventing motion sickness, etc... Not to mention resolving what would be _actual_ game breaking problems by adding better driver support, patching in modern 3D API support (when was the last time your GPU supported Glide out of the box?), Adding modern OS support/ integration (because if a game requires tinkering with DOSBox for and amount of time greater than 0 seconds, then that game is simply never going to be played), modernizing the networking, etc... A good example of this would be the System Shock remaster. It leaves most everything alone, but it makes the interface something other than excruciating to use and it just freaking works out of the "box." Then we get the grey area of "community supported remasters." Herein lies your Daggerfalls, Doom's, Roller Coaster Tycoon's, etc... The games are all inarguably superior to how they were at launch in pretty much every respect. They don't remove anything, they eliminate limitations of the old tech without destroying the charm.

[@Agamemnon2]

There's also an issue that many games are unpreservable. Even if we have all the code, all the hardware, etc, to run, say, original Team Fortress, that will still only be a pale imitation of what playing that game was. Because we cannot preserve the players who played them, and their culture and habits and in-jokes and memes. It'd be like trying to store an entire village in amber.

[@autobotstarscream765]

@@Agamemnon2 The Pompeii of Pootis

[@youtubeaccountlol4942]

36:40 "how do you preserve a game that has deleted 2/3 of iself?" has me SCREAMING at R* for deleting 180+ cars from the online stores

[@mistergremm735]

I think also a minor part of games preservation that I'm surprised wasn't covered here is *"display technology"*. like we all know that as stated visuals of the game can often be integral part of the experience and unlike movies where any modern tv can easily scale a video, video games are interesting since it's also requires players input and modern tech can't always replicate that well resulting in problems with experiencing old games (more specifically from 1st generation to the 6th generation) that were made to utilize Tube television tech like CRT, CRT monitor , you often see many proclaim that these are as important as playing on original hardware to maintain the pure experience, specially recently with many outlets and competitive players talking about how CRT Monitors are essential to games like Counter strike and Doom with often fast refresh rate that still competes with modern tech, but as we know these products been long out of production and with every year they will grow in scarcity eventually losing potential experience of specific long gone era, it's interesting how with shift to Plasma, projector TV, LCD, LED and OED Which I believe displays a black levels that's close to an CRT's Black levels, It's why even for none retro fans Video Scaler is widely popular specially for upcoming streamers and content creators who often want to represent the original content at it's purest form as possible other than that this is was fantastic video and highlighted specially why I started to not bother getting physical goods since nowadays I feel like it's more marketed towards collectors and rich folks over really us the enthusiast who actually play those games, preservation became sad justification for a shady market that monopolized by likes of WATA and LRG sorry if this was long one but this was quite neat kickstart for interesting conversation

[@reallycool]

Yes, this is a very valid point. I think I could have made a specific callout for this, I appreciate you making the comment

[@theshadowdirector]

It's why we should honestly be f****** terrified of an all streaming future for games because then the ability to preserve anything is out the window.

[@PosthuMouse]

Monster video. You and Tim Rogers really are setting a new high bar for games journalism, and as a video game preservationist myself, I'd say that what you do is a part of video game preservation. Thanks for the time and effort you put into this. Absolutely killer.

[@rosesandmetal]

I’m just a random voice on the internet, so take my nothing opinion for what it is, but I think this is your best video yet. You really captured not only the importance of preservation, but also helped illustrate why games are just as important and valid as other art, if not more for some. Thank you.

[@reallycool]

Thank you, that was my goal

[@SonicKick]

The Destiny 2 example makes me fear for future game preservation especially as someone in his mid-20s who has been emulating games I've played in my youth recently. I've had a great time playing licensed games like the SpongeBob Movie game, or Scooby Doo games. But the fact that's the only way I can play them without having the original hardware because of licensing issues, and the fact that someone who I don't know dumped those games thinking it would be "worth preserving." In these days if say an avid kid who liked a certain licensed game in these days, who's to say 20 years later because of patches/updates/DRM/etc that game cannot be documented or experienced? Even so called "bad" games too that someone might of found enjoyment in? Its scary to think that about it for future generations.

[@TheGoldenBolt]

We're eating tonight gamers

[@dreamakuma]

I bought Ultimate Doom in 1997 in the Depths of Doom Trilogy. Because the source code is out there I was able to just keep the WAD files saved one way or the other these past decades. Here I am 25 years later and I can run it in Dosbox, or Chocolatedoom to try and play it how I remember. But I can also still mod it, make levels for it, play new games from it's engine, and it's still the feeling I got when I was a kid. Doom is one of the best games of all time not because what it did for FPS, but because it cannot fade away.

[@lpfan4491]

It's inevitable that some content vanishes with the way things are legally and practically, I just sorta accept it, there is really nothing we can do realistically. What I really like is how many emulators try to have 100% functional compatibility with the consoles. Sure, it is unlikely to ever be 1:1, but one could say that it preserves the console forever on a technicality. Eventually we will get to the point where every single Gamecube and Wii could just break with no one knowing how to make a reproduction-console and I would still technically be able to program a new authentic Gamecube-game and just play it with a very high chance that if someone could actually track down a real GC or Wii(Or even Wiiu with homebrew), that it would run perfectly on it too. 32:00 Well, yes and no. There are actually two pullrequests live that implement basic support. The games aren't even close to running because the base board's missing, but they at least manage to boot, assuming that stuff gets merged eventually.(I hope it does before I die, but who knows?) So yeah, seems like the dream in this case isn't dead, it might just take a long time. On the question of which version to preserve: Yes. And that is another reason why I just say "we should try, but somethings are just gone." Version 1.0 of a version has just as much legitimacy as the day 1 patch and that has just as much legitimacy as the final version and the remaster and so on and so fourth. Getting every public version of an offline game is already a hassle, but that becomes even worse with an online game. Because not only is it oftentime impossible to backup every single version as it is currently live(As one regularly also needs to back up server-data), but one also either needs a server-network that actively hosts every single version and gives easy access to the version of choice.... or keep the data and instructions to host each version on a github or sth. It's a hard backpain in a world where many deserving games don't even get even a single version of their game preserved before it's lost to the ether(And I am moreso talking about online games that can be played alone because multiplayer MMOs as the video discusses are too volatile. It's possible to get 0 players on the official server before shutdown or capped playercount on the fanserver. It depends too much on what is effectively random chance).

[@pinewolfpresents]

Videos can capture feelings and moments in time that can't be replicated long after the fact, for gaming especially. When I started posting gaming content here this year, I was in a dark place and kind of just wanted to backup some personal gaming memories for after I died for anyone that cared to watch. Then things finally started to improve in my life, at the same time I started dealing with this platform's region blocks, processes for appeals and copyright strikes. That sort of drained my remaining interest in uploading. I felt as though my videos weren't even getting views in comparison to the hassle I'd deal with behind the scenes. But I'm realizing now that all of this is bigger than myself, so I should keep trying. Many games won't last forever, and neither will any of us. But video creators can capture those feelings, memories and moments in time. And we can do what we can to preserve those feelings. Not just for ourselves, but for those that come after. Nothing will last forever, everything will fade eventually. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, right?

[@reallycool]

It is very humbling to affect so many people

[@tiagotiagot]

For multiplayer games, where culture is an important component; we're gradually getting to the point where it might be possible to use advanced AI (the real kind not just the simple stuff used for classic NPCs) to replicate the behavior of the players, given it's documented well enough. It's gonna be a little bit more challenging where the community, the relationships with real people, are a significant factor; replicating the experience of having people you care about even when not playing the game, is a bit more complicated than just providing a semi-stateless snapshot of play-style and in-game communication; not to mention it raises all sorts of ethical questions....

[@thatcutegameotaku]

the dot hack games did an interesting job of actually emulating an mmo. i'd almost try using that as a framework for the future (but tailored to the culture of a given game at a given time)

[@Agamemnon2]

There's a basis for a very fascinating Black Mirror episode in this, if it could be put down in words.

[@ravikanodia]

One perspective on the "what to preserve" question is that it's hard to know what will be culturally relevant to future generations. For instance, there are many pieces of old media that have taken on new life in recent years because of their striking similarity to modern-day memes. Like "How You Think You Look When A Flashlight Is Taken" (1921 illustration), or a still frame Charlie Chaplin's "Pay Day" (1922) sometimes referred to as "Original Distracted Boyfriend". Sometimes a franchise is rebooted or otherwise revived after a long, long dormancy, such as Sol Cresta (2022) being a direct sequel to Terra Cresta (1985). That can give old works a new relevance to modern audiences, even if they weren't considered particularly important in the intervening years. Even in your video you mention Earthbound which is now considered a "classic" but was a bomb when it released. Obviously it's not possible to give every single title the best possible treatment but I don't think we should start by deciding that only the best of the best are worthy of preservation.

[@Amphibian42]

Wow, i feel super greatful to have found your channel, you are making some of the most interesting, informative, and well made gaming journalism I've found in my decade consuming such content, thanks for making it!

[@polygon.fiction6514]

The one guy's analogy of stealing his car is yet another poor example of understanding "piracy"; downloading a ROM of a video game doesn't physically take that game away from anywhere.

[@lemonov3031]

YOU WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD A CAR

[@Malxer]

I just found out your channel and man, your videos are top tier elaborated and soooo much effort and work goes into this channel. I'm glad I found you out. Hope you get the recognition you deserve in the future, because you truly deserve way more audience. Lots of love.

[@jewjitsu7159]

i'm about halfway through this video and oh boy is it a high quality one. Very very impressed, this is an amazing one.

[@MuchWhittering]

As a Doctor Who fan who will never be able to watch 97 episodes, preservation is important to me. I'm glad we're getting decompilations and PC ports of old games, they're a massive help in preservation, giving us a better game in the process. Remakes are definitely not preservation. The Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash N-Sane Trilogy preserving the PS1 originals. On the piracy thing, I buy most of what I can. Piracy for me is for things like TV shows I literally can't get any other way, or for decades-old ROMs you can't buy officially anyway.

[@KiraSlith]

42:54 Development Checkpoints and Bots. More specifically, advanced learning bots taught on the pre-recorded player behaviors of the time. There've been a few examples of this already, we just need to figure out how to keep the bots at specific levels of play.

[@thatssomegoodpie]

The whole patch culture problem really pisses me off. Every game should have a version that can be played from start to finish on disc. I can understand ironing out minor bugs but having gamebreaking bugs on the disc version or not even having the game at all on disc like they did with Halo Infinite is just unacceptable.

[@reallycool]

It's part of why it's hard to view a physical game disk as anything other than a physical steam key.

[@thatssomegoodpie]

@@reallycool Well lots of games still have playable builds on disc. Metro Exodus Complete Edition on Xbox comes to mind as it has an entire second disc for the DLC (while the PS5 version just has a lazy download code). But they are starting to become the exception.

[@JC-xq2qe]

@@thatssomegoodpie Xbox still needs to get their shit together when it comes to being able to install and then play physical games offline. Many xbox smart delivery games have the xbox one version on the actual disc, which the Series X cannot play without updating to the proper version. Physical games being download keys is very true for the Series X.

[@thatssomegoodpie]

@@JC-xq2qe Yeah it's a big issue but look at it from another angle. Only Smart Delivery titles are affected by this DRM problem. While the Series X versions will seize to exist without internet connectivity those Xbox One build are still preserved on disc and most of the time fully playable offline on Xbox One consoles. Smart Delivery effectively requires both versions to be delivered to the customer and physical discs simply can't hold both versions, except for a few exceptions. The Xbox version of Ballan Wonderworld for instance has both the Xbox One and Series X version on disc and does not require internet to be played. The game is small enough for both versions to be included on disc. Once games stop coming to the Xbox One smart delivery will stop being a thing thus Xbox Series X games will be released on the actual disc and not require connectivity to be upgraded aside from the usual patches.

[@CasualtiesOfGaming]

I give this guy props for actually interviewing someone he verbally raised an eyebrow at and changing his mind on something. Keep up the great work

[@Kain5th]

which guy was that? i may have missed it

[@HeWhoIsSteve]

A really insightful dive. Turned me on to a great deal of things in preservation I'd never considered and corrected some of my misconceptions. Great work as usual, man.

[@reallycool]

Thanks for donating your time to chat with me

[@HeWhoIsSteve]

@@reallycool of course! Happy to be a part of this.

[@scaratlas3347]

I remember playing Fusion Fall a mmo for cartoon network and finding that people preserved the game was awesome

[@KingKrouch]

I think another interesting thing that is rarely brought up in regards to game preservation is in regards to older and sometimes even newer PC releases of games. I constantly hear about how “PC releases of games are a good way to have them available many years down the line”, but I constantly see situations where a port is bad enough to where it tarnishes the original release at best, and outright will fall apart given that the port does stupid stuff (the biggest things that come to mind in my eyes are messing up controller support, hardcoding resolution options, or badly implemented framelimiters and game logic not behaving properly at an arbitrary rate). Some older games, like Sonic Heroes, you will have less issues getting running in Dolphin properly than the native PC release (which is hard to find on Ebay). Modders aren’t going to always be at the rescue because the skill set to modify a game’s binary code through assembly patches and API injections is already pretty high compared to other mods. One example of a game that I can think of where the PC port is a downgrade from the previously worst release (the Switch version) compared to the original release (the PS4 release) that we never got in English was Mary Skelter 2. The PC version has more game breaking bugs than the Switch release, which already had destructive lighting and rendering changes and downgrades that ruins the tone of the game, and then throwing a busted framelimiter which runs the game several frames faster than intended (because the game never got adjustments to run at arbitrary framerates, even if they left the original logic intact and used interpolation for smoothing like Doom and Halo MCC uses) if you have a refresh rate slightly over 60Hz (this bug isn’t present below that because VSync is always on). And this is on top of how the PC releases are completely unavailable to buy in Japan without a VPN and a sockpuppet Steam/GOG account. You are frankly better off emulating that game than giving Ghostlight your money. Another example I can think of is the Grand Theft Auto releases past the PS2 release. The Xbox and PC versions already were buggy (and the ladder at least has dedicated enough modders to fix), but the Xbox 360 and the recent remasters are based off the mobile ports which has even more rot and bugs. I think Sonic Adventure DX is the absolute prime example of what a bad port can do for a game down the line. Nearly every subsequent release of the game used this base and had even more bugs, and both KZbinrs and legacy gaming media constantly circlejerk about “Sonic having a rough transition to 3D” or that the game “aged poorly”, but given the time to play the Dreamcast release or a heavily modded Steam release, the game has held up better than I expected, and even better than Sonic Adventure 2, which has the opposite reaction from the community. I feel like the discourse around SA1 has been rotten thanks to the DX release and never being developed with the original staff.

[@TheRavenShadowsWolf]

Def Jam: Fight For New York is one of the ones I'd like to see properly preserved. It's about the only Fighting Game I've ever found that had impactful RPG elements, and a decently fleshed out story that gets you involved. It had five styles to choose to fight with, and investing in any of them saw definite improvements in your ability to fight. It had physical stats that again, improved your ability to damage opponents, or endure hits. It's an awesome game... that's fucked forever; because of so much lisenced music/the actual rappers who were voice acted in the game, appearing as themselves. It's been emulated, but I have no idea how to use one, and I honestly prefer consoles or at the very least a console controller over the keyboard and mouse. I find the controller easier to control. Funny thing that, I know... I personally would have liked Def Jam Icon to have continued on from Def Jam: Fight For New York, and show that MC having saved his girl, built a family and taking over the territory to build his empire. Instead of what we got. But it'll never happen now. It'd be too expensive to get the song lisences with the rappers attached, and I believe the company has soured on the notion it was a good idea to start with. Because of how convoluted it became at the end, legally. Still, I'm glad I got to play the game, and that it was a new experience as I tend to Just RPG. I do value it for that point, but upgrading consoles and the fact I don't tend to keep games after I'm done with them for space concerns (or at times trade in value for store credit, since games are often expensive even outside of Ebay and Amazon price jacking) I don't have the game to play anymore. Which does suck, because I did enjoy it enough to be able to actually beat the game. (Though Crow was massively assholish to beat, which is funny, because I tend to create "beef wall" MC's if I can, and Snoop Dogg ended up looking comparatively like a stick figure...) I'd also like Web of Shadows, which is now impossible to get because Activision lost the lisencing rights. The only game where they let Pete get with Felicia and of course I never got to play it. Damn it...

[@SuperNicktendo]

Interesting perspective. The cultural impact of a game tends o get lost as time goes by. Waiting for Super Mario Bros 3 was an event. Now explaining it sounds like trying to understand what life was like before the automobile or planes. That's why I like some game museum approaches like getting period accurate furniture to go along with it. And it's one of the reasons why I've been so adverse to using emulation over the original cart with a CRT. Even avoiding modding my consoles to accept a clearer signal. The warm fuzzies of playing a game the way you remember is a rare occurrence but when you active it, the world isn't such a hostile place.

[@nickwallette6201]

I've often wondered how much of my own desire for preservation is selfishly motivated. I've got a fairly sizable collection of hardware and software, and it's comforting to know that I will have a chance to experience titles from as far back as I was aware of computers and games at all, to ones of the current day, any time I'd like. I am curating my own little museum of nostalgia and missed opportunities, and that is great. For me. And maybe a few people around me that might also find it entertaining. But it doesn't do much for anyone else, and especially not for future generations. But one question I face, if I'm being honest, is will future generations care? I have a deep attachment to a lot of this stuff. Some of it is cocooned in memories from my childhood, but the overwhelming majority of what I have now is totally new to me. Maybe I had heard of it in 199x, or maybe not. Even for a game that I never knew about as a kid, it's still tangentially related to experiences I hold as dear to me. What happens when that association is broken? I don't lament the lost painting someone did in their parlor in the late 1800s. I'm only mildly curious what daily life was like to someone from that time. But I would give A LOT to step into a time machine and stand in front of a store display of new-in-box Nintendo Entertainment Systems, with R.O.B. the robot operating buddy. I would LOVE to sit down on a shag carpet in front of a big ugly console TV and play Super Mario Bros through a coax input. I'm doing everything I can to recreate that experience, and fighting against physical limitations of time and space and money and parts viability. Do I expect someone in 2070 to feel the same thing I feel when I hold my boxed copy of Super Mario Bros 3? Would an emulated version give them everything they want to know, and more? They won't remember driving to high school graduation while listening to the Wipeout XL soundtrack, and if any of those tunes ever popped up on Spotify, maybe they wouldn't care at all. It feels vital to preserve now, because we are at a point in time where we have access to some original, perhaps untouched items and paraphernalia -- potentially for the last time ever, and those things hold immense value to me. It's now or never, and _I_ want to be able to relive those old times in as vivid a way as possible. I wonder whether the desire will die with the opportunity, though, and once it's gone, nobody will be all that concerned about it.

[@reallycool]

A very poignant consideration, to be certain.

[@lemonov3031]

Data hoarding is bad. If you have something rare, like a rare game booklet or guide or some sort of extra material or hell some lost game itself -- share it. Otherwise, this sort of preservation is pointless, because once you die -- it's gone.

[@otomon5]

As someone whom only play gacha games, I am used to my games completely disappearing regardless how much money I spent on them. I have no attachments but I value the fun experiences I had. Realistically even games I do physically own... I barely ever play them again once I 100% them, there is just not enough time to replay usually as the market is oversaturated af and there is always a new game around the corner. In real life, you cant "preserve" the best moments of your life. you just experience them and have fun memories of them....

[@r3n837]

This is my favorite channel now, this video was so good holy heck

[@LusRetroSource]

Awesome video! Like what AntDude mentioned, I always wanted developers to offer their classic games in ROM format for us to use on whatever emulator/rom cart/etc we please.

[@peterg6889]

I really respect the effort you put into and the lengths you go to for every video you make, this is now one of my favourites.

[@reallycool]

Thank you

[@itsnotbloodborne1237]

WarOwl’s segment was fantastic

[@belldrop7365]

At this point, piracy laws is just corporations monetizing the concept of sharing. If they could, they would want to get money for you sharing a pencil to your classmate.

[@tritonmame1282]

Thanks for the video, man. Incredible amount of quality research. Also, it’s time to replay Majora‘s mask…

[@reallycool]

Very pleased you enjoy it. Majora's Mask was easily in the Top 3 most mentioned game for people's fondest memories. A lot of people mentioned that it helped them get through depression or difficult times

[@frds_skce]

Man, this video is so good. But whenever I return to this video, I keep wondering why you didn't have so much more views and subs. Worry not, i'm one of the subs. It's just that, man. I wish you just had more of it. I know you deserved more of it, with all your efforts

[@adeadphish7931]

Thank you for informing me about this video. As something of a preservationist myself and admissible a snob for certain biases therein, this was enlightening and expanded my view of it

[@samvimes9510]

42:32 this whole part just made me sad. I've been playing TF2 for about 12 years, and while I still enjoy it, it's a shell of what it once was. It used to be full of creative servers with all sorts of custom maps and game modes. Stuff like Smash Fortress and Fort Wars, idle servers that recreated Clock Town from Majora's Mask, Saxton Hale servers that recreated Mega Man and Portal stages. There was even a server I played on that built Pac Man and the Donkey Kong arcade game into full maps. I spent more time playing stuff like that than I did the normal game modes, and it's _all_ gone now. And the worst part is I don't even have my screenshots of them anymore, because I never uploaded them on Steam and the laptops I played on are long gone. 50:44 my Dreamcast won't read discs. I've already had to fix it once (it was some weird issue with the system not realizing the lid was closed) and I _hope_ it's just the same issue again, because it's an easy fix. If it's something like the laser, it would be easier just to buy a new Dreamcast.

[@marksmithwas12]

I'm almost 7 minutes in, but I just wanna say that my definition of Game Preservation is to prevent something from becoming Lost Media, and having it accessible for future generations to experience

[@reallycool]

The question then becomes, "what does 'experience' mean," which is something I tried to explore in this video

[@marksmithwas12]

@@reallycool Oh yes absolutely, this wasn't meant to be a rebuttal 😆 the idea of 'experiencing' something in itself gets philosophical when you start to think about it, and I look forward to your take in this video when I get around to finishing it

[@KiraSlith]

When it comes to MMOs the "ideal Version" is whichever is the closest to the overall artist intended experience. When it comes to something like Destiny, the "Ideal Version" involves backporting assets from the original releases to the last version (be it by hackery, or by source code modification and recompilation), as to have the COMPLETE experience in place. MMOs like TERA and WoW where the game has had several complete overhauls to the experience would need checkpointed versions to be "fully preserved". In TERA's case (notable because ALL servers are in the process of shutting down right now), you'd need builds from May 2013, January 2014, December 2019, and the final build "v111" from last month. We have ALL of Retail December 2019 and Retail June 2021, excluding source code, but including the official server software (only thanks to a state-level threat actor hacking and releasing it) archived, but we're missing a lot of the earlier builds, and the latest build.

[@infiniterecursion9550]

I prefer to keep a physical copy of all my games, when possible, but I know they're susceptible to disc rot, corrosion, etc. Re-releases of games (like Capcom Fighting Collection and TMNT Cowabunga Collection) are sometimes great and I try to support them if it's a game I enjoy. It's cool to have ROM dumps of your games that can be played in an emulator or flashed to a cart and played on original hardware or reproduction hardware like the Analogue, now excuse me while I hide from Nintendo ninjas.

[@tiagotiagot]

Once hardware gets sufficiently fast, got enough memory etc, there are cases where you can make it equivalent to running on the original hardware; add to that appropriate display devices, and input devices that recreate the physical experience of the original input devices, and it gets pretty hard to argue that the hardware side of the experience, from the perspective of the person playing the game, and from the perspective of the game software itself, has not been reproduced. There's of course still certain psychological matter of how people feel about the machines, what they had to do to get it etc, but when it comes to hardware and software, emulation can actually do a pretty good job of reproducing the original experience in many cases.

[@LordTenebrum]

Wow, absolutely mesmerizing and well-documented video. It sure took days, weeks or months to pull off with all the interviews and editing. Love the topic you're presenting to us, gamers. I am Spanish and game preservation involves many aspects that you explained through all the documentary. But what about the languages/translations of all this video games? For example, I played most of the games in my childhood in Spanish and when I was a bit older I played the same games in English and I got a total different vibe/experience with the same game but different language/translation. I wish game preservation also include this kind of topic as, for example, MGS for PS1, the Spanish version is very well known for its outstanding dubbing. Perhaps the best PS1 Spanish dubbed game. Anyway, props and kudos for your video and channel! You deserve so much more views/subs!

[@FissionMetroid101]

I'm a bit late to this video, but damn dude you really hit like every point when it comes to game preservation. I think the general rule of thumb is that if a game is inaccessible to the average consumer, and can only be acquired through purchasing it through some method in which the original copyright owners don't receive the funds, it should be made available to the public. I think a lot of companies are going about releasing old games in a very poor sense. You touched on how it wasn't profitable for them to release a lot of these, but I think the root cause for that is that they're charging far too much for a game that's considered dated. I personally wouldn't pay $5 Nintendo for the original SMB, but I would probably pay like 25 cents or so. I think if they made much older games on their eshops cheaper, they could turn a profit from people buying them up, similar to Steam's sales. Patches are a fascinating topic, because take for example Doom Eternal, a mostly single player game. The game patched a crucial bug that was utilized for speedrunning the 1.0 version, but since its gone people have to go through the ridiculous process of downpatching which can be a real pain and often times quite sketchy. Meanwhile, the Cuphead developers made it so that the original release version is available to download to owners of it so that people can experience the original glitches and feel of the game despite it lacking many new graphical and gameplay features the current version has. Fortnite is a very interesting topic, since the game is constantly evolving and replacing aspects of the map, and sometimes the map entirely. It's impossible to officially play older versions of the map... Through Epic's services. There are some preservationists who've made server emulators that allow people to explore the map solo and even access developer debug features so that they can spawn in items or objects to try them out. Epic's even made a statement saying they're okay with this so long as multiplayer servers aren't made to be a regular thing, and that NO cosmetics are made available. It's not and never will be the original 100 player BR experience from those different versions, but it is a great way to kind of see and explore the way the map used to be without browsing videos or screenshots. Source code is definitely an interesting topic, and you made some solid arguments for it. I distinctly remember an old project to bring back 2007 TF2 and how it was decently popular at the time, but because of the lack of consistent players it died very quickly. Having the option, however, for people to get a group of friends or people together to play it is always a welcome opportunity though. There's currently some really fascinating projects going on for Super Mario 64 and LoZ:OoT that decompiled the game and cleaned up the source code, which have lead to some incredible modding and PC porting breakthroughs. It's not the same as playing it through an emulator or on the original hardware, but it is definitely keeping the games alive much more than the Switch service is doing for'em. I think when it comes to physical media, preserving the images from the boxes, manuals, and even disks is the closest thing we can get to proper preservation. There's a wonderful website I always recommend to my friends for ROMs that does its best to archive all of these things for whichever game its applicable for. This was sincerely an absolutely gripping, and criminally underrated/underviewed video. Here's hoping that game preservationists keep going strong despite all these troubles they endure

[@Cheesecannon25]

Source code can be reverse engineered from compiled code But in most cases it just takes, a LOT of work to be readable

[@reallycool]

It didn't make sense to dive into the weeds and explain the nuances for this video

[@Cruxis_Angel]

Bluepoint is the best developer at doing this. All their remasters used code from retail PS2 discs

[@TheVHSReviver]

Thanks for putting the time into something like this. I have always thought it's important to preserve and keep as much media as accessible as possible. It's no where near perfect, but I would much rather have something in some form then not have it at all. When it comes to gaming I am glad to see more games get released across more platforms, consoles becoming more PC like, and a company like Sony releasing some of their PC ports DRM free. Again not perfect, but this goes a long way to make it easier to at least have some form of a game's existence (Like a DRM free/cracked PC version of a game) easily archived and accessible 25 years from now. That's also one of the reasons I think it is important to push back against DRM when it shows up in any media. Because it limits what you can do with the product you paid money for, it more often then not gets cracked anyway, and it can leave people who paid money for the product cut off from accessing what they paid for. Meanwhile people who "pirated" the game might not have spent any money on it, and they don't have to worry if a server goes down, a company goes out of business, or a contract expires. I tend to see digital as a format get thrown under the bus. However a lot of people don't seem to realize just because something is on a disc or cartage does not guarantee it will work. It's usually DRM that cause the issues people dread when they hear digital. Just because a Nintendo Switch cartage works when you put it in a Switch does not mean there is no DRM, or that one day that cartage won't get locked out. That same DRM can also stop discs or cartridges from working. If Sony had not fixed the CBOMB issue after awhile the PS4 would stop booting discs or digital games. You can't even set up a Xbox Series console without being online, and some Smart Delivery games only include the Xbox One version on the disc.

[@TerraWare]

This is a very well researched video on what is a very complicated topic that many people are passionate about. I liked that you touched on mmorpg's and was hoping you'd eventually mention Star Wars Galaxies and SWG Emu which is run by fans. After the game was shut down many years ago a few passionate people built the server infrastructure to get the games on the disc to communicate with the servers and have a playable game in state that most SWG players agree it was when the game was at it's best. Without these companies releasing their server codes mmorpg's are pretty much dead after their publisher decides to end support. Of course they aren't going to release their proprietary code to the public, especially when there's no monetary incentive to do so but also because it could expose potential exploits and weaknesses to their other products. My stance on this is emulation and piracy are the most effective way of preserving games. I know people with big physical game collections see themselves as preserving gaming history but they really aren't, they preserve them for themselves and they aren;t going to have time to play like 99% of their library so they just sit and rot on their shelves. Games are meant to be played to be experienced and emulation and piracy provides people with the option to play and experience these games. I'm against pirating anything that's current gen or that you can purchase from the publishers but if it's old games I'm ok with it.

[@csbkota]

Well Video Game History Foundation's Frank Cifaldi made at least two appearances on GDC during the years, so I had no qualms donating to the cause even trough LRG, of whose dubious business practices I wasn't that much aware ( as I am on the other side of the "great pond"). On the other side DRM is a pain in the ass for actual gaming too. For exampke I have 2 Nintendo Switch consoles, and on the secondary one I can't play the digitally purchased games at all if I don't have an active internet connection, as the system requires authentication check at every startup. So on a secondary device it's practical to only play games of which you have a physical version ( an SSD cart ), and it kinda defeats the purpose of offline/single player usercexperience, kinda like the allways online DRM of Ubisoft of the "yore". On the history side, it would be interesting to see an interview eith Matt Barton ( MattChat), who took up on himself to interview gamemakers of his favourite "genre", the CRPGS, so that later rnthusiasts, academic researchers would have more source material to work with. And I think it would be interesting to see more of the interviews of which you used snipets troughout the videos. The personal stories are also of interest to the later generations, look just how many diaries, colkected letters are being published so that one could get a feel for the time period, just as much as the game streams preserve the mood and context of gaming in these years on planet Earth. Thx for the entertainment and education!

[@ebenezerspludge8369]

I'm just gonna say their is a Tri Force emulator that works with Mario Kart Arcade 2, F Zero and Virtua Striker.

[@Ji99i3]

Gonna definitely watch it but I need to leave this here before I do. Yes.

[@reallycool]

You got it right

[@GoldenSun3DS]

One minor correction: Android emulators on PC aren't emulators, they're virtual machines. They aren't emulating. If you disable virtualization on your PC, you can still run emulators like Dolphin, but you can't run an Android "emulator" like Bluestacks. This distinction is relevant for cloud gaming PC services like ShadowPC where they have virtualization disabled. But I guess you could say they do the same function as an emulator even though they're technically not emulation.

[@reallycool]

The audience for this is someone who might not understand the distinction, and it didn't feel super value to clarify

[@GoldenSun3DS]

@@reallycool I agree with you that the technicality of the definition of "emulator" isn't important, but it's something I wanted to point out. The function of an emulator and virtual machine aren't different, although that difference does have implications for situations where an average user might have virtualization disabled and not know why their Android emulator isn't working. It was more of an "ackchually" clarification. Probably not important enough to do a re-upload, although I would have liked a minor detour to clarify the technical distinction.

[@immortallix]

If you're virtualizing a device with a different architecture entirely wouldn't that consist of some sort of emulation?

[@GoldenSun3DS]

@@immortallix Sure, but Android "emulators" still won't run on a system with virtualization disabled, while something like Dolphin will. So even if it fits the semantic definition of "emulator", it doesn't fit the technical definition of "emulator".

[@hostageclam8568]

oh my god feature length film mrixrt video i didn't know i needed this so bad

[@michaelkitchin9665]

And yet, I feel gaming's probably better preserved than say the equivalent time of cinema or recorded music. If I want to revisit my childhood on the Amstrad CPC, I can find those games a lot easier than say films from 1905-1920. As a young medium, it's benefitted from being technology led and enthusiast-driven.

[@reallycool]

Certainly game preservation has benefitted from the mistakes of film preservation.

[@thechugg4372]

The only one problem I have with game preservation is how much more it's treated than other preservation efforts, sure there are a lot of complex systems to preserve, but why is no one bothering to preserve the original releases of the Star Wars trilogy for example, or you seem to know what beethoven's music sounds like, do you? Do you actually know what it sounds like? Even if we re record it today with digital instruments or newer instruments, it will never be the same, we will never know the original audio, and this is also a problem video games are suffering from right now. tldr: all forms of preservation are flawed and screwed unless we actually do something about it, video games are no different than others for that reason.

[@YourUncleBenis]

There's like, a billion fan attempts to preserve the original Star Wars trilogy, though?

[@Dermetsu]

People are preserving the original cuts of those movies, you can get bootlegged copies and even torrent and stream them. You couldn't have picked a worse example.

[@joedav67]

Star Wars was the worst example you could’ve used lol

[@joedav67]

Also the Library of Congress literally preserves other forms of art, including movies

[@sneakyskunk1]

I can not really add anything more to the conversation that this video does not already say. Instead I will say thank you for this thought provoking look into an emergent consequence of an attitude of disposability towards the medium of video games. The same attitude is why owning a first run copy of Action Comics #1 is next to impossible for most people(who are not Nicholas Cage). I would suspect that this discussion is eventually going to have to expand to other forms of entertainment as digital "ownership" becomes the norm.

[@vinny-zebu]

1:00:00 Doom is probably a game that will live forever simply by being open source. I would argue that this fact did affect it's popularity, helping it span countless ports and mods and crossing generations of gamers. They really did see it long term back then, unlike other companies looking for instant profit without regard to build a fanbase. Also the WAD isn't free or open, so having the engine code don't make it playable and like you said, people are lazy or just not tech savvy. Having a store to easily download the WAD and plug it into GZDoom is also very nice.

[@brucesi]

I'm new to this channel and am hopeful that you see success here. Very high quality work. Thanks for what you do.

[@Zinkolo]

Trying to preserve every game ever is not a pointless effort and we should strive to do what we can to preserve every title in its final form. You're creating an unnecessary abstraction layer between what is considered final or original and your use of the word "experience" to define how one person should correctly enjoy the game. A game is to be played with knowledge of said context but also enjoyed as is with it as close to the original as possible. It is possible to have it be as vanilla as possible in order to get an authentic and true insight into what the game was actually like and how it functions. Even if said game lacks community, videos and player base to support it. There is a precise and logical way we can approach this without having to rely on popularity as that would cause issues with cult classics or hidden gems that deserve to be preserved. I want to preserve every game I enjoy and love and I don't think it's fair for someone like you to decide that it shouldn't be preserved because it's not popular enough. Final fantasy 7 remake does not count as preservation of the original whatsoever as it is an artistic retelling and reiteration of the original. Counting it as a preservation when it is clearly a reimagining of said title is antithetical to preservation. It's not about experience, you are doing a great disservice to game preservation by discounting efforts made by people who did their best to preserve the original game and keep it as close as possible in terms of function. Clementine is not "wasting time" just because they can only recreate so much from the original mmo. They're doing what they can to preserve it and have it played as closely as intended. We should strive to make it as close as possible to the original and not worry about the "experience" It's simply too abstract to agree on what the original experience would even be like.

[@lilsquint6443]

bro i have definitely thought that games made me into such a leader when i was younger

[@akversus]

Late to the party but here's my input Game preservation is the ability to take any disc from any console generation and use it on the latest systems without any issues running it, nothing taken away and the modern system using it's power to give an on par or better experience than what it launched at. I want to be able to take Silent Hill 2 on the PS2 and put the disc in my PS5 and be able to play it. I believe that availability should be an option, whatever deals were done 20-30 years ago with third party companies for licensing of music, game engines, plugins like PhysX or Dolby audio should stay as they were all that time ago. The deals should be at the time, not forever ongoing. We never see this with movies where you put a DVD in and it removes the song from the end credits because the license expired and they didn't renew, we don't see companies needing to pay out to the camera company multiple times because of the technology used to make the movie. Games should be no exception, your casual gamer won't know nor want to know about any of the technicalities, they just want to enjoy the things they own in whatever way suits them best, and it shouldn't be hardware manufacturers, publishers or whoever else that tells us that we can't.

[@GodsKing69]

I still have an original PS1 that works. Love it!❤

[@dread46]

Playing now: "Tsuki sayu Yoru - Fu rin Ka zan " by Hiromitsu Agatsuma from the Fitgirl OST. Those who know, know ;)

[@eji]

37:22 There is an attempt at resurrecting/preserving version 1.0 of FFXIV, but it's been an extremely slow and limited process. The last time I tried it out, it allowed you to look through the world and watch cutscenes, but the people working on it hadn't gotten combat or the quest systems functioning properly. If you're interested, search for FFXIV 1.0 Project Meteor. But as you've indicated, it's not an easy process by any means, and requires a lot of work even to get what I mentioned playable.

[@reallycool]

That's very cool. I'll add the information to my pinned comment later this week

[@trailersic]

1:08:13 This guy just talks like a business, "I believe artists own their game" 90% of the time with these old games it's a company that own the games who bought out another company or did a hostile takeover of a company or just got the rights to a bunch of games because another company had folded into another company and this was just part of the stuff they had kicking about and the "artists" who made the game don't own or get 'shit' when it's stuck up on steam with no patches. No offence to Night Dive who do good work. But to bring it down to protecting 'artists' is just disingenuous, as is his 'Truck' analogy, it's not about taking your truck, it's about making an unlicensed copy of your truck, which may mean when it comes time to sell your truck, it's worth less. OR possibly people have seen me driving your truck about town which has kept up interest in your truck and it's actually worth more now than if I'd never made a copy.

[@reallycool]

Well, he is the business manager for a major developer, so it makes sense where his thoughts lie

[@vkermodekumav8949]

For the Amiibo, you can copy the data from the Amino to another device that has NFC. My little sister did that with the Splatoon 3 Amiibos I just got. Plus, you can get Amiibo cards easy online for not even the cost of one Amiibo.

[@triledink]

There have been big talking around physical copies degrading to an unplayable state such as disc rot on cd's, but I've seen most people actually say seeing dots with light through your disc isn't really disc rot. Its rather just manifacturing error in the label/picture of the disc and the disc is okay. Disc rot doesn't have dots, it rather have this scratch kind of holes rather than round holes. I checked some of my discs, from music Cd's to ps3 discs and some have these holes that light shine through them, but they all play without any problem.

[@RetroDoneRight]

those holes are absolutely disc rot, and as long as they're not in an area of data that's trying to be read it'll work. you wouldn't be able to make a 1:1 copy anymore with the holes, and as soon as the wrong portion of that disc rots it'll be unreadable at all.

[@reallycool]

There's lots of different kinds of degradation that can occur to physical media. It's not really a question of "if" but "when"

[@triledink]

@@RetroDoneRight It isn't a bunch of holes, some disc have a single hole and I've checked close up on them and noticed that the printed label at the front of the disc has the hole in it which makes it a manifacturing error. Could even find them in new discs like for ps4. I have seen pictures similar to it online and they compare Disc rot to the print label error and you do notice a difference.

[@T0rche]

A game is like a house or a building. It usually takes many people to put together. It's comprised of many different things (code, music, graphics, etc.) and just like a house, it's IMPOSSIBLE to preserve forever in its ORIGINAL state. We live in a natural, physical world which makes this impossible. Batteries die, cartridges decay, metal rusts, flash memory degrades, etc. You just have to concede some minor details and preserve the game in DIGITAL form (just like an old house that you have to renovate after a certain point). What matters is the overall experience... Is the game still playable? Is it basically the same? Yes? Then it's preserved... If you lived in a century old house and they changed out the insulation at some point, would you really care that it's not the "original" insulation? Nothing lasts forever.

[@GenesHand]

Talking about remasters, the Enhanced Edition of Blade Runner is inferior in every way to the original...

[@GLC48]

One thing that's also important to discuss is Cloud streaming and how that will affect game preservation. For example, take a look at "GYLT", a game that is currently exclusive to Google Stadia. If/when Stadia gets shut down, there will literally be no way for anyone (except for the devs) to play it. Since GYLT is streaming only, that means there's no content to actually download, which means no piracy or emulation to fall back on. At that point, the only hope left for public preservation is for the devs to port it to another platform, which isn't a guarantee since 1.) The developer could be defunct at that point, 2.) Porting the game may not be financially viable, 3.) There could be legal limitations that would prevent porting to another platform. Of course, this is only one example, and the current amount of games that are exclusive to streaming is very very low. However, there's a good chance that this won't always be the case. Its pretty clear that the largest companies in the industry are shifting focus to subscription services to get a piece of the comfy recurring revenue stream that TV streaming has been raking in for the past decade or so. Just take a look GamePass, the recently revamped PS+, Nintendo Switch Online, Ubisoft+, and EA Play. Thankfully, these services allow or even require games to be fully downloaded in order to play them. But like I said, there's a good chance that this won't always be the case, because these companies will likely start shifting their focus towards cloud gaming. Hell, he Big Two have already started getting into it with Xbox Cloud and PSNow/PS+ Premium. Cloud gaming is, or will be, enticing to game companies because it can be sold in a subscription format. BUT, it can also be enticing to consumers (of a specific type) because it eliminates the need for hardware, which can be a steep barrier of entry for some people, especially those who aren't into gaming (yet). Can't find a PS5? Can't afford an Xbox Series X? Can't figure out how to build/setup a gaming PC? No need to worry, all you gotta do is buy a controller and a $14.99 subscription and you're all set. This payment model is a lot easier to digest for your average "casual" player, who may find that buying a console or gaming PC is too much of an initial investment. And of course, these are the types of players that these companies want to attract the most. They already have the attention and money of the more "hardcore" gamers like us, so it only makes sense for them to want to branch out even further. It should also be noted that that type of consumer is unlikely to be concerned over, or even aware of, issues such as input lag or screen tearing. It's also common for companies like Sony and Microsoft to actually LOSE money on console sales. The real money is in software and services. Consoles and discs are just the middlemen. Streaming eliminates the need for said middlemen. So, long story short, the year is May 2045. You just got done playing your favorite game, Marvel's Morbius: The Video Game. It released as a PlayStation Cloud exclusive back in 2028. It's a bit of an older game, but hey, you're a sucker for the classics. You start to browse Reddit, and a headline catches your eye: "Marvel's Morbius to be removed from PlayStation Cloud in July due to licensing issues". You read the headline, and find out that Sony no longer has the rights to distribute certain Marvel games on their service. July rolls around, and sure enough, your favorite game is gone. The developer who made it got rebranded and absorbed into a larger company back in 2039. All of the original devs have left and moved on. The game was also a bit on the niche side, so there won't be much outcry to bring it back in some way, and Sony won't find it economically viable to get the license back. There's no way to emulate or pirate it. It's gone. You will never play it again. At least GTA V is still up and running, though.

[@reallycool]

Most excellent points

[@GLC48]

@Diamond Frieza I agree. Its also why now, more than ever, we need to to work on preserving the games of the past and present. If the future of the industry ends up devolving even further into formulaic monetized corporate slop, then the games of today will be all we have left.

[@GLC48]

@Diamond Frieza No, I'm saying its only going to get worse

[@oriongear2499]

@Diamond Frieza You couldn’t have been more right.

[@MasterChef-official]

preservation is to keep things as they are and to keep them alive to make sure it's reachable remakes and reboots don't count as its a different version of what you wish to preserve for example you preserve food so its still usable and it doesn't go bad ports are a way to keep the memories alive but they can be quite off some are bad and some are too good and could you're judgment

[@MasterChef-official]

Emulators and pirated version don't often make them exactly as the real version that goes for online only games you're only getting a small percentage of the game

[@MasterChef-official]

ports emulators and pirated version are like holograms illusion of what you want to preserve you're keeping its memories alive but it's core body is long gone everything in some way are like us we are struggling to preserve ourselves we currently can only preserve memories of our existence it will be up to the next generation to continue it until it no longer possible

[@Agamemnon2]

I think overpreservation of the past stifles the present and future. This relentless drive to keep everything available, particularly available for sale over and over again, is a futile attempt to turn back the clock. Some things endure, but a lot of things don't, and aren't meant to. The best stories, and the most fortunate, get preserved or retold organically, the rest fall to obscurity and make way for new stories.

[@Agamemnon2]

I should also perhaps elaborate that there's a sharp divide between archival or museum preservation, which is one thing, and keeping everything for sale as a commercial product in perpetuity, which is quite another.

[@Cynidecia]

League of Legends has had two projects, Leaguesandbox & Chronoshift shut down. its funny that nobody even is aware of them now.

[@STOPTHECLOWNS581]

One thing I have noticed in this video is that most of the people that talk though out this seem to complain about how there life has been hard and such and such game helped them 😂.

[@ragnarrandom7367]

this was a genuinely good video. you have earned a subscriber. a little bit overdone with the length of the interviews, especially the ones about "how important games are to me", but still a good vid overall. it made me think of something not addressed in the video at all, which is homebrew and hobbyist gaming. i'm not talking about the modern "indie industry" but rather just regular people making games because they love it. when i was a kid i made a bunch of really bad pc homebrew games. they don't exist anymore. they are gone. the few of them that i shared online could theoretically still exist somewhere, but 90% of what i made back then is gone. it has no value to anyone but me, i am not important in video game culture and never will be, noone is ever going to want to save my stuff from then (or the stuff i make now) in a library. but i look back on my memories of my early days, just learning game logic and suchlike, and kind of wish i would have preserved it. i wish i could play those games again, and relive some of my earliest attempts. for something more aligned with the greater gaming culture, i'm reminded of the story that the earliest version of john carmack's adaptive tile refresh code demonstrated a scrolling stage based on super mario bros level 1-1, and the tech was later turn into commander keen. i don't know if that story has ever been confirmed, but if true, that early build of the code is important to the history of pc gaming, and it doesn't exist anymore, it will never be seen, i don't know if i will ever know the truth of whether or not that actually happened. update: wow, after some searching i actually found the id mario i referenced above, so thanks to some intrepid file hoarders it is not lost forever. i got to experience it, and learn that how i remembered the story was actually not the way it really happened.

[@WorldFamousJtart9]

I'm asking a question, this video was pretty cool

[@scaratlas3347]

It would be dope it there was a way to recreate hardware like software with emulation. Emulation is cool but man it fun playing with the original hardware

[@scaratlas3347]

One example is wii remote motion which you have to get to play skyward sword on the wii for certain motion controls. They released the game on JoyCons but investing time in replicating hardware with motion is pretty important for playing the game

[@TheBoneHeadClan]

As soon as you started talking about piracy, a commercial for Ubisoft's pirate game "Skull & Bones" came on, lmao.

[@reallycool]

Nice

[@mrbransformer4184]

I did finally find a rom of that satella view zelda. It was pretty neat.

[@reallycool]

I saw one for sale at TMG but TheGoldenBolt stole it out of my hands and bought it himself

[@Disthron]

...Yes.

[@nifftbatuff676]

The games that cannot be preserved due to drm, mandatory online, etc. Are not worth to be preserved (neither played). Problem solved.

[@sorrybecausei]

Excellent, informative, beautiful video.

[@reallycool]

thank you

[@victoriaevelyn3953]

I think there should be game preservation and I'll tell you why Games as a service are games with a limited life span miss that window you've missed that experience I think these should be kept so this isnt lost and we are seeing a rise in games as a service simply becuase its profitable to sell the player regular content I think we should preserve all the data and forget the macrotransactions just like a game of the year edition comes with all the dlc Many times I have gotten into a game franchise late and it's so hard to go back to where it started to see where it came from becuase someone decided it was worth way more after a cult following hyperinflated the label making it a collects price tag for an item that depreciates when played that's not what games were ment to be theyvare ment to be played Physical printed games will decay disc rot and the like even a physical copy isnt enough to just persevere a game and there are many awesome old games that will be lost to this many hidden gems waiting to be discovered Isnt steam basically becoming a preservationists list how many old games can you find on it granted many are on there due to popularity what's the difference in putting the unpopular ones on there for low low prices or even free like who dosent love getting a game for free or basically nothing it would give old forgotten games a second chance Games as a service is a big threat to preserving a game over anything from 10 years ago I dread the day destiny dies becuase I have all those memories I spent all that money on the dlc becuase I liked it so much when that goes offline all that is lost I have basically been robbed this is even bigger when you take into consideration gta v how many people waste money buying those shark cards to buy any over inflated asset in that game it has already shut off the xbox 360 ear servers and stopped supporting the current gen all in favour of the next gen where the money is take 2 is a big offender of robbing people of their gain without a second thought it's only a matter of time till the ps4 eara loses that online feature along with everything you ever bought how can this be justified tell me becuase to me its robbery legal robbery

[@Superbad22]

Either games need to be rereleased or they need to be given support on new hardware. Otherwise in another 20-30 years some of the games that we consider old at this point could no longer exist on a wide scale

[@Zinkolo]

Dude clearly you can preserve titles like CSGO with private servers and they usually have people who played the game. There's so many old games with new private servers and small communities that offer something that's similar to that experience. Throwing my opinion the whole "experience" thing is incredibly abstract and I think you're being very unfair with your argument by using that as a point against preservationists. We don't know what will happen with destiny or Fortnite but we do know that games like Mario Kart wii and even final fantasy 14 1.0 can and have been preserved. It doesn't matter if you're alone or on a private server with others who have played it. There will always be an audience to play in people who want to experience the game as closely as possible. Just because we can't replicate it on the same hardware or server doesn't mean it's not preserved. It's not about preserving "experience" it's about preserving the software in a playable state whilst keeping it as vanilla as possible. Another rebuttal about council exclusives, the solution to that is emulation and piracy. It's the only way to preserve these titles even if the experience can't be matched one to one we should do all we can to preserve the software and ensure that it is in a playable state. Digital is best. Even if it requires fixes you can at least rely on the web and the people to preserve the title and give it freedom to thrive unlike a physical which will require hacking and dumping to preserve.

[@Tucher97]

I say yes as there are cases where some people never played games that were critically acclaimed for multiple reasons, I said that I was never able to play infamous 1 and 2 (For reasons such as sever lack of money), games thrive on a community, as well as money but there is a problem where large size game devs nowadays are doing what I call "False beauty", that is make the game graphically great and say its gameplay is "innovative", lets have an example, assassin's creed 2, and assassin's creed origin, which I shall call AC2, ACO, now for AC2, there is no pause between missions maybe aside from equipment and gear which should take under an hour to get but overall you are not barred from the next story start. Game looks great. ACO, a hack n looter game, similar to borderlands, there can be major road blocks onto your next story beat, you have to grind, wander and do quests which can take over roughly 4 hours. Looks great, gameplay feel hollow, also Assassin's creed odyssey has a problem from Origin which seems to happen where the game forget gameplay elements and attempts to shoe horn you down a strict skill path.... Devs are pouring more money into looks rather than game play then advertise the game having high action. To make it worse, I played Assassin's creed Valhalla, in the game you have a number of different weapons, now there are skills you can pick that will give you bonus performance on said weapons, I found some that said "increase performance for great swords and short swords", there are short swords in the game? great, so I went on hunting and resulted the internet... short swords are DLC only which I dont have. Lets take a step back, so for ACO and ACO (Doesn't matter which is which bare with me), they had a single side quest that is a bonus to the game, the covers have something that involves high action, one has you and some dude surrounded by some nasty thugs. In game the quests are shorter than 5 minutes and the group of thugs don't appear, just one dude. Long ranting became long, final point, the games' quality are shifting in a direction that I would personally deem as inferior to the previous, so much so, after playing the 3 newest AC games, I went back to the first game, Assassin's creed and I said it was better.

[@sagepirotess6312]

I still have an Atari 2600. Intilavision. Game not, nes, snes and ps1 all in working order.

[@ArkAngel41]

The video would be better if it had shorter and fewer video comments from others who seem like they are saying something but it doesn't fit the theme of video game preservation.

[@Anna_Rae]

At least with FF14, while 1.0 is gone (I’m sad about that), it is a completely different engine/build of the game. Destiny 2 before the content was removed and after is effectively the same build and engine, Bungie is just an incompetent mess of a developer who can’t handle supporting all their content.

[@technofeeliak]

Look, if you really want to preserve online games and their experiences you need to add some ai. The other players you play with and against can be simulated. It's not impossible to imagine online games being recreated as single player games and being more convincing in terms of their engagement and banter. Don't worry so much... just keep playing with your balls for now. The nerds are working on the problem.

[@najibelmafioso2004]

your videos are really interesting to watch good content 👌

[@alexk5907]

I miss your laugh on EFAP! ❤️❤️❤️

[@reallycool]

I've been really busy, they've asked me on a few times. I'm sure I'll be on soon

[@Zinkolo]

You can quite literally reverse engineer in exe or even a ROM with enough documentation and knowledge to get the source code from it. Legally it's technically not the source code but I consider ocarina of Time on PC well preserved including Doom. Why are you ommitting so many facts and obvious points?

[@ReddRubble]

Have you considered that perhaps it was a mistake or a 'most of the time' scenario and that maybe you shouldn't be so accusatory and hostile?

[@ReddRubble]

'so many' You listed 1

[@Arturhorn]

I was spoken with you for the interview and didn't show up, because my kids didn't let me. I'm terribly sorry for this :(