YA-DRM-T: Preserving the Classics

[Bateluer]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/07/preserving-games-comes-with-legal-technical-problems.ars

Its an interesting read and brings up a valid point. With old games, that pre-dated a lot of DRM, with the publisher and developers completely defunct, as well as the groups that bought the original teams defunct, emulation is a pretty simple way to continue to enjoy the software. Modern hardware is plenty powerful enough to emulate the old hardware pretty easily, I think.

But what about the modern titles coming out now? Being laden with anti-consumer DRM, emulation will require that DRM to be broken or circumvented, an action that could very well land you in prison with millions of dollars in fines and penalties. Something like Good Old Games, perhaps?

Or will the situation be completely moot because of the lack of quality in today's titles? Will people even want to play Generic WW2 Soldier with Zombie Nazis 47 in a few years, let alone 10 years? IMO, there are some really great games from all genres that are light years beyond modern games in all areas except pure visuals.

When it comes to preservation, video games are problematic. Hardware becomes outdated and the media that houses game code becomes obsolete, not to mention the legal issues with emulation. In short, one day, there may not be a way to play Super Metroid at all, and that's a scary thought. A new paper from the International Journal of Digital Curation, called "Keeping the Game Alive: Evaluating Strategies for the Preservation of Console Video Games," suggests several ways this problem can be tackled, and the pros and cons of each approach.

First, there's what the paper calls the museum approach, which is just what it sounds like: keeping the original copies of both game hardware and software in playable form. But since most consoles feature proprietary parts that are discontinued along with the system, this is really only a temporary solution, as eventually the consoles will break down and there will be no parts left to repair them.
Magnavox Odyssey.

Another approach outlined in the piece is backwards compatibility. This process is a great way of letting players enjoy old games, but it's not designed with preservation in mind: just because I can play GameCube games on my Wii doesn't mean I can play them forever. It's also not a guarantee, as the removal of backwards compatibility from the PlayStation 3 has shown us.

So the answer seems to lie in digital preservation, and the paper outlines two different options: the migration approach and emulation. Both allow you to play old software on modern computers, but present legal issues when it comes to ownership of the original game code.

The 27-page paper does a good job of outlining the potential upsides and downfalls of each of the various strategies, and is well worth a read for anyone interested in video game preservation. The conclusion notes that the only real possible, long-term solution is emulation, and that would only be possible with the consent and cooperation of hardware manufacturers, game developers, and publishers.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Being laden with anti-consumer DRM, emulation will require that DRM to be broken or circumvented, an action that could very well land you in prison with millions of dollars in fines and penalties.

Ahahahahahahaha.

AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!

 

[Bateluer]

Ahahahahahahaha.

AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!

Should I have stated serious comments only? Under the current DMCA, it is illegal to circumvent any copy protection(whether you own the media or not), punishable with prison time and monetary penalties. Under the proposed ACTA, its even more restrictive.

Combine this with more and more companies requiring constant contact with their 'authentication' servers, will current games even be playable single player in a few short years? Such as, when the publisher/developer believes it is no longer profitable to maintain the servers. Sometimes they release a patch to unlock it, other times, the customer is simply told to buy the latest version(EA Sports).

 

[Arglebargle]

Ahahahahahahaha.

AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAAHA!!!!!!

Another episode of kuru-kuru, eh. Hope that gets better....

 

[Pia]

The point of both copyright and patents is to further the interests of the public, by stimulating the creation of new works, by granting creators limited monopolies. The logic is that the work being created and eventually entering public domain is a greater boon than the monopoly is a detriment.

What I'm getting at with this is that copyright should probably not even apply to things which can be retroactively pulled out of consumption, such as a game with networked DRM. After all, such works never actually enter public domain. The creators' end of the deal is not upheld, so there is no reason to make the deal.