Plague von Karma
Banned deucer.
So this is a topic somewhat intertwined with my Game Collecting thread, but it's a large enough topic that directly affects more than just collectors, so I thought I'd make a thread of its own. I'm part of the Videogame Heritage Society (VHS) here in the UK and have historically contributed a few tidbits to online game preservation - specifically old Pokemon media and a few prototypes - and find this topic to be of increasing importance in the modern era. Gaming is, and always will be, an art form, and enthusiasts naturally want to keep that alive.
Game preservation is the topic of, well, preserving games. This is most often done digitally, so it naturally involves some form of piracy. While some think it aims to achieve the unattainable goal of preserving all media, I'd disagree; it's more about minimising harm done to video game heritage caused by poor company management and the like.
There are numerous problems in the video game "sphere" that lead to video game cartridges and discs dying, or worse, becoming what many call "Lost Media", though this is a somewhat larger topic. Problems include a lack of re-releases by companies, disc rot, unsustainable distribution methods, online-only games, hardware obsolescence, bad actors, storage media drawbacks, and so on. I could discuss all of these for hours on end, honestly. These all boil down to making games quite scarce and, ergo, screw things up for everyone. It's difficult for people to actually get to play some games "legitimately", which also hurts developers that aim to use older games for inspiration. A prime example of game preservation issues that became a big scare for members of the Pokemon community would be the lifespan of DS/3DS cartridges, which have been found to eventually just die off due to their poor production. While minor fixes exist for 3DS cartridges at the very least, this was a pretty big scare and has, realistically, put a decade of Pokemon's history on a timer. Another famous example is the Satellaview, a Japanese adapter for the SNES that would broadcast games for people to play week-by-week. Because of the unsustainable format, numerous games that were sent out on this device have become Lost Media, with very few turning up since its heyday.
Game companies have made some effort to preserve video game heritage, though it's not excellent. Backwards compatability has become increasingly difficult with the advancements of game consoles and technology in general, resulting in the obsolescence of the memory readers a console uses. Re-releases of games are often limited due to a myriad of complications such as copyright, not having access to the ROM, or a (very arguable) lack of profitability. Some companies are even fervently opposed to communities preserving their games, most notably Nintendo, which many have noted has only decreased its online library of games since the Wii, with a steep decrease in library size despite what should be server improvements. The idea of what game companies should do to aid game preservation is a complex topic that I find to be one of the more intriguing subjects to discuss.
It is difficult to solve the game preservation question, as there is no truly "infinite" forms of storage media. There will always be something that goes kaput. You could make the ultimate digital archive and a plane crash could ruin it within an hour. Thus, as mentioned, the aim is to produce long-term solutions that ensure even the most obscure titles are protected in a way that ensures they keep existing. From a physical perspective, all I can really do is simple condition maintenance with the games I own, ensuring that the elements don't degrade the storage media or whatever connectors they use. I normally do this by purchasing reproduction game boxes to put my cartridge/disc-only games in, which also comes with the bonus of making them expendable display pieces. It's not too expensive to do this either, with the store I get these from (GoBoxIt) giving me great prices. Physical game preservation isn't really about preventing them from going "uh oh I'm dead" but ensuring they survive for years to come.
However the most common digital answer to the game preservation question, due to game companies making a minimal effort to solve the problem themselves, has been piracy. While something of a taboo in the gaming community, it is reasonable to understand how and why this became the most popular answer. The libraries on modern digital storefronts are just not very good, often lacking even cult classic titles due to the issues I presented before. This can be plainly seen with Nintendo's shutdown of its greatest one: the Wii Shop Channel, which was one of the only good storefronts for TurboGrafx-16 and Mega Drive titles for a long time, and Nintendo has simply not surpassed it since. Ergo, the only answer that doesn't involve piracy for many old games is buying the original hardware and game, which isn't financially viable for so many people. It is difficult for the average gamer to justify purchasing retro game consoles and games - which can occasionally be very overpriced, eg. NeoGeo - and with what can be a complete lack of alternatives provided by the company, piracy ends up being the only viable solution. Purchasing these consoles and games from the aftermarket does nothing to benefit the companies that made them - it's all resale, after all - which makes piracy and the "good" act of buying the original products the same in practice, only one burns a hole in the average person's wallet. To quote Gabe Newell: piracy is an issue of service.
Game preservation is a topic of preserving the history aspect, which thus comes into preserving advertising and the like. I've personally done quite a bit in this department, obtaining old magazines that contain development history information that was lost to time. My most notable contributions in this department would be MicroGroup Game Review Volume 14 and CoroCoro Comic's November and December 1996 issues, which contained information on GSC and RBY's development, respectively. Previously, these had poor translations and criminally bad scans, which made them virtually useless. I ended up purchasing the issues myself and submitting high-res scans to The Cutting Room Floor, which have since been thoroughly documented; you can find the MicroGroup Game Review entry here, and the CoroCoro Comic entry here. My About page also has some further details and download links. I've done various other minor things, but none are anywhere near as notable as those.
I could go on for years about this whole debacle, but I'm interested in what people here think. I may post random rants on various subjects here too.
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