#game preservation

[wuwubean]

DOUBLE EDIT (original post and first edit below): idk why this is still getting notes. The tweet was a joke I didn’t get, and nothing bad ended up happening with Unity. The crisis has been averted. Unity still sucks though, Godot all the way.

Okay hold on with the Unity thing. Hopefully this change will be stopped, but if not we need to start archiving everything NOW.

Cult of the Lamb won’t be the only one. Hundreds if not thousands of games might be deleted. Years of gaming history, lost forever because people can’t afford this change. This is almost as bad as the Adobe Flash shutdown.

I’m going to be honest, I have absolutely no clue how to go about this. But if anyone does, please organize something. We only have 3 and a half months to do this.

EDIT: The above tweet screenshot ended up being a joke (three cheers for autism), but the fact still remains that a bunch of games will still be pulled of steam, especially the smaller ones that only barely hit the revenue mark for being charged.

[stopkillinggames]

Attention to Irish citizens

We are now at 9064 for Ireland and only need 101 signatures now, please sign and share, we are at the final line, keep it up.

[hardcore-gaming-101]

The Video Game History Foundation recently put together an absolutely fascinating video on the lost stages of the Sega classic Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It includes partial recreations of some of those cut levels, which have never been seen before. Definitely worth a look!

[lena--beana]

Being a game collector is so weird bc you tell your friends "hey have you seen this thing, it's one of my favorite things ever and if you want to try it you either have to hang out at my place for a week or emulate it which is always morally correct but there's like a 10% chance it won't play exactly right or buy it secondhand on ebay for $200 more than I did when I found it decaying on a gamestop shelf 15 years ago and you can only play it on the PS2 because that disc doesn't work on anything modern if it still even works at all"

but with movies it's like "hey have you seen Space Jam? It's an hour and a half, I've got it on DVD or we can rent it on five different streaming sites for like $5"

[impatient-traveler]

I realize a lot of the current fandom came to the game after several patches or several *years* since release. So a lot of you might not know the history and how things used to be different.

Now, I personally have very strong feelings about the direction in which FFXV was taken post-launch, but this isn't the point of this post.

The point is to maybe make some newer people in the fandom realize that things used to be very different and hopefully make some of you guys learn something cool about a game you love.

FFXV had several core philosophies that were new, and brave, and really cool, and some of them ended up backfiring really badly. It endeavored to be a multimedia project (the multitude of associated media wasn't just "they weren't able to fit it in the game"!). It was intended to be a live service game (which feels very disconnected from the meaning of that term now, but it was already pretty weird at the time. Tabata, the game's director, seemed to have a very different idea of what it meant from the rest of the world, and to him it meant free monthly updates for multiple years alongside paid DLC). It also was intended to take the players' feedback into account in order to become the best game it could be. That's why we got a huge poll asking for what to add to the game, and that's why a ton of changes were made to the game's main story and content after release. That's also why the original experience is nearly lost to time now.

The initial few patches were mostly a continuation of the game's development. Stuff the devs hadn't managed to do in time or that they thought needed to be better. As time went on, though, more and more updates were made that changed the game's identity in significant ways.

One of the major ideas behind FFXV's storytelling was that it was always intended to be subjective. The main game was Noct's story. You had main characters leaving, you had a lot of things not being explained, a lot of stuff you had to piece together from scraps of info. You were intended to experience the story the way Noctis did. The DLC and other media were supposed to fill those gaps for you. What happened in Insomnia while we were gone? What did the other party members get up to while they weren't with us? You were supposed to get this information from different narrators, different viewpoints.

Think about it. Noctis is only twenty, he was never explicitly told what his destiny would involve, he was never taught how to do this. He's confused, he's terrified, he's just trying to keep going one step at a time through most of the game. It was immersive and impactful when you shared some of those feelings as a player.

The information was there. In other media (Kingsglaive, Brotherhood, A Kings's Tale, Parting Ways, Platinum Demo, eventually all the DLC), but also in little scraps around the game's world. Radio transmissions, Cosmogony books, scraps of newspapers and documents, the environmental storytelling of the nights creeping into your days, the ruined walls of Zegnautus Keep. It was in the context. The subtext. The cross-referencing and theory crafting we, the fandom, did.

You would be surprised just how much of the lore added in DLC and updates elicited no reaction from us back then. It was "duh". It was things we already knew. Things we'd pieced together, discussed, and written fics for months in advance.

Then the Internet did its thing and the loudest voices the devs could hear were the people who didn't love the game, who didn't want to put in the effort, who didn't want to think about it too hard. And instead of only affecting the subsequent content, it also changed the game we used to know.

The random interactable lore dumps they added to many locations with no explanation or reason to be there. The bestiary and character infos (which is a great feature but contributes to making players wait for lore to be fed to them rather than think for themselves). The horrible, disgusting powerpoint presentation they inserted into the middle of the Shiva conversation on the train that just pauses mid-dialogue to offer you an extensive infodump and then continues as if that never happened. There's a lot of things like this.

Did you know the original Ch13 was a horror game? The Ring's spells were tuned in such a way that they incentivised sneaking. It wasn't even mandatory then, you could still bruteforce your way through just by learning the simple counter timing for the Ring. But until you did, you got a precious few minutes of feeling terrified of the MTs patrolling the corridors. People complained that it "took you out of the action" and "interrupted the pace". Oh, do you mean how Noctis was INTERRUPTED by suddenly being all alone, in an unknown, hostile place, trying to rush to save his friend but not get himself killed? It was impactful. It was memorable. Now ch13 feels like a bad joke, Ardyn's attempts at taunts triggering a minute late when you've already moved on from the corpses of the MTs he's warning you about.

Do you know how it felt when Insomnia was a quarter of its current game size and had barely any content? It was rushed, yes. But that was the tragedy of it. The reason why it was so successful at conveying how this felt to Noctis, to the others who'd been waiting for him for a decade. To be reunited only to die. To be robbed of all your freedom in favor of playing the role you were meant for.

Did you realize the entire boss rush at the end is a Royal Edition addition? It's too long. It feels disjointed and at odds with the mood of the story. You're supposed to feel helpless. You're supposed to despair. Instead you get each party member delivering an over-the-top finisher move while yelling extremely cheesy and out of character lines about how much they love their friend. We always knew how much they loved him. It was in their presence. In their willingness to die for him. In the way they didn't look away when they knew they were about to lose him. In the stilted dialogue and awkward attempts at humor, trying to recapture their lost innocence.

This game used to punch you in the gut as it ended. It used to make you feel like you were watching a dear friend walk to his death and had to live with that, with the knowledge that for all its injustice and cruelty, this was "for the best".

Go out. Get the 1.0 mod (which I was consulted for as the person who actually played the old versions and resident modding community grandma but did not touch any of the actual mod making). Get an old disk copy for your console. See this game at its strongest. Experience the version of the story that forces you to grapple with the tragedy and doesn't sugarcoat or distract you from the ugly parts.

[talism4niac]

Actually you know what, here's a Megathread of the folks behind Project Dragon / Everhaven

I figured the least I could do is highlight as many people as I can that had involvement with the project and has posted their work. If there's anyone that I missed please DM and I'll be sure to update this when I can! Go and show these folks some love! </3

Nicholas Kole : Portfolio | Twitter | Instagram

Airborn Studios : Artstation | Twitter

Ines Marsal : Twitter

Camille Peyrebere : Twitter

Leslie Van den Broeck : Artstation

Chloé Labbé : Twitter

Janneke Bruijnes : Twitter

Malte Sturm : Twitter

Andrea Orioli : Twitter

Charlène Le Scanff : Twitter | Artstation

Julien Allard : Twitter

Lucas St. Martin : Twitter | Instagram | Artstation

Andy Hansen : Twitter | Artstation

Florian Coudray : Twitter | Artstation

Malwina Czech (Mawluna) : Twitter

Joey Vergara : Twitter -Game Designer

Mel Ramsden : Twitter -Game Designer

Shaan Joshi : Twitter -Game Developer

Bethany Higa : Twitter -Narrative Designer

Dave Huddleston : Linkedin -Lead Animator

Cris Velasco : Twitter -Composer

Hunter Howe : Twitter -Director

Michael vicente - Orb : Twitter -3D Artist

[the-nightmare-of-fabrication]

im begging you to see piracy and cracking as a viable alternative to traditional forms of distribution. like there was some lego dimensions video that was like "THIS GAME IS UNPLAYABLE" and its just like... its literally right there, im starting at it in an archive i can download for free.

this isnt even just a "you get the thing cheap" argument, its an art preservation argument, for years i believed that i would never be able to play panzer dragoon saga because the sega saturn is super duper impossible to emulate, but then i did it in an afternoon and put the game in my top 10 years later.

like we have the power to actually preserve art history. like i just kind of hate that genre of youtube video or whatever thats just like "YOULL NEVER BE ABLE TO PLAY THIS GAME". obvious exception of observing the dire state of official releases like the VGHF thing, but like, the completionist downloading every 3ds game on SD cards is not preservation.

everyone owns lego dimensions dipshit, it came free with your fucking having an internet connection.

[girlymobilegamearchive]

Welcome to the Girly Games Archive!

Home of defunct mobile games with a girly esthetic! Here you will find installation instructions and downloads. I, in most cases have not found these games sitting on old phones and such but instead have gathered them from around the internet and posted them here for your convivence. Every game has been personally tested by me on either an Android 7 or Android 14 device and has a paragraph about what to look out for when playing. I'm sorry IOS users but I have no way of testing or obtaining any apps for you. Android only.

Franchises We Have Games For:

Ever After High

Monster High

Barbie

My Little Pony

Hello Kitty

Mafa/Helen Dress Up

Installation Guides:

Apk/Xapk Installation

Getting an Emulator For Windows

Before You Request/ Ask if We Have A Game:

Is it Server Based?

Do We Already Know About It?

Is it Still On the Appstore?

[wjbs-aus]

"Oh I played this game a lot as a kid, I really miss it": a post about how to find basically every game you might have played in the past that you want to play again now (though there's going to be some gaps).

Ok so picture this; years ago, when you were smaller, you played, right, a videogame on the computer. But then, years later, you got larger and lost access to that game because it's on your parent(s)' computer or a friend you're no longer in contact with had it, or the first thing happened to your friend. You want to play this game again, but for some reason you believe you can't.

But you can.

Method 1: order a physical game disk.

Go online and buy the disk. Physical media forever. This can be expensive depending on the game.

Method 2: look it up on Steam.

Go on Steam (or really most digital storefronts, though Steam got there first I think and therefore has the most games; if you're venturing outside Steam, GOG might be your best bet, unless there's like a boycott against GOG in which case never mind). They have Spore! And like most if not all of the Lego games, including the original Lego Star Wars games! Wanna play Peggle? It's on Steam, for basically nothing (though some other Popcap games aren't on there)! But what if the game you want isn't on Steam, and is too expensive to get physically? Well, that's where you need to look into...

Method 3: Abandonware

Wikipedia defines Abandonware as "... a product, typically software, ignored by its owner and manufacturer, which can no longer be found for sale, and for which no official support is available and cannot be bought." This website is probably your best bet (it's literally called "My Abandonware"), and if you want some older and/or more obscure Lego games, they have those! You don't even have to restrict it to games you played in the past. Wanna check out that 2009 Wolfenstein reboot now that it's having a bit of a critical re-evaluation? It's on there! Fan of Deus Ex who likes the concept of "filing the serial numbers off"? Check out Project Snowblind, a game that was intended to have been a Deus Ex spinoff but had to be changed! Hate yourself? Check out Limbo of the Lost or Neuro! Even the Popcap games that aren't on Steam! Hell, there's console stuff there, if you're into emulation. The only downside is that the number of games is fairly limited (only around 30000), and according to the main page, the cutoff in terms of years is 2012.

Method 4: 🏴‍☠️🦜⛵☠️🪝🐳

Yeah I can't help you with this one, other than this advice; do not use The Pirate Bay, apparently it's gone all virusy, go somewhere else for that stuff.

Ok that's it bye~

[bokujou-monogatari]

Hey there, it's been a while.

Recently, I just acquired a game disc from December 16th, 1999.

Initially, I thought the disc was a dvd before I looked into the file structure. It's actually a PS2 demo disc.

On said disc is a demo of a number of games to be released that year, including Bokujou Monogatari Harvest Moon (Localized as Back to Nature). There are videos for the games, developer interviews, and more importantly - playable demos for the games featured. My problem is that I haven't been able to get it to work. The seller confirmed operation on a Japanese PS2. If there's anyone out there experienced with making this type of thing operational long enough to get the media preserved, please message me. :)

[splinkoplinko]

Things I don't like about Nintendo:

Making games impossible to play again (Vimm's Lair getting raided by a bunch of companies including Nintendo, online stores getting shut down by Nintendo, more than one subscription required for some NSO Virtual Consoles like Genesis, N64, and GBA, lack of regional translations and ports, etc.)

Taking down fan creations (fan games, mods, music remixes, gameplay videos, etc.)

Putting limits on the monetization of tournaments featuring their games (https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/63433/~/community-tournament-guidelines)

Shutting down online services for consoles that are still very popular and used frequently (3DS getting shut down recently.)

The Switch and a few of the more recent games on it being not that great (Pokemon especially, I'm pretty sure the Wii ran better and it's almost 17 years old.)

Now I know that Nintendo isn't the only one that does this. Microsoft, Sega, and Sony aren't that great with their older games (though some of those are better than others), but Nintendo is much worse and much more strict. Sega doesn't even make consoles anymore, and modding isn't as popular on PlayStation and Xbox platforms due to it being tricky, but their games that are on PC have had plenty of mods, and the companies have no issue with them. I've heard the Xbox Series X/S isn't too good, same with the PS5, though I haven't noticed whenever I used my friend's consoles, and I have an Xbox 1 and PS4. The consoles are also definitely better than their previous gens, which is hard to say with the Switch (hot take, I prefer the Wii U 💀).

[stopkillinggames]

Welcome to the stop killing games tumblr account (community run btw) I will try what I can to reach to the community here and try to get the signatures we need for the EU petition, if you are an EU citizen and of voting age, you can sign it.

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

[persephinae]

U.S. Copyright Office Presses 'Pause' on DMCA Exemption for Video Games

By Lydia Leung, LLB | Last updated on November 08, 2024

When we think of a library, we picture never-ending shelves of books; the world's knowledge available to us at the touch of a finger. But nowadays, it's not just physical records that libraries collect. Many now lend video games to their members, providing their local communities with entertainment while helping preserve the software for future generations.

The recent decision by the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) to reject an exemption to the DMCA for video games in libraries' collections has put that practice into question. The decision prevents video games from being accessed remotely by researchers. While some in the games industry view this ruling as a win for rights holders, others see it as a major setback for arts research, especially compared to researchers in other fields with "routine and regular access" to digital archives.

What Is The DMCA?

Passed in 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) brought the U.S. in line with treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), updating copyright law for the digital age. Section 1201 of the DMCA criminalizes the "circumvention of copyright protection systems" that prevent unauthorized access to copyrighted works, such as reading encrypted optical discs or removing copy restrictions from electronic documents.

Exemptions are made for some uses, including for nonprofit libraries, archives and educational institutions (section 1201(d)), as long as a "good faith" determination is made. Libraries are permitted to create digital copies of obsolete works for purpose of preservation, but those works must not be commercially available for a "reasonable price" and can only be accessed onsite.

The Petition

The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) has been working with the Software Preservation Network (SPN) since 2021 on a petition to the U.S. Copyright Office, proposing that the DMCA digital copying exemption be expanded to allow access to games outside of the physical premises of an institution. A study published by the VGHF in July 2023 estimated that 87% of video games released in the US before 2010 are "critically endangered" and inaccessible, being out of print in either physical or digital form. Options to play classic games are limited as many require vintage hardware or are no longer available on a digital storefront, potentially pushing consumers and researchers towards piracy as the most convenient means of access.

The petition's main argument is framed from the perspective of fair use: works kept by archives and collections are exempt from copyright infringement laws if they are used for purposes such as research or teaching. To enable this, the SPN proposed a system of user vetting and copyright notices, allowing institutions to restrict access only to users who submit a research request detailing the scope of their project and providing notices to remind them that their access is subject to copyright law.

The requirement of having to request specific access ensures that games are being used for research purposes, with the SPN citing "academic literacy" as a way of filtering out users planning to access them for entertainment. The USCO already allows institutions to lend other forms of media remotely, and the SPN argued that the DMCA's stringent rules around distribution of software programs places impediments on video game scholarship that are not present in other disciplines.

Arguments Against

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a trade association representing the U.S. video game industry, opposed the SPN petition, stating that the exemption would leave rights owners insufficiently protected and that the market for classic video games would be damaged. The SPN's proposed method of fair use vetting was dismissed by the ESA as "illusory", arguing that this was not enough justification for the breadth of use they would enable. It would be too difficult for libraries to supervise multiple users remotely accessing games, thus enabling usage for entertainment purposes.

Furthermore, the ESA contended that the market for classic video games is "vibrant and growing", citing the number of titles currently available on digital storefronts such as the Xbox Game Pass, not to mention frequent re-releases of individual titles on modern systems. That a game is "out of print" does not mean it is lost forever, only that the copyright owner decided not to put it on the market. Allowing widespread remote access to classic games would present a serious risk to the market and prevent copyright owners from enforcing their copyrights.

The USCO Ruling

The USCO observed that, for a fair use exemption, access to the games would have to be guarded against recreational use by containing "appropriately tailored restrictions". The view taken by the ESA on the SPN's proposed restrictions was echoed by the USCO, which ruled that they were not specific enough to prevent market harm and that the SPN had not met the burden of showing that allowing simultaneous remote access by multiple users was likely to be fair.

Regarding the claims of market damage put forth by the ESA, the USCO acknowledged the evidence presented of a "substantial market" for classic video games, and the SPN's concession that the industry has made a greater effort in recent years to reissue older games. Considering these arguments, the Register ultimately rejected the petition, but recommended clarifying the wording used in the DMCA to reflect that a computer program may be accessed by as many individuals as the institution owns copies.

What Does This Mean?

As a newer form of digital media, U.S. law has yet to settle on a definitive classification of what copyrights arise from a video game. A common view is for games to be treated as computer software and for the source code to be considered a literary work. However, unlike "traditional" literary works such as books or newspapers, the interactive nature of a video game makes regulating access to it more complicated.

Games are often limited to their corresponding hardware, potentially leading to research costs going up as researchers may be forced to travel long distances or somehow purchase a retro console for themselves; not to mention potential consideration of extra-legal methods. Researchers are pushed into focusing on works that are easy to access rather than those they have a true interest in studying. Teaching is also affected: academics cannot assign their students games with historical or technological significance if they may not be able to access them (for example,  the original Metroid Prime (2002), noted for its female protagonist and being the first game in the series to use 3D graphics, is only available on the GameCube). This curtails the growth of video game studies, introducing obstacles to a field with deepening cultural impact and technological advancement.

In their submission to the USCO, the SPN compared the rise of video games to the film industry, highlighting the creation of the National Film Preservation Board in 1988 as a way of recognizing that films are a part of cultural heritage, worthy of academic preservation and study. Whether games will ever reach that status remains uncertain: they make up a large part of our cultural and entertainment landscape today and it's clear that they are here to stay, but only time will tell whether the USCO's attitudes change.

Man, come the fuck on....

i think CEO's should be rounded up and shot personally

[fashion-foxy]

OK yet again I'm remaking the archive. It's its own blog now

@girlymobilegamearchive

We're expanding because of how many games actually are multi franchise, and I do have other games I'd like to help preserve

[gratuitousgalvantula]

i don't think people realize how important the osrs community servers are

like, these servers will potentially allow for game preservation when jagex eventually shuts down the servers. that's huge

[eater-of-the-sand]

If you own The Crew™ from Ubisoft.

PLEASE watch this video.

We have a chance to Fight Back against Ubisoft and the practice of Killing Online-Only games.

With The Crew shutting down on April 1st Ross from accursed farms (the guy who made Freeman's Mind) is planning a mass campaign worldwide, and needs help.

We need Everyone in the EU, but especially Germany and France to help.

Here's what you can do to help:

Save proof of purchase of your The Crew copy. Be it physical or digital, make sure you have proof you owned it. If you own the game digitally take a screenshot of the game in your library, with your account name included in the photo.

Contact Ubisoft now, asking them how to play the game past April 1st. This will help set a precident that you attempted to resolve the issue beforehand.

If you know your country's local consumer laws please contact ross regarding them at rosswscott@gmail.com.

If you are from France, you can send a Mail to Ubisoft regarding the issue according to these instructions.

This will help once again setting a precident for the upcoming campaign.

Unfortunately, if you are in America you cannot help.

According to ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg you do not own ANY of your games.

Please help spread the word.

This may be our only chance to force companies to make online only games that get shut down playable.