RetroGaming

22253 readers

85 users here now

Vintage gaming community.

Rules:

Be kind.
No spam or soliciting for money.
No racism or other bigotry allowed.
Obviously nothing illegal.

If you see these please report them.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

[HN] Study: 87% of classic video games are not legally available (gamehistory.org)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/41704

[ comments | sourced from HackerNews ]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (9 children)

This may be hot take, but I think games are art and are part of our cultural legacy, and making steps that stops us from enjoying us from that legacy should be considered a crime, especially when they put at risk art disappearing forever.

I would start with simple rules:

5 years after last new copies of the game stops being sold, pirating it stops becoming a crime
10 years after platform (console?) stop being produced, if there is no official emulator available, all emulators of that platform become legal
intentionally trying to stop people from buying a game without breaking above rules (for example, selling one copy for price of 9999$) is a crime

As a result, I would expect all companies to either invest in backward compatibility on unprecedented level, or more likely start porting their games to PC (because they will keep being produced), even if that meant selling copies to be used with emulators. When there is money on the table, or perspective of losing money, corporations are really quick to find solutions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Emulators are not illegal. ROMs are illegal if you didn’t rip it yourself. If you did rip it yourself it’s a gray area. See https://youtu.be/yj9Gk84jRiE

load more comments (8 replies)