5 ms·

I am interested but not enough to pay over $1000. I actually hope that some (well all) of this code makes it to the computer history museum.

kevin_b_er 8y ago
If rare video game market is anything like I think it is, this will disappear into a jealous "private collector". You'll never ever see the source code because they feel that dumping or providing digital copies of the disks would degrade the value of their collection. And public suffers just a little more under greed and selfishness.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  > And public suffers just a little more under greed and selfishness. I don't know if "I don't have a copy of King's Quest 3 source code" counts as suffering.
  - subway 8y ago
    The public suffers anytime knowledge is lost.
    - gisely 8y ago
      Will the public suffer from not knowing what this comment said a century from now?
      - all2 8y ago
        Yes. Already massive amounts of data have been lost to the grind of technology forging 'forward'. As we lose the information, we lose context, and without context 'facts' about the past begin to lose meaning to the present reader. History, and the stories we have, is/are mankind's most important asset. Without the context of our past as a species, we lose the ability to navigate into the future effectively (without crossing into unfortunate places again, like world war, or slavery, etc.). We have nothing but stories. Without those, we are nothing.
        SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
        I think that raises an interesting problem - if you want to look back 1000 years the sources are scarce, and largely composed of the thoughts of the educated or the wealthy - people who could read and write and store these items. 500 years from now we're going to be faced with a totally different problem - if a user wants to learn about the year 2018 where do they start? Official documents will appear to be stored beside the thoughts of Kardashians besides trolls. It'll be very hard to parse through any information to get an actual sense of what was happening. I mean, it's the same problem, using the primary sources to try and figure out the truth, but it'll be the opposite problem as we have now.
        akkartik 8y ago
        https://www.amazon.com/Glasshouse-Charles-Stross/dp/0441015085 https://www.amazon.com/Glasshouse-Charles-Stross/dp/04410150... describes a different problem. In the 27th century the 21st century is considered a dark age not because anything particularly bad happened but just because data archival technology took a big step back. Early storage media were far more fragile than paper.
        BillyBreen 8y ago
        I was hoping someone would reference that. One of my favorite Stross books, and a decade since reading it I frequently think back to it and worry about this mass of data we’re creating and obsoleting each year.
        SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
        > Early storage media were far more fragile than paper. That's true, but on a timeline of human history that's a pretty brief window and there was a lot of distrust in the medium at that time. We're going to have ~30 years where they have to rely on the old methodologies still, but the 20th century is a whole new ball game. They won't be able to retrieve circa 2000 floppy disks, no, but I feel like a lot of what's been around for the last decade is going to probably stick around.
        8y ago
      - code_duck 8y ago
        The public would benefit slightly from having the comment as part of the complete conversation, so yes.
      - pdpi 8y ago
        This comment in isolation? Maybe not. This whole conversation? It's certainly informative — from it, you can read a lot into the feelings about conservationism within this community. There's some form of value to be had from that.
      - behringer 8y ago
        Yes. A lot can be gained from reading any projects source code. This stuff is just as valuable today as it was when it was written. A programmer would learn a lot by reading this source code.
    - afarah 8y ago
      Such as with IP law.
    - lscotte 8y ago
      But this is property, not knowledge...
      - insulanus 8y ago
        Well, this is both property and knowledge. I'd argue that the information content is more "real", since information is a real property of things in the universe. Property is a (useful) abstraction that humans have collectively agreed on, so that people don't get clubbed as often as in the past.
  - laythea 8y ago
    Agree. Context, people. First world suffering at best.
- yellowapple 8y ago
  Is there a non-profit that would be willing to buy this stuff specifically for archival purposes if a bunch of folks pooled their money to that effect?
  - TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
    Frank Cifaldi and the Video Game archive do a lot of preservation work. https://gamehistory.org/ https://gamehistory.org/

kevin_b_er 8y ago

If rare video game market is anything like I think it is, this will disappear into a jealous "private collector". You'll never ever see the source code because they feel that dumping or providing digital copies of the disks would degrade the value of their collection. And public suffers just a little more under greed and selfishness.

SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
> And public suffers just a little more under greed and selfishness. I don't know if "I don't have a copy of King's Quest 3 source code" counts as suffering.
- subway 8y ago
  The public suffers anytime knowledge is lost.
  - gisely 8y ago
    Will the public suffer from not knowing what this comment said a century from now?
    - all2 8y ago
      Yes. Already massive amounts of data have been lost to the grind of technology forging 'forward'. As we lose the information, we lose context, and without context 'facts' about the past begin to lose meaning to the present reader. History, and the stories we have, is/are mankind's most important asset. Without the context of our past as a species, we lose the ability to navigate into the future effectively (without crossing into unfortunate places again, like world war, or slavery, etc.). We have nothing but stories. Without those, we are nothing.
      - SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
        I think that raises an interesting problem - if you want to look back 1000 years the sources are scarce, and largely composed of the thoughts of the educated or the wealthy - people who could read and write and store these items. 500 years from now we're going to be faced with a totally different problem - if a user wants to learn about the year 2018 where do they start? Official documents will appear to be stored beside the thoughts of Kardashians besides trolls. It'll be very hard to parse through any information to get an actual sense of what was happening. I mean, it's the same problem, using the primary sources to try and figure out the truth, but it'll be the opposite problem as we have now.
        akkartik 8y ago
        https://www.amazon.com/Glasshouse-Charles-Stross/dp/0441015085 https://www.amazon.com/Glasshouse-Charles-Stross/dp/04410150... describes a different problem. In the 27th century the 21st century is considered a dark age not because anything particularly bad happened but just because data archival technology took a big step back. Early storage media were far more fragile than paper.
        BillyBreen 8y ago
        I was hoping someone would reference that. One of my favorite Stross books, and a decade since reading it I frequently think back to it and worry about this mass of data we’re creating and obsoleting each year.
        SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
        > Early storage media were far more fragile than paper. That's true, but on a timeline of human history that's a pretty brief window and there was a lot of distrust in the medium at that time. We're going to have ~30 years where they have to rely on the old methodologies still, but the 20th century is a whole new ball game. They won't be able to retrieve circa 2000 floppy disks, no, but I feel like a lot of what's been around for the last decade is going to probably stick around.
        8y ago
    - code_duck 8y ago
      The public would benefit slightly from having the comment as part of the complete conversation, so yes.
    - pdpi 8y ago
      This comment in isolation? Maybe not. This whole conversation? It's certainly informative — from it, you can read a lot into the feelings about conservationism within this community. There's some form of value to be had from that.
    - behringer 8y ago
      Yes. A lot can be gained from reading any projects source code. This stuff is just as valuable today as it was when it was written. A programmer would learn a lot by reading this source code.
  - afarah 8y ago
    Such as with IP law.
  - lscotte 8y ago
    But this is property, not knowledge...
    - insulanus 8y ago
      Well, this is both property and knowledge. I'd argue that the information content is more "real", since information is a real property of things in the universe. Property is a (useful) abstraction that humans have collectively agreed on, so that people don't get clubbed as often as in the past.
- laythea 8y ago
  Agree. Context, people. First world suffering at best.
yellowapple 8y ago
Is there a non-profit that would be willing to buy this stuff specifically for archival purposes if a bunch of folks pooled their money to that effect?
- TarpitCarnivore 8y ago
  Frank Cifaldi and the Video Game archive do a lot of preservation work. https://gamehistory.org/ https://gamehistory.org/