Lack of Preservation Is Killing Video Games!

Video games are amazing. They're without a doubt the form of entertainment I have invested the most amount of time and money to and have grown faster then any other form of media. But despite all that there's an epidemic that few have wildly discussed which could spell the end of video games. So sit back relax and enjoy another Piece of content for your doom scrolling pleasure. Aldo happy birthday to the channel I guess. Also don't forget to check out @GameHistoryOrg for more of their efforts in preserving games of all kinds.
Artwork:
www.fiverr.com/nekochin
www.fiverr.com/yukiyurei?sour...
Kevin's twitter: / kevstreehouse
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:32 Games are Dying
6:35 Let's Get Physical
13:10 Digital Stores
36:13 Piracy
37:43 Outro
#gamer #ubisoft

[@jasonyoung6420]

I just want to be able to play all of the old games I grew up with; all the way from the Arcade Cabinet titles I loved (Galga, brick breaker, TMNT, NBA Jam, X-Men, Street Fighters, golden Axe, etc.) up through the various consoles, as Goldeneye 007 on N64 multiplayer still holds up extremely well, thankfully I have a friend that has an N64, several controllers, an HDMI converter/dongle, and an addiction to Mountain Dew & popcorn doused in hot-sauce; honestly you should try the popcorn thing, you make whatever popcorn, it can be microwave, doesn't really matter, then drizzle what is essentially a buttery buffalo sauce on it (2parts butter to 1part franks red hot) and it's damn good; alternatively to preserve texture you can dip the popcorn in the sauce, but, that's not as much fun. Nintendo released/authorized the physical "NES Classic" which is essentially an emulator box, my parents bought me one, it plays like hot garbage, because Nintendo did a shitty job emulating their games and/or optimizing them for the hardware; there is input lag on a controller with a physical connection, WTF? Contrast that with TMNT: Shredders revenge which is very much in the style of the original Arcade game, but an entirely new game rather than just a remake; it shows that good media is possible if the effort is put in. I'm going to build either a NAS or stand alone media device for gaming, movies & other media so I can archive all of my games, music & movies; yes I still buy physical media. It will allow me to play all of my titles on my TV, it will likely require me to buy/build a myriad of different controllers based on the era and console generation, such as a joystick & button setup for Arcade games, not to mention the Nintendo... eccentricities... that arrived with different generations; N64, Game cube & Wii stand out, I still have my Wii so emulating that one & it's motion controls isn't a big deal for me yet, we also have a Switch, so again, not high on the priority list for emulation, but the consoles I no longer have for a myriad of reasons (Atari, NES, Gameboy, SNES, N64, various Playstation's & X-boxes, etc.) I dunno, there was a lot of PC overlap at that point in my gaming life, also college was happening, so I missed some stuff & had to sell off some stuff, also, my sister stole my game boy & all of my games while I was away at college, I'm still miffed about it, even though it's been over 20 years since.

[@Kevstreehouse]

I'll be honest after the popcorn part I stopped reading cause I was fascinated. My sister just made it and it's amazing! Thanks so much for this!

[@GhostOfFreedom-fw9bp]

If buying isn't owning piracy isn't stealing

[@scramblesthedeathdealer]

💯

[@ItsMeBarnaby]

Piracy isn't stealing regardless. When you steal something from someone they no longer have that thing. Making a copy takes nothing

[@Guy-cb1oh]

@@ItsMeBarnaby"Sneaking into a movie theater isn't stealing because I didn't take the Film Strip."

[@GabrielleTollerson]

FACTS

[@GabrielleTollerson]

@@ItsMeBarnabyexactly!

[@i_will_break_your_knees1807]

Im singlehandedly bringing Nintendo down by pirating pokemon emeral and fire red on my school laptop for the last 6 years

[@Kevstreehouse]

I read that and all I heard was the pirates of the carrabean theme

[@filipeisabelinho3425]

I bet they're losing their shit! You almost drained their whole stock!

[@americaonline3835]

i was draining their pocket change when i was 8

[@mon0lin]

Common piracy w (insert you are a pirate song here)

[@alexanderthegreat-mx5zu]

​@@americaonline3835We are not making it out of space with this one.

[@JustHereForTheDialogue]

All I’m hearing is that companies make a millions excuses for not preserving their games because it costs them money. Meanwhile I’m sitting at home with like 5-6 different emulators playing all these games no problem. I guess I just don’t see how this is a real issue that can’t be solved. 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ 🏴‍☠️ 🏴‍☠️

[@TheRoCkHaRdOrDiE]

just like somehow nintendo keeping the shop open for the wii/wii U/3ds makes them lose money, but rom websites can afford to provide the same service by running 3 ads on their site

[@AnnRita45]

One word: greed!!!! 😡😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[@_-Lx-_]

​@@AnnRita45 More spesifically, Iressisponsible out of touch corporate management. Same situation as how WarnerBros lost a massive amount of money by refusing to pay any of the creators of the shows on HBO and dumping a boatload of notable series in the trash due to incompetence and arrogance, Companies could make way more money by having old media still be accesible for accisibel purchase. Arrogance, mismangment, and warped pride, causes these isssues for the industries and loss of experince for audiences and loss of potential profits for companies.

[@TheMeanArena]

All I hear is excuses on why obtaining something for free is justified. Nothing justifies it. If a company doesn't choose to preserve a game however way you thinking of preservation, it is their creation, they can do or not do what they want with it. All these white knight pirates coming to the rescue as if they have rights to something.

[@StaceyAyodele]

YARRR! 🏴‍☠🏴‍☠🏴‍☠

[@the_swordman1]

I remember watching a video not that long ago about a indie game dev that said "if you don't have the money, either wait for a sale or buy it when you have a chance. Don't go to a key selling site, just pirate it."

[@EteamProductions]

Any game dev would tell you the same. A fan that pirates your game might buy it legally later if they can, but someone who buys from those shady sites already feels like they "paid" for the game, when most of the times those keys are stolen from the devs themselves

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

How are keys even stolen anyhow? Theres gotta be proof right? Not ya know, the CEO lying and selling keys behind dev's backs or something.

[@Xazamas]

@@mimszanadunstedt441 Credit card fraud is the big thing. Not only do you need to refund the entire purchase, there can be additional fees, hassle to process them, invalidating the stolen keys can cause someone, who thought they purchased the game legally, get mad at you and not the scammer. Also there's a cottage industry of spamming out "I'm a content creator and would love to have a game key so I can stream or make a video about it."

[@paulorenato9765]

T was Running With scissors, the developer of the Postal series

[@javierpazsedano1117]

@@mimszanadunstedt441 I would add to @Xazamas point that nowadays with the flood of games being released every day, if you are a small developer and want the game to be bought by someone else than your mother, you have to give visibility to it in the social networks. And the only way to do that is either by being a famous content creator yourself... or much more likely, by giving away keys to content creators that already have an audience. Preferably niche content creators that specialized in whatever genre is your game. Because ultra-famous content creator won't even see your message asking him to play it. Sadly Steam doesn't offer any way to create temporary keys to give away that expire a few days after they are used, that would solve the key reselling problem in an instant. However it is also true that a lot of content creators (even legitimate ones) may refuse to talk about your game if you give them a temporary key instead of a permanent one. Also, there are developers that fall into the trap of "buying" positive reviews on Steam. It works like this: you give 1000 keys to "someone" and that guy, with an army of bots, gives you 1000 positive reviews on Steam, so your game gets recommended more often and hopefully gets some visibility and sales. The reality is that most of times those keys just end up on key reselling websites.

[@THE_INFECTED]

Absolutely stupid that it’s illegal to get abandonware even though no one sells it anymore

[@Vanity0666]

It's only illegal if you get caught

[@FantomMisfit]

I'm pretty sure (In the US at least) its legal. Company has to actually sell it for it to be "piracy" good example is the PC version of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. Ubisoft literally will not sell that game. As such it is abandonware and thus fair game

[@Autotrope]

The answer is copyright reform. Stop writing copyright law to suit Disney. Put something in there about abandoned works. Wonder if that would prompt them to put their back catalogue on the market (for sale via emulation)

[@Vanity0666]

@@Autotrope IP law shouldn't exist at all, it's quite literally a form of thoughtcrime

[@The8bitbeard]

@@FantomMisfit It's not, but a law is only as strong as the enforcement, and nobody will enforce against someone downloading a copy of a game that's not being sold anymore.

[@Mentox2]

I would 100% download a car if I could.

[@sir.asylum]

3D printers have come a long way, give it a few more years

[@agentmith]

Piracy is closer to taking a picture of a car than stealing one outright. You’re not depriving the owner/distributer of the original car and no ownership changes hands, and if you delete it/tear it up when you’re done it’s like nothing happened.

[@cactrot83]

This thought pops into my head for absolutely no reason once a month or so.

[@Surannhealz]

With the prices they are charging for cars now, many people would just out of necessity.

[@shinyrayquaza9]

You say that as if we don't have to with (hondas I think) car dlc where you pay subscriptions for already installed features

[@AthanasiosJapan]

A real big problem is that companies have started realizing "Game as Service", which means that games have expiration date, can not be preserved and thus can not be replayed. On the other hand, the only issue I had with a gaming console was with the DVD player of my PS3 after 10 years of use. All other gaming consoles I have work perfectly, and also the physical media. I like to collect physical media, when they are available in normal prices.

[@hubertnnn]

Big titles will have solutions. When I was younger I was even helping to develop a custom world of warcraft server that let people play older versions of WoW before WoW classic was a thing. 100% offline MMO

[@sonicmastersword8080]

The games as service model will never remain successful in the longterm for single player titles. If I have to download the game on my computer, then that copy of the game is mine to do with as I please.

[@shinyrayquaza9]

I hate the piracy is stealing argument when 1, the company isn't selling the game and 2, the game is being sold for 5 times or maybe even 1000 times more second hand, if pirating a game makes a company "lose money" then resale makes them "lose money" and then some Edit because people cant think, second hand does not mean normal retail store sales, they are not upcharging CURRENTLY AVAILABLE games, I am reffering to aftermarket or some game stores who sell unavailable games for huge markups

[@TheMeanArena]

Doesn't matter if the company isn't currently selling the game. Does it belong to you or them? That analogy is way off the mark. You are downloading pure software that is owned by someone else off the internet and not paying for it. The game you buy at the store, the medium is yours and can resell if you like which happens to contain the software you played. One was actually purchased at one point. The other, never at any point. If there's 100 copies of a game sitting at GameStop, that's 100 copies that actually got sold at some point. If 100 people download it for free $0 was made.

[@xxxxSylphxxxx]

@@TheMeanArena I think the point being made is that for something to be 'stealing', someone has to lose something. There is undeniably a sub-category of pirated games whose users would not have spent money on the title being played, second hand or new. That means their use isn't 'stealing' a sale. What proportion of pirated games this actually is is debateable (I imagine it's quite large though), and the ethics of pirating software is also a healthy conversation to have - but the implication that all piracy is *stealing* doesn't work. It's like saying all theft is murder: designed to sound dramatic despite being inaccurate (a lot like the choice of the word 'piracy', an incredibly heinous act, to refer to copying copyrighted material). (The statement also misses the very real phenomenon where piracy causes a sale, which does very much happen. 'Free to play' games like League of Legends and shareware releases like doom are great examples of how free products produce fans, buzz, and ultimately sales, but that's getting into business strategy, and I think Shinrayquaza9 was talking about word semantics.)

[@TragicHeroMat]

@@TheMeanArena See I understand that. But sometimes said company deserves to lose money.

[@MrVidification]

A lot of old titles are simply no longer available physically. It depends how far back you go. Or for some, perhaps not possible to obtain due to inflated pricing, largely once helped by those services that used to box and grade games. For major developers and modern games, the positive side for them is that people will not be buying anything at a store for long. Physical storage is slow and can't keep up in size with games. Only part of a game is often on a disc, esp on pc. You may also be forced to tie a physical game to an online account that won't be around indefinitely, before you can play. So some modern physical media will become useless in time, unable to be resold, and preservation could be a reason for some that obtain the games via other methods. The arrival of digital stores of course handed all control back to the publisher with the inability to resell (unless using the grey market or outside of the US). This also enabled companies to update and modify what you have legally without noting you. Soundtracks or other elements removed from games. This may also be a reason for people looking for so called backups. The industry will soon attempt to push everyone on console especially to stream only, with fewer physical options available until they disappear, which may avoid all sharing (which was always frowned upon, legal or not) and piracy altogether. If this happens, every console will become a very basic piece of tech, or even reduced to an app on the next generation smart tv. Only general software and indie gaming on pc may be affected by piracy in future. The only argument against punishment for piracy is that not everyone would have bought given the rising cost of AAA games, the current state of a nation regarding income and the age group affected (plenty of students no doubt). Not all of them will bother to share, or obtain on a platform which shares the data by default. With other forms of pirate entertainment (eg bootleg music) it would always be the store or site that would be shut down and not the public that obtained those cds and dvds, so the focus with games should perhaps be on the initial host or not so legal sharer @@TheMeanArena

[@JamesTDG]

​@@TheMeanArena How about this situation though: Westwood studios was a famous RTS game developer during the 1990s. When EA scooped them up in '98, they ended up getting shut down in about 5 years. WW's titles DragonStrike, Dune II, Young Merlin, and more are unable to be purchased 1st-hand, and EA refuses to offer distribution for these games. Their bean counters consider anyone who pirates these games to be stealing money, but the thing is, even when these games are distributed again, none of the people who worked on these games will see a cent come to them. Sure, a bunch of sales could mean that the money could go to a new set of devs, but you know, there's also another problem, enshittification. For this, we turn to another studio EA bought out, Pop Cap. PVZ1 and Peggle remain to be legitimately purchaseable (for now), but post-EA absolutely ruined subsequent releases. So, it does not even give me trust in the publisher that my money would result in a good return for an IP. And now to blow up your final point, making $0 is far, FAR less harmful than losing money. Yes, someone made a COPY of your piece of media, but they didn't steal something that cannot be replaced for free. It can be infinitely replicated. I am fine if someone pirates a piece of media I put out too, cause it is beyond just "hehe, I am an asshole", they may be unable to afford the media, they may be unable to afford the medium to play it on, the game may not necessarily be distributed in their region, or something completely different. Would be nice if they considered seeing if they can pay me in the future for it, but it deals no direct harm to me to have something I made be CLONED without being paid. Hell, when I release my first game that is behind a paywall, I am gonna dump the game on major piracy hubs (and free on itch), cause I would rather prevent harm becoming my users from other malicious actors. Anuken did this model, so I know this will work.

[@TheFrantic5]

Those who forget about the past are doomed to pay full price for it.

[@jorgezaldivar3113]

IKR?

[@ShinyMew151]

Try double or even triple the original price!

[@0Heeroyuy01]

this is a thing for modern games too, look at some of the old call of duty games still 60$ 5+ years later

[@PlaceHolder007YT]

DOOMed? that's the game for 5 dollars on the MS store and xbox, yes?? exact opposite of your point. OG doom, btw

[@johannliebert2870]

@@0Heeroyuy01 ehhh older games were actually pretty expensive, not even accounting for inflation

[@josiahcole3186]

“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”

[@AnnRita45]

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[@TheMeanArena]

You own the software you create. Not the software someone else created.

[@michaelvansise4887]

@@TheMeanArena So you do not actually own any software that you bought? It is just a temporary rental license? Publishers own the software not the development studios. The artists who make these things are just faceless employees as far as the big corporations are concerned. Chris Roberts crowdfunded Star Citizen on his own terms because EA still owns the rights to his baby Wing Commander. American McGee recently approached EA with a pitch for a third Alice game, but they turned him down because it was going to be a singleplayer game with no monetization, the whole experience made him become completely disillusioned with game development. EA is sitting on a huge mountain of IP that they have no idea what to do with.

[@TheMeanArena]

​@@michaelvansise4887 Correct! You do not own software that you purchase, only the medium it comes packaged in which obviously you can resell. The rest of what you said I don't see how it relates to piracy.

[@michaelvansise4887]

@@TheMeanArena Good luck reselling PC software. Most things have non-transferable activation keys even when they come on physical media these days.

[@blind3dbylight]

Once again: piracy is preservation. Piracy keeps games alive.

[@TheMeanArena]

So would buying a copy and sitting it on your shelf.

[@blind3dbylight]

@@TheMeanArena while I’m all for owning physical, you also have to consider that physical media degrades. Connections corrode, chips burn out, things stop working. If no effort is taken to preserve a piece of software in a digital format, and either all physical copies of it or the devices required to run it no longer function, it becomes lost media.

[@TheMeanArena]

​@@blind3dbylight I understand that argument and many other things people like to say but the issue is bottom line that the software people buy is owned by someone else. They and they only have the right and choice on what to do with that software regardless of the hundreds of excuses people like to make about piracy. What media degrades over time specifically? How long does it take? I have music CD's and games from 20-30 years ago or more that there is nothing wrong with them. It can't be cartridge based games you're talking about as all my Atari games run perfectly fine. Perhaps another media you're talking about?

[@blind3dbylight]

@@TheMeanArena You are dodging the point to argue about pure legality. All physical media won’t last forever regardless of its form. You know of Nosferatu, yes? Piracy literally rescued what would become a highly influential film in the horror genre from becoming lost media. You are going around to several comments here continuing to argue for pure legality of it all, attempting to shame others for understanding piracy has ultimately saved many games from becoming lost media. I sense you aren’t actually here in any sort of good faith.

[@user-md7er6xe2z]

​@@blind3dbylight I would not argue that "Piracy is Preservation" but I would argue that it is accessibility (Even if its illegal.) Game accessibility is a separate problem to preservation as preservation is just the act of archiving a work in such a way that it is not lost or destroyed. It dose not have much to do with making games more accessible to the public. My argument would be "Piracy is Accessibility" (Even if illegal).

[@Vinicios-dn2cb]

"Do what you want cuz a pirate is free you are a pirate"

[@aler0506]

Alternate title: Piracy Is Saving Video Games!

[@TheSyconerd]

quite literally. and from my experience it also helps continue video game culture as a whole. Like for me i was too poor to own physical copies of games or the old games i want to play are hard to get (earthbound, chrono trigger, etc.). So the only way to play these gems was emulators

[@keeganmcfarland7507]

Or indie/AA games are saving video games for that matter.

[@samushunter242]

​@@TheSyconerdI used to hate having to pirate games, but now I have no problem

[@blakebrown115]

deadass seemed like they wanted to use clickbait but they seemed to miss the mark

[@hue__man]

Thank you, the title has been bugging me the whole way through.

[@platinumuschannel]

In 2005 as a collector, it was super easy with only the rarest games being difficult to obtain price-wise. By 2010, I noticed it was becoming harder to find bargains.

[@MikeSW]

I literally had people GIVE me a box of Super Nintendo games at a garage sale in the early 00's. And thrift stores had them for $2.50 a piece with no attention paid to what was what. Consoles were also priced cheaper than dirt; I got 2 SNES consoles for $12 together. I didn't like where the industry was heading with online stuff, so I doubled down on having a physical library back then. Happy to have made that decision when I did.

[@PretendingToBeAHuman]

Post-pandemic it’s become almost impossible. Used to be, I could buy a stack of last-gen AAA games for peanuts. Nowadays, the secondhand market's gone so screwy that last-gen games are disgustingly exorbitant. Hell, even current-gen games that ended their physical print run are ridiculously inflated. I sorely miss going through bargain bins in game shops and finding actual good games that cost as much as a coffee.

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

Its because collectors and *investors* are taking it off of everyone's hands, so the price is skyrocketting, because its a limited pool its monopolizable effectively.

[@AnnRita45]

@@PretendingToBeAHuman when gaming was ACTUALLY for everyone!!!!! I lost BOTH of my 3DS XL consoles, and I won’t be able to get another 3DS XL for some time. I also had the retro NES Controller one, and im so sure that one i will NEVER be able to get it again! But eh, I WILL get myself another 3DS XL at some point! #3DSAddict

[@corrinflakes9659]

It’s weird that film preservation organizations has respected archives by the industry juggernauts themselves; and anything of a written document such as novels, comics, scientific documents (supported and unsupported) to so much as a marketing leaflet or furniture instruction manual published in the UK must be archived into the official archive, including updated versions - recently retired Tom Scott covered this in “This library has every book ever published”. Video game software deserves this.

[@AnnRita45]

Here Here!!!!!!!

[@ImJCyo]

I would be absolutely fine with a website marketplace like Amazon where ROMs and ISOs are sold officially by the companies that owned the licenses for you to use with whatever emulator you please. For the titles that don't have license owners anymore, those could be placed up as free downloads, or perhaps paid to the publisher. But because that'll never happen, we'll sing some shanties instead while we sail.

[@hubertnnn]

It is possible when younger generations will take over the governments. Those old man will have to retire at some point. The only questions is how many titles will be already lost until that happens.

[@BlueGlare8]

If you’ve gotta pay a small mortgage loan just to play Chrono Trigger officially, then you know there’s a problem with preservation. (Absolutely fantastic video btw)

[@Kevstreehouse]

Dude it's like every version of it too. The ds version is mad money too and it's like one of squares best games

[@BlueGlare8]

@@Kevstreehouse Fr, it’s touted as one of the best RPG’s ever created and you can’t even buy it legitimately. At least something like Mario RPG was available on the SNES Classic and is now getting a remake. But having to wait nearly 30 years for that is unacceptable.

[@Kevstreehouse]

@@BlueGlare8 dude Europe is even worse. Like I don't think we got the snes or ps1 release so the ds was the first time we got it and it had such a limited run that it goes for mad money. We didn't even get it on the virtual store. Like before steam sailing the 7 seas was your only option.

[@NateSammich]

Pretty sure it's on steam for not that much

[@giuseppelentini9140]

Yes, it is. It's often discounted, and it's very similar to the DS port, it's surely better than the original on Snes (I've tried that version, I would not recommend it to anybody).

[@adrianmedeiros8431]

29:19 fun fact: the average Brazilian PS1 and PS2 owner has never inserted a legally purchased game into a playstation console. I'm not joking. I was there EDIT: Apparently, from the comments this is a common experience between most Latinos and some parts of Asia. Can't say I'm surprised. When I was a kid, there was a whole bunch of street vendors selling pirated games out in the open downtown in my city. I'm talking in front of cops and no one gave a damn

[@RaverRacer]

Haha same for Pakistan. I'm pretty sure PS2 is still the most popular console there

[@LuluTeala]

How'd you guys get past the PS1's protection? o_o

[@noodleman4555]

​@@LuluTealaExtremely easily.

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

​@@LuluTealawhere there's a will there's a way. Especially when you consider that these companies almost never translate games behind the main EU languages and even then they usually just stick to English and Japanese only

[@gustavrsh]

​@@LuluTeala many stores sold PS1/2s already with modchips in them.

[@cZdrik]

If I ever lose my Ubisoft account, I will just pirate all their titles

[@TheMeanArena]

Don't do anything to lose it. TOS's exist for a reason.

[@everx7]

well it seems to me that i didnt lose my account, but i lost some of my games it seems, pretty weird still video explained it, so its not so weird anymore

[@anonanonymous9670]

Why would you give your money to Ubisoft in the first place? Just pirate them

[@TheMeanArena]

@@anonanonymous9670 Because you're wanting to experience what they created? Worth playing but not paying?

[@anonanonymous9670]

@@TheMeanArena So.... Just pirate Ubisoft games instead of giving them money? Ubisoft rarely makes anything worth playing (or even pirating for that matter)

[@valthalin7613]

"If buying isn't owning piracy of the thing I bought/can no longer buy to make it playable isn't stealing".

[@Bakedbeans780]

This quote is gonna be morphed so much until it turns into “big money game i no own so i no buy”

[@ZeroKitsune]

@@Bakedbeans780 So? You can't lose a sale from somebody who couldn't buy it anyway.

[@TheMeanArena]

You own the medium, not the software. What is it that you're owning when you download it for free? Nothing, you're pirating software you don't own.

[@kylemulkey9659]

Another good point talking about why people go towards piracy is the fact that companies are removing content or making it actually worse on release or streaming. Louis Rossman proved that Netflix only allows 4k on TVs and not PCs, where its limited to 720P, even when paying the extra for 4k content. Also due to licensing issues and different countries having different content, the fact that piracy is actually giving me a better experience for less price is especially egregious. One of the few retro games I felt actually enhanced the OG was the Ninja Turtles collection, allowing for a lot of options not present in the original games. That is a major issue when that is an outlier and not a standard though.

[@Vanity0666]

Thats the goal of subscription services in general, offer an initial value to generate a subscriber base then make cuts to your platform so you aren't losing money on the operation and whatever dumbass idiots left autopay on and forgot will give you money in perpetuity

[@pibstarr]

I wish they would of added TMNT: Turtles in Time reshelled. I get many people didn't like it but it needs preservation as it was a digital only release on PS3 and X360

[@TheMeanArena]

No excuse! If a company isn't providing something you want in a way you want, that doesn't justify obtaining it another way without paying them.

[@Jassi3799]

@@TheMeanArenaBoot licking billion dollar companies that don’t give a shit about you.

[@TragicHeroMat]

@@TheMeanArena I gather you work for one of these companies.

[@AdmiralBison]

We need a "Right to own" act to deal with DRM and games as a service encroaches on ownership. ALL corporate publishers MUST at least provide an offline DRM-Free option to consumers for all games for the duration for that games sales life. Customers will be informed of this option and understand what they BUY they own and functions more or less the same as when they bought it. i.e. is independent of corporate servers and services to operate.

[@Kevstreehouse]

Would love to see this enacted but I'm too bitter to believe it'll be happening. Especially when ubisoft are telling us to get used to not own games.

[@AdmiralBison]

​@@Kevstreehouse I understand people can be deflated and feel as though nothing can be done, I go through that as well. But it is easy for us to forget that industry reforms happen, bills get legislated and even the biggest corporations get reigned in from time to time...when enough a hub bub is created by consumers and workers. It just starts with people casually disucssing solutions. As individuals we don't need to go running a campaign, calling up represetatives, drafiting laws etc.. It can be a collective effort. The more people discuss solutions the more word spreads around and the more chance those who are in more powerful positions to do something about it can pick up on it and action it. We can just look at the 'Right to repair' act created by small businesses fighting the multi-trillion dollar Apple corporation behemoth...and they won with the 'Right to repair' act eventually becoming law. Apple is forced to obide. There are many other actions that has or is taking place - usb-c - sideloading - gatekeeping - digital marketplace monopolies being challenged. etc.. The EU put Apple in its place because of the collective complaints from EU consumers. You can be bitter but also be vindictive as well. "we have a right to own what we buy and DRM should be kicked to the curb" and that's it. more people will pick up on something like that and run with it.

[@Snaaake_Beater]

did ubisoft not say they will always support physical games???@@Kevstreehouse

[@Kevstreehouse]

guess they forgot the "till it starts to lose us any amount of money"@@Snaaake_Beater

[@ramadjones]

Sorry bro, but game companies will NEVER go for that, and will lobby you to oblivion. It is all about the money, and it's simply better business for you to rent, than it is to own. So, you'll never own the games you play.

[@pokemonlore4959]

This is why im thankful for sights like vims lair. People activly trying to preserve the medium the best they can. Digitally

[@tafferchuck1349]

Shhhhhh!!! Quiet!! Nintendo has their attention in youtube enough to manipulate and inflate the reception of their newer games. This is not a safe space!!

[@thepancakemann]

@@tafferchuck1349 It's kind of like the first rule of gaming fight club. You don't talk about gaming fight club.

[@tafferchuck1349]

@@thepancakemann Lmao, we need to push it while being discreet. That way there's always an abundance of sources and nintendo isnt able to push back.

[@barsona]

I am waiting for that class action lawsuit regarding "digital ownership" Even if it's clearly labeled under the TOS, it's scummy as hell that people have to deal with it. Hence once in a while we all set sail with the Jolly Roger on our back

[@Coconut-219]

Either that lawsuit will happen and (begrudgingly) these companies will be saved from their own incompetence, or it won't and they will go out of business because they just killed their own product.

[@maroindefinitlyhuman6857]

"They're the prostitute you fell in love with but will leave you cold and alone once you rum out of money" 😂😂😂😂

[@ShinryuZensen]

These words are pure gold.

[@trailersic]

And Atari is a dude who is wearing the skin of the prostitute you once loved.

[@azrielsatan8693]

Not even music is free from being lost, I was trying to find the OST for a show only to find out it was only ever included in a $130 special edition blue-ray.

[@unimac6163]

Sounds like you found it.

[@TheFrostedfirefly]

@@unimac6163 If I say my son was lost, and I find out he was last seen getting beat up at the back of a Denny's I wouldn't exactly say I "found him" if he still wasn't home safe and sound, literally still absent.

[@landon5030]

Check soulseek

[@Apocalymon]

Which show?

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

I kept a playlist on youtube that lost like 600 songs. Like 1/4 or 1/3 of all the tracks it had. Many were original works, not copyrighted stuff.

[@yugoprowers]

Funny thing about Mother 3, the reason it will never release hear is because Nintendo infringed on copyrights for the music. In Japan music has less rights than in the US, and other countries so no English Mother 3.

[@jricedrums]

This video reinforced that my hoarding of 19 game consoles (not counting duplicates) over 1,200 physical games, and of course a Sony Trinitron aren't going anywhere.

[@jmac79ers]

Sameish here, I love the fact that noone can take away my beloved nes and contra

[@pedroanardi]

In Brazil, it's legal to backup your games, aside from video game copyright lasting for 50 years (while other media lasts for 70). That means that over here Super Mario Bros will be public domain in about ten years' time. (For research purposes, this is the law that states that: Federal Law number 9.609 from 1998)

[@rafaelroma1657]

With half of the budget of a game Nintendo can buy some congressman to change the law in no time. They just don't bother in doing that because it wouldn't be profitable. I'd say we should enjoy this while we can. I have no simpathy towards big companies. I mostly buy indie only to support their effort. Let rich countries audience fund the AAA market. Comparatively they can handle this much better than us in developing countries.

[@gustavrsh]

​@@rafaelroma1657Nintendo doesn't care

[@Chadfill8348]

Tbf Nintendo consoles were never popular in Brazil, most of the people who bought it are either youtubers or those lunatics that only buy consoles to play Pokemon on it

[@-Gax-]

​@@Chadfill8348 I'm that lunatic. But 25 years later, I still have nearly every copy, plus many, many other games for those consoles.

[@residentgrey]

Copyright does not always the matter when money is not involved.

[@The8bitbeard]

Video games will never die. Publishers on the other hand... Either they release the games for sale on the platforms people want to play on, in the way they want to play, or players will just play those games anyway on their own terms without the publisher at all. Piracy is a service problem.

[@albatross1779]

Agreed. As far as I'm concerned, most major publishers, along with The Big 3, are leaving money on the table, because I would absolutely, legally support any re-release of their old games released in an affordable and accessible format that isn't tied to a subscription. I'm going to play my retro favourites regardless, and it's up to the companies if they want me to pay them for it.

[@GabrielleTollerson]

FACTS

[@Guy-cb1oh]

Piracy is an entitlement problem. You are not entitled to play other people's games for free even if they don't make them readily available to play. The Law is clear in this matter.

[@MasochistNinja]

@@Guy-cb1oh so the guy that doesnt want to pay a couple thousand dollars for old used stuff to play a game from his childhood is entitled? Go stick a baguette in "you know where", amigo

[@albatross1779]

@@Guy-cb1oh Oh, we all know the law protects the rights of suits over cultural preservation; that is nothing new. I've never heard of police breaking down people's doors over downloading some ROMs though. Distributers of ROMS may have a civil trial on their hands if busted, but those of us who download them do not. As such, I do not care whether the law entitles me to play old games the way that's most convenient for me, because I'm going to do it anyways.

[@ethanpease5936]

17:32 It's the same problem with all the marvel games and it's so stupid because Sony or Disney (I blame both because they've probably both responsible) can't get their heads out their asses to make them available on the playstation, xbox or Eshop because they're too busy making a rushed marvel movie with bad cgi or one about every Spider-Man character OTHER THAN SPIDER-MAN!

[@TheDuck1234]

In Nintendo fighting emulation and people owning their games so much has probably made the switch library the most well documented and backup of all the Nintendo consoles. The piracy copy market for switch is probably the biggest out there and most big releases becomes available to people on hacked switches weeks before it’s released sometime.

[@foundoasis7342]

Emulation has saved gaming got me into Retro gaming

[@crystalwater505]

Emulation for life.

[@Jadanbr]

Emulation and piracy is what got kid me to actually play games at all Specially given I'm Brazillian

[@ForestGuardian777]

Emulation is how I discovered Super Mario RPG in 2006, and playing that game is one the best choices I've made.

[@foundoasis7342]

@@ForestGuardian777 it really is i remember learning about it through the super mario rpg song online and i immediately wanted to know more

[@criticalkat3958]

Same here. Never really had a nice computer in my childhood/teens so the only games I could really run on it were emulators

[@Pensive_Scarlet]

It's going to get to the point where speakeasies are going to come back but they're gong to be like a combination of arcade games, classic setups, emulation stations, etc.

[@Kevstreehouse]

Legitimately this sounds like a great idea! Barcades but also a video game museum. Amazing!

[@MyNamesNotLars1]

This is literally a thing in Akihabara. There are bars that provide old school console games for you to play while you drink, but you have to pay "rental fees" per play that are legally kicked back to Nintendo, SEGA, etc. like some sort of mafioso protection racket, or Nintendo and other corpos can shut them down for facilitating piracy.

[@MastaGambit]

Yeah we're literally already at that point lmfao it's called a Barcade

[@Pensive_Scarlet]

@@MastaGambit What barcade have you been to that has all the things I mentioned? I'd like to go.

[@-Zakhiel-]

I know a bar with old consoles and a few "fake" arcade machines (ones where you have dozens of arcade games in one machine). You can play games and get blasted.

[@alexxx4434]

The problem is the inflated longevity of the copyright law. It must be deflated!

[@litjellyfish]

Yes I am all for copyright law but yeah it’s to long

[@jonathanellis6097]

It's kind of crazy after Napster, and all the growing pains with music in the digital age that the music industry so far (at least for consumers) is the only one of the entertainment industries that have got it right. Reasonably priced but the key thing is easy access to almost everything. Films TV and games are just too expensive, but the biggest problem is how annoying it can be to access everything you want. There was that golden period for film and TV when basically everything was on Netflix, but they have wrecked that. It's the only real reason so many people are now sailing the seas, cost is a factor but it's mainly convenience.

[@Vanity0666]

The music industry doesn't pay artists anymore, millions of plays on spotify translates to a handful of dollars in revenue.

[@jonathanellis6097]

@@Vanity0666 That's why I said for consumers. They do need to compensate artists better, especially smaller ones.

[@SomePotato]

We have the same problems in film. Even if your favorite title gets a BD or 4K release, it has probably been cleaned up, denoised and color "corrected" to modern standards, if not half of the movie was redone in CGI, so that it bears little resemblance to what it looked like in cinemas a few decades ago. Praise the 35mm scanners!

[@NamelessAidan]

I'm always on the fence about this because some places seem to do a good restoration that is closer in quality to what you might have seen from the original film version, rather than a vhs or dvd copy. Then others are like you said overly corrected using computer tools to correct things that weren't an issue in the first place. I still collect some of my favorite films on bluray though, but lately I've been thinking about making a hard drive 'library' for myself. The other downside to physical media for film is it can degrade somewhat quickly... dvds and even blurays can get damaged or simply stop playing and are difficult to repair. Digital files can be more easily backed up, transferred, etc.

[@penguinjay]

Anaconda used to have a graphic, bloody tracheotomy scene, which was cleaned up via zooming in the bluray. PG-13 used to mean parents would guide, but now there are very few parents paying attention to what their kids watch, so they just sanitize the old works to not be overly graphic. There is a reason all those Star Wars Original Trilogy fan projects exist, and we will eventually see more of that kind of behavior, but not until it is too late, and people lose something that they can't replace.

[@SomePotato]

@@NamelessAidanAbsolutely. Especially small boutique labels often take great care in restoring movies to their best possible authentic versions. Even though you could argue that a pristine scan of the camera negative today looks much better than any 35mm copy ever did. I'm fine with that though.

[@SomePotato]

@@penguinjayYes, Star Wars is the classic example. In the case of Anaconda, I'm not sure if this is just a case of an open matte VHS showing more than later widescreen releases. But these open matte releases still deserve preservation. And of course there are plenty of movies that were only ever released uncut on VHS or maybe Laserdics, like for example Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 5, which had their unrated cuts widely available.

[@hubertnnn]

Don't forget censorship. I have seen a few videos on youtube comparing the same movie in versions that were released in TV in the 70ss 90s and 2010s each with a different audio. The oldest one full of n-words, medium one full of s-words and f-words and the newest one just a nice "I hate that guy"

[@Snaaake_Beater]

As gabe newell once said the best way to get people to not pirate anything is to give them a service thats better. And to be honost. Steam comes very close to that.

[@four-en-tee]

I just wish we actually owned our games on Steam, but its not like Steam will ever take legal action if the company tanks. I can just pirate my steam games after that without much guilt because I can say that I've owned these games before. Like, i've bought Minecraft 4(?) times now on separate platforms, and i've bought Skyrim on 3 separate occasions as well.

[@Snaaake_Beater]

@@four-en-tee thats it. i mean nobody ever got into jail for pirating. and as long the company dont exist anymore or its a game for under 10 bucks. who cares

[@dubjubs]

​@@Snaaake_BeaterNintendo wants to care lol

[@MikeSW]

The recent dropping of OS support - with no remedy - and retroactive additions of DRM / Launchers being made to games, with no way of rolling back to a previous version has soured me on Steam. Not buying anything from them until they get their platform sorted out. Gog is cool though.

[@TatsuyaWow]

yeah if the service is not available hacker will make it hence Hshop for the 3ds or the wiiU downloder for the wiiU games

[@clydemarshall8095]

The LACK of preservation is the threat.

[@SuperfluousMoniker]

I just want to say that Nevermind by Nirvana was released in 1991, which is well into the era of listening to music on CDs. It was available on cassette too but CD had surpassed it in popularity by the end of the 80s.

[@hubertnnn]

I wonder if its per country. In Poland CDs were not too popular until 2000s. You could buy them in the 90s but until 2000 a typical music store would have 90% cassettes and 10% CDs. Around 2000 a huge shift happened switching it to 90% CD and 10% cassette over just 2 years (not sure which years exactly though).

[@lasercraft32]

This is why I don't have Nintendo Online. Having to _pay_ for something they previously gave out _for free_ with no extra benefit (their servers still suck, possibly even _worse_ then before) in this day and age is not okay. I don't care if I can't play Smash Ultimate online, the lag would ruin the fun anyway. It baffles me how Nintendo can simultaneously be one of the most consistently good game companies, while also being one of the slimiest.

[@PIKMINROCK1]

The thing is they aren't. What they are is the holders of your favorite IP that don't quite deal them out in loveable fashion. The slimiest ones are companies like TakeTwo, EA and Activision Blizzard. You just aren't on their juice so you don't realize how slimy they are. Like WarCraft 3 Reforged exists, the game that actively harmed preservation since it deleted the old version. A lot of their legacy releases are simply because they can take advantage of Windows maintaining backwards compatibility. We can't play any of the old Medal of Honors, Battlefields and what smaller names they own whereas we can play most of old Nintendo's library via NSO. The legacy sports titles would be possible to rerelease if they put in the effort even. It would be better if Nintendo simply left the Wii, Wii U and 3DS eShops open but, like NSO has maintained its price in spite of literally everyone increasing theirs. Even Ubisoft did for their abyssmal Ubisoft+.

[@TatsuyaWow]

im done whit nintendo better get steam deck or window handheld and emulate the heck out of them.

[@Vanity0666]

​@@TatsuyaWowmig switch

[@TatsuyaWow]

?@@Vanity0666

[@Coconut-219]

Paid online service was the nail in the coffin for me with console gaming, because I already have an online service it's called an ISP - been PC only ever since. (Cheaper hardware costs & the benefits of emulation too!)

[@DrunkenHotei]

I never heard of you, but this is an awesome first impression. Fantastic editing, and well-illustrated arguments! You got another sub, man. (I suspect I won't be part of that other 95% either)

[@erdbeerbaerlp]

The issue with pirating for emulation could be ended if we had an official way to buy rom files. This way we could legally get the old games and, for example, nintendo would earn money from thier old titles. This would also lower the need for piracy in the first place. Would definetly buy titles this way, but I guess this will never happen, so ima keep my archive,org collection of ROMs on my NAS

[@daniellemurnett2534]

For the record the "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" video didn't use pirated music. A different anti-piracy ad kinda did. This is readily evident on the PSA's wikipedia page in the sentence _right after the one that says it was reported as pirated._

[@cericat]

Yeah it's the BREIN one not that but the reporting has generally failed to recognise there was more than one anti-piracy campaign, probably not helped since the Harry Potter DVD in at least some English speaking territories used the more famous one.

[@jacobmonks3722]

Digital releases of old games are a good start, but physical collecting is king. Being able to lend a game to a friend or trade games or even just sell the games you don't want to play anymore makes the hobby feel much more worthwhile, like you are actually getting experiences instead of just "content" (a word I have come to despise). I know it's expensive for publishers, but I really do wish they took physical re-releases more seriously. Not everything can be preserved perfectly, but making no attempt at all just dooms the medium.

[@anustart989fg]

Except lending a game to a friend when it can sell for $1000 can lead to some unexpected outcomes. I agree with you as far as releases going forward, games don't even have manuals anymore, they're essentially a disc that tells the console to download the game files from the internet. When was the last time you popped in a disc and the game immediately played? Spyro Reignited didn't even have 2 and 3 on the disc. But the market is so backwards right now, and for some reason, perfectly made reproductions are considered a detriment to the industry even though it's exactly what we need. Collectors are the ones at fault here for making sure their "investment" is intact, not the companies that are hiding from copyright issues. Collectors are sitting on millions and they don't want the value of their collection to dwindle because they're autistic gatekeeping losers.

[@penguinjay]

Ahh, A sonic fan in his natural habitat.

[@s0lid_sno0ks]

physical media deteriorates. digital+emulation is the way to go.

[@MrShadowStrange]

@@anustart989fg As someone who prefers physical games myself, I'm not out here trying to invest in anything. I just want to own the games I'd like to play. While reproduction titles are certainly not to my taste, I do find the prices they go for to be utterly tasteless myself. A bootleg copy of Pokemon FRLG that went on eBay for around 5-10 USD pre-Covid should certainly not be going for around 30-40 USD in today's market. There's also no proper authority making sure that reproduction carts are made to certain standards either. I've known plenty of people end up with unstable reproductions because they were manufactured as cheaply as could possibly be. I throw my hat in the ring that the publishers should do something about it. It certainly would not cost a large company like Nintendo or Microsoft a lot of money to just set up some supply infrastructure for re-releasing old game titles. Heck, they could just throw up listings on their websites for made-to-order batches of the games themselves and just reopen the listings once or twice a year. It's not hard, indie-release titles on older consoles do things like that all the time. Which, might I add, has been a great way for previously canceled titles to eventually get released on their original platforms. I'm already educating myself on how to repair and refurbish my own hardware, but I bet we'd both agree in that the gateway to entry should be far lower than where it currently is.

[@AnnRita45]

@@penguinjay😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@kitsunetengoku1467]

Got the entire nes, snes, gb, GBc, and GBA on an sd card. Have my entire personal archive because these companies are refusing to keep themselves preserved.

[@Manno200]

Amen!

[@Immortalsouls]

You'll own nothing and be happy... whilst they'll own everything and be miserable!

[@brimstoner982]

Piracy is probably gonna be our best bet. Currently downloading the entire gamecube library.

[@AnnRita45]

Oooooooooh, have fun!!!!!!!!!!!🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮

[@TheMeanArena]

Just curious but what makes you feel like you're entitled to those games for free without buying them somewhere?

[@brimstoner982]

@@TheMeanArena Cuz that’s gay. I’m not entitled to anything I just don’t give a fuck.

[@TheMeanArena]

@@brimstoner982 Clearly! That just shows the mentality about piracy wrapped in a bunch of nonsense excuses.

[@brimstoner982]

@@TheMeanArena I’m not excusing shit. I just don’t wanna pay for a 20 year old game.

[@finalbladecrisis]

Fun fact about PS2 slim lasers. The thing went through so many revisions, actually being able to replace the laser is a nightmare.....so emulation it is.

[@BenignStatue71]

The fat PS2s take every laser revision, and that should be the case on the slims too. I don't stock more than 2 types of lasers for PS2s in my store.

[@RaverRacer]

Funner fact about PS2 lasers - they're actually pretty sturdy. You can get away with simply adjusting the laser height most of the time, but people often skip straight to laser replacement. Some will fail eventually, but it's been 24 years and they're still holding it together

[@BenignStatue71]

@@RaverRacer I personally assume that might not be a great idea considering the PS2 can already allow the laser to impact the surface of the disc when it has trouble tracking, albeit it seems that only Gran Turismo players running the Endurance races encounter it given the amount of hours their consoles run for.

[@finalbladecrisis]

@@BenignStatue71 im sorry, you are correct. My damb ass is refering to the entire disk tray with laser module included. Im not the best with sodering, so i tried to find the entire unit

[@RaverRacer]

@@BenignStatue71 it's risk v reward. You can probably get away with it once or twice, but that once or twice will definitely give it some longevity. My PS2 fat is still going strong

[@mushuwu]

Sometimes the official localization of games can fundamentally alter the original title. Ace Combat 3 is a phenomenal arcade flight sim. However, when localized to the West, a ton of content was gutted because Namco thought it'd be too expensive. It wasn't until piracy that we were able to get a properly translated version of the original in all its glory.

[@TheMeanArena]

And that makes it OK how exactly?

[@peteryeeterson5766]

@@TheMeanArena Because people who payed for the full experience can finally get the full experience through piracy?

[@TheMeanArena]

@@peteryeeterson5766 You don't dictate what a products full experience is. Next!

[@user-md7er6xe2z]

@@TheMeanArena "You don't dictate what a products full experience is. Next!" First of all, thats not a counter argument. Second, if stuff was originally in one release of the game and was censored in another release, then the game is missing content. Therefore its not the full or originally intended experience. I don't have to "dictate" anything, its just a fact. Why is this so hard for you to understand?

[@TheMeanArena]

@@user-md7er6xe2z I still haven't heard a legit justification for piracy. So what content was cut from Ace Combat 3? Localization stuff? (a single game in a sea of thousands).

[@musicmaker33428]

@Kev’s Treehouse You bring up some tremendous, timely, and well thought points. I’m a researcher in an adjacent field (music and AI), and all of my published work deals with copyright or touches on copyright, especially Fair Use and Public Domain. I think the real key point you made in this video essay is that it may be next to impossible for streaming exclusive titles to ever make their way to the Public Domain. Even after their copyright expires, the game itself was never made available, hidden behind an invisible wall (i.e., streaming) which separates the content from the user and access point. Short of corporate insiders deliberately stealing the software and leaking it to the internet, how can there be a natural process of games losing their copyright and making their way to the Public Domain when there is no realistic way to “rip” the game from the disc or cartridge? Although we would never see any of these games’ copyrights expire in our lifetimes, it’s an excellent argument for rejecting streaming models.

[@Ei-mx1we]

It'll only get worse, don't expect the industry to start caring about the artform all of a sudden. It's up to gamers to keep gaming and its history alive.

[@Vanity0666]

Industry and creativity are antithetical concepts

[@HybridTwisterVR0979]

If you gotta pay the equivalent of a mansion to play Klonoa 1, then we’re in a messed up world in game reservation

[@armandostockvideos8386]

Didn't they remaster that one?

[@HybridTwisterVR0979]

@@armandostockvideos8386 The ORIGINAL Ps1 Version

[@albatross1779]

An entire section of this video is dedicated to a reason why Nintendo is at the top of my list of devs and publishers I do not feel a shred of moral uncertainty regarding pirating their old games.

[@sintanan469]

I love how the opening complaint of the video is preservation is bad and emulation is naughty.. And yet when Suikoden 2 is mentioned it is video clips upscaled using PSXe's built-in upscaling.

[@SlenchFan]

As an instructor of game studies, I am impressed at your ability to draw from scholarship and other articles while keeping your video fun. Great!!!

[@Kevstreehouse]

I always felt the teachers who could make a lesson entertaining retained the most attention even if the subject matter isn't naturally something you maybe interested in.

[@Pelcurus]

Don't blame us. If they would rerelease a new copy of Yobi's Spelling Adventure, I'd pay for it. Until then, my hands are tied with ropes of piracy.

[@youtubecrack]

Emulate everything!! I've got a full library of super Nintendo games on my phone guys... My phone.. What a time to be alive!!

[@theohughes74]

I know a guy (not me, really) who soft modded his 3DS and on 1 micro SD has the 3DS games and legacy consoles (via Retroarch) and in the cartridge slot has an R4 with a SD with all the NDS games. He didn't necessarily want to go that route but once those systems got discontinued what other choice is there? It doesn't hurt developers, they won't see a cent in the second hand market anyway so I don't see a problem.

[@Banex01gosha]

I'm from Russia and hearing westerner talk about Dendy was actually surprising! I'm too young to know much about it,but my dad told me about it. He played it on black and white TV as well because he didn't have colored TV at the time!

[@Kevstreehouse]

I actually only found out about it recently enough. Think game grumps and did you know gaming had videos on it a few years ago

[@CharlesLeeBay]

The thing with ubisoft closing accounts is it actually says accounts with "no PC purchases" meaning you won't lose games you own because if you own games your account won't be closed. There is an example of a service removing the thing you bought from your account but it was Amazon removing a purchased movie because they lost the distribution rights.

[@Gusr404]

Also Sony wanted to remove an bunch of Discovery movies users purchased but were forced to back down after backlash and governnment pressure

[@TheAkashicTraveller]

Here's a simple solution. Copyright has no buisness being longer than 30 years.

[@adamjones1951]

The problem is, game companies want to create rarity for their products. i.e. Disney Vault The roms are out there, but they dont want to sell them.

[@spriken]

This is why I bought a beefed-up old computer that runs Windows XP. It was the only way I'd ever get Sims 1 and some others to work.

[@geepike]

Death of art+commerce: -music devalued, stolen, then rented via streaming. -movies&tv consolidated into 1 convenient Netflix, then blown apart into several streaming services who remove material at will. Studios insist on making $250mil boardroom-written movies that are garbage, or rereleasing fan favourites but facelifted until it has no face. -game systems became ever more expensive and frequently replaced by the next one. Same principle as hollywood…bloated budget games that arent good fill the scene. Indie games continue to show how it should be done but are ignored largely by large developers. Streaming services and online stores, where again…material gets removed at will. My huge issue with all that since day 1 is that the removal of choice has even trumped their need to make $. “The customer is always right” is a misused/abused phrase nowadays, but at one point was a simple business practice: people vote with $, so if they dont buy then it wasnt good and you have to do better. The phrase “You’ll own nothing…and be happy” unfortunately is much more obviously accurate. It can be seen in these mega-corporations’ treatment of the public. “No, it is YOU who are wrong!” 🤦🏻‍♂️ Trying to gaslight us into a quiet corporate slavery…consume, consume, consume. I’ve been a massive fan of Nintendo and Playstation since day 1. Ubisoft and Blizzard, etc, have made some amazing products in past years. BUT! Their practices have gotten out of hand…very obviously ANTI-FAN, PRO-$. I mean, Im happy to contribute to someone’s wealth…when it isnt to my own detriment! I hope people clue in soon. Support artists whenever possible. But also dont support crappy practices that are anti-YOU!

[@Itsdirtnaptime]

One thing to remember about physical media, is not just the nostolgia. Lets just paint a picture. Lets say I was 6 and my dad bought out first game console. The NES and he got Mario 3. Lets say he passed away some time and i still have that cartridge. There is a deep emotional bond to the cartridge and not really the game itself. I can rebuy the game and remember the fun times i had with him. But that physical cartridge cant be replaced. I think most people think of nostolgia as a more a surface level thing. Aka not that deep.

[@AnnRita45]

So true, and so sad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@heroinpenguin666]

I'm very happy that there's a huge boom in programing hardware emulation for FPGA. You can now easily play anything up to and including the 16-bit generations very easily and even PSX, Saturn and N64 are coming along very nicely. I hope this trend continues with more powerful hardware in the future, as I see it as the best way to keep those games from disappearing.

[@Vanity0666]

I just bought a saturn and a pseudo saturn to play burned discs, the least expensive fpga unit will still run you around $500 meanwhile I spent $70

[@RikkuX5]

I absolutely love it how you dunk on Nintendo here. I adore the company but it baffles me over and over again how player unfriendly they are most of the time. People like to gloss over it and it needs to be addressed. Very well done video. Excited to check out more.

[@Kevstreehouse]

I love the developers and creatives there as they always seem to push the envelope but the business side is ridiculous. I'm doing research for another video at the mo and their history of pig head ignorance goes all the way back to the n64.

[@RikkuX5]

@@Kevstreehouse Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! I’m super excited about the upcoming video then. Nintendo has done a lot of good things for the gaming industry but it can’t be ignored how damaging some of their decisions are. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how they influenced the whole gaming culture when it saved the industry from the big video game crash back then. Before that gaming was a quite diverse hobby where people of all ages and genders liked to enjoy the game arcades and such. When the industry crashed it was Nintendo that revived it which is something I’ll always be grateful for but it’s so damn damaging how they suddenly started to aggressively market gaming to young teen boys completely alienating a huge part of the previous player base creating big bias against femme players, pushing video games into certain stereotypes thus limiting creativity and making it even harder for women in the industry to get the respect they deserve. I want to believe that there wasn’t any malicious intention back then but I can’t help and feel some kind of disgust about it. Looking forward to the next video!

[@Kevstreehouse]

@@RikkuX5 yeah really good point there. I have another separate video I'm toying with and I'd love to include a point like that if that's okay with you?

[@RikkuX5]

@@Kevstreehouse Of course, I’d love to! Thanks for asking though. I appreciate you a lot.

[@Kevstreehouse]

@@RikkuX5 @RikkuX5 ever since I saw hbomberguys video on yt plagerism I've been trying to get better about that kind of stuff. Really good point and I hate to touch on it and not credit where the inspiration came from. Like I thought I'd done a good job with my citation on this video but he showed me this was even lacking 🤣

[@lieffian]

If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing, the same applies to game preservation

[@reynoldskynaston9529]

The major problem in my opinion is the combination of hardware becoming obsolete and companies needing to protect their copyright. In a perfect world once these companies stopped producing hardware and software they would release it to the public for anyone to freely use and distribute. However if a game company ever did decide to do this they would likely have a very hard time defending their copyright in the future. The only realistic solution is to continue emulating and pirating older games as they become unavailable. Those who are willing to learn how to use emulators and find old roms will be able to preserve these games but average people will have to wait for rereleases or spend the money to buy secondhand stuff. These companies definitely know that many of us emulate their games but they pretend they don’t see it because they know it’s not worth the effort trying to protect their old stuff from the minority of people that are actually willing to learn how to emulate games.

[@majorg6065]

AMAZING video sir! Thoroughly enjoyed watching this. Thanks for making! I think the only way to save the old games and change the course of gaming history, is to stop buying new games, and continue to buy old physical games. When the used market is so high and undeniable and the new market is suffering, game companies will have to take notice and make a change.

[@kastfilms]

As a gamer and someday hopeful film director, I hope to someday put my earnings towards a video game preservation society/museum.

[@sashanilssen]

Another point is that a lot of countries never received these games or consoles in the first place, so getting them second hand costs an even more inflated price, PLUS international shipping. I live in South Africa and anything pre-PS2 era (excluding the gamecube) basically doesnt exist.

[@sashanilssen]

You did mention this ^^^ in your video, but on the note of localisation, even current gen systems like the Nintendo Switch don't get priced locally. A Switch here, converted to USD, costs 450 USD, which is a 50% markup from the USA price!! Which is insane because I got a brand new PS4 slim for half of that price in 2018

[@Kevstreehouse]

@@sashanilssen nah you raise a great point there and one a coworker from india recently raised with me. It's a great point and did you know gaming have done a whole book on games that were never released internationally. Here in Europe we missed out on a ton of classic like we didn't get chrono trigger till the ds we have never gotten xenogears and there's a ton of harvest moon games we missed.

[@Snaaake_Beater]

many licensed games on gamecube also never released in europe or jak 3 never released in japan@@Kevstreehouse

[@thatonezeldaguy250]

To be fair, the bunny waifu statue is easily the best pick between that, the watch, crocs, and the Gucci bag

[@sanctanox]

We're living in a world now where the question 'what is a cassette?' is not a joke but real.

[@tacticalbondsh]

I'm surprised he didn't have to explain CDs

[@Dowlphin]

Youngsters be like: "So silly. Compact discs aren't compact and floppies aren't floppy."

[@destinoo1792]

The quality of the content is amazing!!!! I can see the only thing this channel needs is more visibility because the quality is at the top. I'll spend the next couple of days watching all content in this channel and sharing with my friends, keep the great work!!

[@Kevstreehouse]

thanks man really appreiacte it espaically as this video didn't do well at all 😅

[@BenignStatue71]

The RTC battery in fat PS2s is a standard lithium CR2032 battery and it only requires a screwdriver to access (and remembering to discharge the capacitors by shorting them on the power daughter board so you don't shock yourself). Depending on the model, it may require more disassembly. This is also the case for the PlayStation 3. Note that some PlayStation 3 slim revisions cover the slot with the entire RF shield for some reason so the ENTIRE console has to come apart, but you should be replacing the thermal paste anyway at this point too I guess... As for the PS2 Slims, those have a CR2032 coin cell on wires like many modern laptops do. You can try replacing the battery on those wires yourself but I recommend just buying a new battery on leads. Soldering to a battery directly is a horrible idea, and also it isn't going to work all that well anyway. You could also try to solder the leads to a coin slot if you wanted to but you'd probably need to heatshrink and epoxy the thing together to keep the wires attached to it while you re-assemble the console. The GameCube and Dreamcast however are a pain. Their RTC batteries are rechargeable and if you just replace them with vertical coin slots with CR2032s in them, what you will have is a fire. Also you've got the PS4 issue incorrect in this video, it can still reach the PSN servers. The problem is that if you replaced the RTC in a console, it could not play anything UNTIL it connected to PSN servers. They released a system update to fix that after sizeable backlash, but the issue prior to the system update was that a console whos RTC is dead or replaced could literally not do anything if Sony shut down the PS4 ticket authentication service that would tell a console it can play physical games and also verify the tickets for digital games. Given the PS3's RTCs are going dead currently and Sony wants the servers for it shut down, that would have put the PS4 to be useless by the time it needed its RTC replaced. The precedent behind removing Dolphin off Steam was unfortunately completely legal. This was due to the fact that Dolphin has the encryption keys in its source code to decrypt the game discs. This is required to make the entire thing work of course, and despite being numbers (which cannot be copyrighted, which is why Intel switched to "Pentium" instead of using "586"), those keys can still be protected just like the AACS keys used for HD DVD and Blu-ray content, and the encryption keys used on DVD Video.

[@davidstaffen6783]

You bring up games availablelity alot. But is there any statistics of how many of these games are available with piracy? Because it blows me away that somthing thats illegal does better to preserve games then the companies who own and want to profit off of them. Like rockstar had to use pirated versions of several games presumably because they lost the code. (That or total laziness twards anything thats not a new gta)

[@Magus12000BC]

15:14 That's true for physical games as well. You don't own the software, you just own the media that it's stored on. You're still subject to the same digital licensing than if you bought digital. Which is something streamers had to learn the hardway by Nintendo and Atlus. The only difference is your ability to access the software. But access does no equal ownership.

[@tupperz8564]

True software has always been for license use, but not having physical media makes it way easier for rights holders to exercise those rights.

[@starpowerel7172]

then the "illegal" way to do a thing is the best way to do that thing then something is clearly wrong

[@TrexelCat]

30:19 Clarification: Nintendo didn't shut down the Dolphin emulator on Steam because it's an emulator that can emulate their system(Note: Retroarch can use Nintendo cores, and was left alone), they shut down the emulator because the Steam version included the BIOS file that was required to run it. Just like with PS1 and PS2 emulators, the emulators are fine. The BIOS files for those systems are not.

[@WahRizz]

I knew dolphin used copyrighted code but i didnt know it was bios. Thanks for clarifying

[@XENON2028]

I thought it was because they have decryption keys in their code?

[@WahRizz]

@@XENON2028 oh you're probably right, I forgot what it was called for a while

[@angeldude101]

A bios "file" that was just a 16 byte key. A number somewhere between 10^36 and 10^39. When you really get down to it, every piece of digital media could be described as just really big individual numbers. And once it's been reduced to a single number or series of bytes, that number can be presented in a myriad of ways, including as an actual 5-color flag. The entire key can fit in this youtube comment dozens of times over in different forms. Remind me again how it's legal to copyright something like this? And in what forms is it copyrighted? All of them seems frankly ridiculous, but any of them can be easily converted to any other.

[@TrexelCat]

@@angeldude101 BIOS as a concept is used in all kinds of electronic gadgets, and your windows PC is one of those devices. BIOS is an acronym for Basic Input/Output System, and essentially facilitates the software to interface with the hardware at a low level. The BIOS is a much more closely kept secret by the hardware manufacturers, as it operates at the core of the machine. This is where the concept of an API (application programming interface) comes into play, which is basically a set of instructions and guidelines for compatibility between the software on the ROM chip in the cartridge, and the BIOS which exists in a chip in the console. In the early days the concept of an API was a lot more abstract, but the basic function is to obfuscate between the proprietary secret code that exists within the BIOS, and the "public" software code that exists on the cartridge. Yes, the end user paid money for the hardware with the BIOS embedded inside it, but not explicitly as an exclusive license to the proprietary code. In the early days, the BIOS was never public-facing, and generally did not contain an operating system, as an operating system is a layer above the bios, and it wasn't really a necessity in the days of cartridge based systems. So ultimately it comes down to proprietary low level vs publicly licensed higher level software. The Game software is also generally reliant on the BIOS to operate. Technically the BIOS would be written on a ROM chip inside the console, but that's just semantics as far as this debate goes. In Nintendo and Playstation consoles that utilize a BIOS, the proprietary decryption would also be handled by the BIOS, otherwise the game just won't start. Thus why without the BIOS file for said emulators, the games just won't start. At least one early PSX emulator I remember, functioned without the PSX Bios. But it was a really hacky setup and compatibility was a nightmare because of the various encryption used. Dolphin Steam provided that BIOS, ripped directly from the system, in their Steam version. But hey, if you can just mix and match them as you say, then use the PS2 BIOS file in a PSX emulator. Let me know how far that goes.

[@Kardfogu]

The "worst" thing about preservation is that old, high quality video games provide a different context to modern gaming. My mother a week ago asked "What do you have to pay for in Palworld?" because she got used to playing Pokemon Go that modern games always ask for money and it was so sad that her experience was that micro transactions are the norm... By itself, looking at the current market, it is the norm to release expensive, low quality games. In that context it "makes sense" to buy a bad game, since most games are bad and expensive. When we place these new "AAA" titles in the context of 30+ gaming it quickly shows that AAA gaming is lower quality and more expensive than ever, it makes more sense to just play older, better games that are also cheaper. You know, publishers don't like that context...

[@TevadoTime]

That Golden Boy moment you had with the bunny statue made a like and subscriber out of me. Lol 😂 would love see some more of that now and again!

[@resi4fan4ever]

Thumbs Up for Golden Boy. 👇

[@khfreak5531]

Emulation has become one of the only solid ways to preserve older games. I hate to give pirates credit. But they are the ones archiving these older games and keeping them alive.

[@sbr9598]

They are not pirates if it's the only source of owning this games. Most of these games are inside a subscription service or even are unavaliable to purchase today. It is impossible to get Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition for PC nowadays without downloading it in an abandonware website.

[@threadschanged4252]

I have more respect for pirates than i do for "fans" of companies that encourage people to grossly overpay for a product just to experience it in the morally objective way, no matter how much time has passed since release they keep access to those games alive and well for new players to explore and generate new interest

[@tacticalbondsh]

they deserve a ton of credit and and I'm more than happy to give it to them lol

[@PringleTheOne]

Man my dude your stuff is great, glad I found you! I'll definitely be sticking around. This video really tells my issue with digital games, Scott pilgrim is always my go 2 example of how a console can lose a game forever when you think about it

[@Kevstreehouse]

Totally agree. I had to snap that guy up on physical when it came out. Sadly even that's only a temp fix as eventually either the cart or my switch will breakdown no matter how kindly I look after them.

[@Snaaake_Beater]

at least scott pilgrim is back on ps4

[@MarioStorys]

Scott pilgrim video game got physical release on switch

[@majorfacepwn]

At one point you talk about internal clocks for your GameCube and PlayStation. Aren’t they powered by batteries? If I’m not mistaken, the one in the GameCube requires a bit of soldering and the PlayStation one can be replaced by opening it up and replacing it. I’ve done it for a few consoles so far

[@nonewmsgs]

the issue with GOG (although i do like them) is they buy the license for all ports ,but dont release every port. so they DMCA'd abandonware for all Questron II but the superior C64 version is now just unavailable. id even pay for it sans support. you can buy the DOS port from them but thats it.

[@Nicolas-we1ji]

"Piracy begins there, where good service ends" - Sigmund Freud (don't know who said it, but it's a good quote)

[@jumpman93LP]

11:10 that barking was fucking sick and absolutely needs to be in a hardcore song 😤

[@skunkmaid]

They may add games to the gamepass and other sub services, but you have to deal with the issue that it can be taken away without warning. Far easier to own an iso/rom and bootlegging it.

[@mastergreenfox6004]

Also, don't forget that even today there are people who cannot manage to play games without an emulator or pirated copies of games either because they don't have access to any of the conventional routes or there is just simply no other way to play the game at all anymore. As I have been learning more and more about the history of games it is incredibly unbelievable how much of it is just getting lost compared to other media. This kinda hurts me as someone who has wanted to make games my whole life.

[@sarakajira]

Talk about clickbait. Retro gaming is booming. People just download roms.

[@NotAGoodUsername360]

I remember I once did a RetroPie build for a university project. I had that thing connected to WiFi with a dongle and compatible with Bluetooth controllers and the whole thing ran on a USB3 charger.

[@Holyluckdan]

That's awesome 👌

[@Holyluckdan]

I love tech❤

[@pgtmr2713]

If you ever do it again, build it on/in a boombox. Pi4 will handle a lot of games w/RetroPie and Android on a separate USB because sometimes you want to watch movie with a cell phone hotspot. Pi5 will be hard to power fully, overclocked, and no headphone jack complicates things a little.

[@D9Beats]

You are so good at making videos. Please keep making them. One retro gamer to another, you are doing a great job!

[@Gigan75pcp]

The 1300 people that disliked this video are probably kids born after the year 2000 who don't understand the gravity of 2000s generation gaming or the corporate slobs that want to skew the entire industry to bullshit sales tactics.

[@spaghettiking7312]

The problem is that video games came up in a time where the mentality wasn't on preservation or longevity; it was about buying the next product frequently, and if products were damaged, one would simply buy another rather than repair or maintain. Video games are also entrenched in copyright, a much wider problem which has allowed companies to hold down independent rereleases.

[@Vanity0666]

That's an American Capitalism thing, everywhere else treats consumers with respect The copyright problem stems from the Napster v Metallica case in 03

[@spaghettiking7312]

@@Vanity0666 American capitalism thing? Video games have historically been more Japanese than American. Even today, two of the three first party companies are Japanese. These companies sell internationally. I don't see how their business model differs from Europe, to Asia, to America. It's not like if you bought a PS2 outside the US it would be more durable.

[@Vanity0666]

@@spaghettiking7312 no but the consumer culture would be more likely to take better care of their belongings rather than treat them as disposable

[@spaghettiking7312]

@@Vanity0666 These video game consoles weren't designed to last decades, even with good care. I've never been rich, so I've had to take care of my systems, but I'd be hardpressed to say they'd last my lifetime. I'm talking about the company mentality, not the consumer's.

[@Vanity0666]

@@spaghettiking7312 they were designed to be repaired and have parts replaced however, its a one inch hurdle

[@chadisnotachad]

Digital is the answer. The issue is that digital also requires a complete rebuild of the copyright system as well as heavy regulations to support consumer rights. None of that will ever happen, so digital is still the answer because sailing the high seas is stronger ownership than any digital storefront.

[@bootmii98]

We got that complete rebuild of the copyright system. We also got an anti-circumvention law.

[@FallingStar1080]

Digital takes up WAYYYYY too much space at this current time

[@RippahRooJizah]

All things in the video are the answer, not just digital.

[@MastaGambit]

@@FallingStar1080 Incorrect: Memory is cheap nowadays.

[@MastaGambit]

@@bootmii98 Citation needed

[@RichardHunke]

Thank you @GhostOfFreedom for great video content. The topic you selected really made me realize the importance of preservation, and never thought about video games having historical significance in the way you presented it. I totally support the idea of backing up and having a library of video game history and content.

[@tycham85]

18 mins in and I feel very vindicated with my decisions: jailbroke my 3DS to store/play all my GBA, DS and 3DS GAMES, jailbroke my Vita to play PSP and Vita games, downloaded all my Wii and WiiU purchases on my WiiU (don’t need jailbreak), have my PS3, PS4, PS5 and Switch hooked up, put EmuDeck on the SteamDeck for the rest, and lastly, got a jailbroken pinball machine to play pinball and arcade games. Boom!