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I find it a little sad that most modern computing will be lost to time. Early console games were easily self contained systems, and lent themselves well to emu

I find it a little sad that most modern computing will be lost to time. Early console games were easily self contained systems, and lent themselves well to emulation. Today's consoles are towers of complexity that will likely never be emulated. At best compatibility layers will be built into future systems to interoperate, the likely result is that the classics of today will continue to hobble along on a dwindling number of devices. At worst, a corporation loses interest and all their consoles immediately turn into expensive paperweights.

korethr 12y ago
I disagree. It's easy today to think of the consoles of yesteryear as simple self contained systems (A 6502-based CPU? How quaint!). However, Consider the unholy trinity that was the Sega Genesis/Master System/CD/32X. Though no longer modern, that absolutely is a tower of complexity, especially when it was brand new. The emulators of the game consoles of the past exist today because some hacker got curious and interested. Complexity certainly isn't stopping emulator devs. The Wii was more complex than the Gamecube, which was more complex than the N64, which was more complex than the SNES, which was more complex than the NES. And yet there are emulators available for all of those systems. What is different today that would prevent an enterprising hacker tomorrow from making emulators of today's consoles?
- lloeki 12y ago
  > What is different today that would prevent an enterprising hacker tomorrow from making emulators of today's consoles? Not a sliver of hope of access to the server-side runtime of cloud-assisted† games? † not full-scale MMOs but Diablo III, Starcraft II, Destiny, even Guild Wars...
  - abricot 12y ago
    If they follow the example of Ultima Online they certainly will live on forever. In many some though, they will be replaced with full conversions that gets even more popular than the original.

korethr 12y ago

I disagree. It's easy today to think of the consoles of yesteryear as simple self contained systems (A 6502-based CPU? How quaint!). However, Consider the unholy trinity that was the Sega Genesis/Master System/CD/32X. Though no longer modern, that absolutely is a tower of complexity, especially when it was brand new. The emulators of the game consoles of the past exist today because some hacker got curious and interested. Complexity certainly isn't stopping emulator devs. The Wii was more complex than the Gamecube, which was more complex than the N64, which was more complex than the SNES, which was more complex than the NES. And yet there are emulators available for all of those systems. What is different today that would prevent an enterprising hacker tomorrow from making emulators of today's consoles?

lloeki 12y ago
> What is different today that would prevent an enterprising hacker tomorrow from making emulators of today's consoles? Not a sliver of hope of access to the server-side runtime of cloud-assisted† games? † not full-scale MMOs but Diablo III, Starcraft II, Destiny, even Guild Wars...
- abricot 12y ago
  If they follow the example of Ultima Online they certainly will live on forever. In many some though, they will be replaced with full conversions that gets even more popular than the original.