Post by John Green on Jul 13, 2023 0:23:07 GMT
www.theguardian.com/games/2023/jul/12/pushing-buttons-playing-old-video-games
"The void is not unique to video games – there are books that are no longer published even in digital form, some films can only be watched on defunct formats, others disappear from streaming services mere months after release – but the scale of the video game void is unmatched in other media. According to the report, less than 5% of games from the Commodore 64 are still available today. The 13% availability rate of classic video games is one percentage point less than that of American silent films. As the foundation’s co-director Frank Cifaldi tweeted: “Nine out of 10 classic video games are no longer available to consumers, and that number is unlikely to get any better. It’s practically guaranteed that something you grew up with is gone, for ever.
The reasons for the vacuum are myriad – and slightly tedious. The technology for distributing books and films is straightforward and mostly unchanging. By contrast, every video game system is different, so bringing, say, a Spectrum game to a PlayStation 5 requires various acts of technological reshaping. There may be question of expired licenses (both the Xbox’s joyous OutRun 2 and the Dreamcast’s solemn Ferrari 355 Challenge were based on expensive and time-limited authorisations from the Italian carmaker). And, while some major game companies like EA have archivists dedicated to collecting their teams’ art materials and source code, the video game industry has always failed to properly recognise and celebrate its past. Sega reportedly lost the source code for one of its most celebrated and difficult-to-find Saturn games, Panzer Dragoon Saga, leaving anyone who wants to play the game to slink off to eBay, where, grief-stricken, they will have to pay a minimum of £500 for the privilege."
"The void is not unique to video games – there are books that are no longer published even in digital form, some films can only be watched on defunct formats, others disappear from streaming services mere months after release – but the scale of the video game void is unmatched in other media. According to the report, less than 5% of games from the Commodore 64 are still available today. The 13% availability rate of classic video games is one percentage point less than that of American silent films. As the foundation’s co-director Frank Cifaldi tweeted: “Nine out of 10 classic video games are no longer available to consumers, and that number is unlikely to get any better. It’s practically guaranteed that something you grew up with is gone, for ever.
The reasons for the vacuum are myriad – and slightly tedious. The technology for distributing books and films is straightforward and mostly unchanging. By contrast, every video game system is different, so bringing, say, a Spectrum game to a PlayStation 5 requires various acts of technological reshaping. There may be question of expired licenses (both the Xbox’s joyous OutRun 2 and the Dreamcast’s solemn Ferrari 355 Challenge were based on expensive and time-limited authorisations from the Italian carmaker). And, while some major game companies like EA have archivists dedicated to collecting their teams’ art materials and source code, the video game industry has always failed to properly recognise and celebrate its past. Sega reportedly lost the source code for one of its most celebrated and difficult-to-find Saturn games, Panzer Dragoon Saga, leaving anyone who wants to play the game to slink off to eBay, where, grief-stricken, they will have to pay a minimum of £500 for the privilege."
