I keep seeing these ignorant threads every day.

You people who want the old console systems should understand that you can get them all for free as none of the companies give a crap at all.

Why buy something that GOG or any other distribution company like it, would have to use the same exact tools that are given freely and obviously for free?

The games are free about the net and companies don't bother them because they don't even care!


The only reason places like GOG even exist is to have the path of least resistance in getting old PC games working on modern machines. Otherwise people would have to shoe horn everything old into a new machine or buy old ones to run everything. THAT is why GOG and the like exist besides ease of access world wide via digital distribution.

If the "legal" thing is a problem for you. Well, that sucks for you! Think logically for a moment. They run a business. They don't give a crap about stuff they won't make any cash from. Trying to sell some old games everyone can get for free in 5 minutes is retarded. Now everyone can argue without logic by retorting, that is what GOG does...I know that is the thing "slow" people retort with most in such threads lol (read the paragraph above this one =P)

You'r missing the point. This thread is about the diffrences between PC and console games in regard to their preservation as an art form, like books/films etc. Emulators are one way, but stay on topic.

And if GOG is so useless, why the hell you'r using it ?

Except they do care. Nintendo has numerous times shut down projects via Cease&Desist on their copyrighted works preventing fan-made works from getting finished. Nintendo also sells their games via Virtual Console on their current Wii/Wii-U platforms.

Sega also probably cares, as they have re-released several game packs over and over and over again on different platforms as they become mainstream.

Third party devs/games overall will never have the means or energy to do what nintendo is doing.

Honestly i agree with you, the consoles are long dead & gone, and games&emulators are easy to get ahold of (They were easy to get ahold of even when the systems were still relevant); But copyright law as it is says something very different, namely the games won't enter public domain for another 70+ years, depending on who owns the copyright.

I think in time we will see a much more robust set of emulators for consoles on PC's of older titles from the original developers. Hardware by then will probably be a bit better making the games look just as good as we would remember them. It might take a long time, but it's probably going to happen as developers look for ways to add revenue.

I think older console games should be no problem. The problems start with newer games, because of always-online DRM and day 1 patches many console games require to work properly nowadays. In the future it will be no problem to fire up an emulator and load a copy of an old Xbox or PS2 game, but when the game needed a patch to work properly, you might have problems with that.

Don't know if it was already said, but older games can be played on streaming services.
Sony bought Gaikai (probably said it incorrectly) streaming service just to offer older games to it's customers.
Ofc it all depends on high quality internet access and can't be solution for everyone, but in certain areas it might work well.
PS2/PS3 games for your PS4. Sounds good, right? :)

So instead of needing a patch we just need to pay a subscription and deal with timing latency...

Because I'm so looking forward to playing PaRappa the Rappa with networking issues...

And as we've seen with Disney, if the corporations have any say in the matter, their precious IP will never enter the public domain.

Indeed... *sigh* :(

Did not say they are useless but looking at your country of origin I will not hold this against you, as english may not be your first language.
You bring up a very good point. Copyright law has (in the USA) been completely destroyed to the point of irrelevance. A work is now able to last longer than all the people that made it to begin with. That was NEVER the intent and knowing a bit about such matters, I think most people just ignore the corporations by in large because of the nonsensical changes that have been made.

Truth is, GOG and the likes are only giving a marginal contibution to games preservation on PC; yes, DRM is one less piece of the puzzle to worry about, but what actually matters is the same thing that matters for console games: hardware and software compatibility

So, given that infinite retro-compatibility of hardware and operating systems is obviously not a realistic expectation, the only way to be sure of proper preservation (in a playable state), would be to have access to always evolving emulators.

Even imagining a world where no DRM or copy protection was ever applied to any old PC game, GOG will still be able do do some of the things they do only because there's something like DOSBox around, and in 15 years we might need a "WINBox" to restore access to currently working titles, DRM or not....

^^

Indeed. But DRM would make the problem of getting games working, much more difficult. GOG, to be fair does a good job overall making stuff work. PRetty hard being perfect as nobody is ;)