Vanishing act: 87% of classic video games are no longer available commercially
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That probably doesn't come as much of a surprise to retro gaming enthusiasts, but those outside the gaming community might not even know there is a problem....

That probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to retro gaming enthusiasts, but those outside the gaming community might not even know there is a problem…

@Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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61Y

Who wants to admit that there are a whole hell of a lot of bad classic games?

@dunestorm@lemmy.world
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51Y

True, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t preserve them just the same.

@Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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21Y

I mean sure, preserve them. But that’s like saying we should be preserving poorly written trashy romance novels. I guess we could, but shouldn’t be a top priority for anyone.

@paddirn@lemmy.world
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91Y

“Pirates” are actually “Archivists”, saving digital information for future generations to enjoy. Really, I’m not a selfish data hoarder, I’m preserving history!

@Zed@lemmy.world
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11Y

This is awful, to think that all this legacy would go to waste someday, I can’t fathom having all these unique experiences, all these stories and love letters to genres and cultures getting lost in the vortex of time.

I feel sad for the people that are just getting into gaming and them not experiencing games that made history, the good and the bad.

Something like this should be preserved even if just for study purposes, for those games before the digital era, the only options that are left for us are either piracy or emulation, and thankfully we do have these options but yeah we really should have future proofed this industry in some way.

@DudePluto@lemmy.world
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21Y

I can’t fathom having all these unique experiences, all these stories and love letters to genres and cultures getting lost in the vortex of time.

Something something lost like tears in the rain. (Blade Runner)

Just know that every generation before you and every generation after feels the same about their culture/experiences. C’est la vie

@rtevans@lemmy.world
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2
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1Y

Ever heard of RetroPi or Recalbox?

@Tankaus@lemmy.world
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31Y

Imagine if you couldn’t buy classic movies or albums…

Rokk
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31Y

I’d be interested to know what the % is for movies and TV to be honest. I know Dr Who for example has like 100 episodes that have just been lost. There’s no copies of them anywhere that anyone knows of.

@virr@lemmy.world
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31Y

A lot of old films were lost in studio fires, or simply not putting in the effort to preserve. The software industry, and games in particular, have not learned from this at all.

Surprised that it’s that low TBH

@camasii@lemmy.world
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11Y

I don’t want to minimize the impact to gaming history but for my retro needs de-makes on pico8 (https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php) help scratch the itch.

Archmage Azor
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31Y

They’re flotsam, now. Only one way to get hold of flotsam.

Oregon Trail gone forever

@virr@lemmy.world
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61Y

Culture provides a shared experience making it easier to communicate with each other. Importantly it also provides a way for society to discuss and think about ideas as a group. That culture includes books, films, TV shows, songs, video games, oral storytelling, folk songs, etc. Each bit of culture builds upon what came before, and what is happening at the same time. The record of culture is forever imperfect, but that becomes more of a problem when parts of culture are lost for the future to be able to look at it. That loss makes it progressively harder for us to look to the past and actually understand it, besides making it harder to communicate with each other. Lack of the reference and understanding can help to perpetuate stereotypes, misunderstandings, injustice, or even actively damage stability of a society. While we are resilient, why would we want to make it harder and lose the knowledge of how we got here?

This article is arguable about forgetting a bit of history which has helped to perpetuate racism. Be aware this is about a “virulently racist song”, if that is a problem or trigger you probably shouldn’t read any further. Just know the roots of the ice cream truck song in the US at least is horrible and we should not use it. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/11/310708342/recall-that-ice-cream-truck-song-we-have-unpleasant-news-for-you

@Selgauth@lemmy.world
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11Y

I’m not spending money on a game older than 20 years anyway. I can find that shit free online

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