3 ms·

One consideration is that some games implement checksums and other copy protection measures to detect if they've been copied, and then refuse to run - or appear

One consideration is that some games implement checksums and other copy protection measures to detect if they've been copied, and then refuse to run - or appear to run normally at first but sneakily punish the player. Preserving these games in a playable format necessarily means you have to defeat the copy protection. I have to imagine that it looks bad to do this even when you have noble intentions.

yurishimo 4y ago
I think the number of games that include player punishment is astonishingly small. The more prescient threat is DRM and server only experiences. So many games will never be experienced again after the servers are turned off. I think it’s the community’s job to lobby game publishers to release source code for games and severs if they are sunsetted forever. Convincing the corporate world to let go of IP before copyright expires will be tough, but we’re naïeve to believe that these companies will still have intact source code in 50 years. Hard drives fail, cloud buckets get abandoned and then the bill doesn’t get paid, etc etc. It’s not looking super optimistic for game archival, but there is _a path_ forward to improve the situation.
- MegaDeKay 4y ago
  > I think it’s the community’s job to lobby game publishers to release source code for games and severs Very very unlikely (unfortunately), especially for outfits like Nintendo. As long as there are eShops and remasters, there is the opportunity to cash in on old IP. And getting source code for games is one thing - getting the assets are another. Even for the example of Doom that is everywhere, only the shareware assets were set free. For consoles, emulation and reverse engineering are probably the best and likely only way forward IMHO.
- coldpie 4y ago
  > I think the number of games that include player punishment is astonishingly small. This is true, but they're fun to read about! https://tcrf.net/Category:Games_with_anti-piracy_methods https://tcrf.net/Category:Games_with_anti-piracy_methods
- Aeolun 4y ago
  > I think the number of games that include player punishment is astonishingly small. I remember Game Dev Tycoon released a ‘hacked’ copy of their own game to torrent sites in which you’d always eventually lose due to ‘losing sales due to pirating’, but that’s the only instance I remember. Did much older games do similar things?
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    Some but it's pretty rare. Earthbound spawns more and more enemies when it detects a legit version isn't being played and will break on the final boss if you make it that far. It's a bit more common on home computer games I think because the barrier to copying a floppy or CD is much lower than a cart but it's still a lot of effort to add.

yurishimo 4y ago

I think the number of games that include player punishment is astonishingly small. The more prescient threat is DRM and server only experiences. So many games will never be experienced again after the servers are turned off. I think it’s the community’s job to lobby game publishers to release source code for games and severs if they are sunsetted forever. Convincing the corporate world to let go of IP before copyright expires will be tough, but we’re naïeve to believe that these companies will still have intact source code in 50 years. Hard drives fail, cloud buckets get abandoned and then the bill doesn’t get paid, etc etc. It’s not looking super optimistic for game archival, but there is _a path_ forward to improve the situation.

MegaDeKay 4y ago
> I think it’s the community’s job to lobby game publishers to release source code for games and severs Very very unlikely (unfortunately), especially for outfits like Nintendo. As long as there are eShops and remasters, there is the opportunity to cash in on old IP. And getting source code for games is one thing - getting the assets are another. Even for the example of Doom that is everywhere, only the shareware assets were set free. For consoles, emulation and reverse engineering are probably the best and likely only way forward IMHO.
coldpie 4y ago
> I think the number of games that include player punishment is astonishingly small. This is true, but they're fun to read about! https://tcrf.net/Category:Games_with_anti-piracy_methods https://tcrf.net/Category:Games_with_anti-piracy_methods
Aeolun 4y ago
> I think the number of games that include player punishment is astonishingly small. I remember Game Dev Tycoon released a ‘hacked’ copy of their own game to torrent sites in which you’d always eventually lose due to ‘losing sales due to pirating’, but that’s the only instance I remember. Did much older games do similar things?
- goosedragons 4y ago
  Some but it's pretty rare. Earthbound spawns more and more enemies when it detects a legit version isn't being played and will break on the final boss if you make it that far. It's a bit more common on home computer games I think because the barrier to copying a floppy or CD is much lower than a cart but it's still a lot of effort to add.