The game industry is not interested in supporting old projects, so their fate now depends entirely on pirates.

In the last ~50 years, video games have turned from geek entertainment into one of the most important forms of modern art. But, unfortunately, many of them are on the verge of extinction

At least this concerns the commercial side of the issue. Let’s say you decide to buy a toy that was released twenty or thirty years ago. For example, it can be a favorite game from your childhood or, conversely, something unknown that you recently learned about on a retro gamer forum! Be that as it may, first of all you will probably go to GOG, Steam or Epic Games Store. And, unfortunately, in 9 out of 10 cases you will encounter the fact that the game is “stuck” between worlds: the copyright holder has not yet sent it to “free swimming” and prohibits free distribution, but at the same time he was too lazy to place the game on one of the most popular marketplaces.

Recently, a group of enthusiasts analyzedand the situation surrounding the games for the most popular game platforms of the past years. These included the legendary PlayStation 2, Game Boy and Commodore 64. It turned out that only 13% of all games released for the mentioned platforms are still available for purchase. At the same time, the older the platform, the worse the situation becomes. For example, Commodore 64 fans will be able to buy approximately 3% of the total number of games released for this computer. Agree, not a lot – even if you take into account the huge number of freeware projects and modern releases.

Of course, in response to my “complaints” you have every right to throw up your hands and say: “But these games are no longer sold. They are old and no one needs them anymore.” In addition, the platforms for which they were released are dying more and more every year and losing their fan base.

In addition, video games age much faster than other types of media content. Here it is quite possible to draw parallels with silent cinema or, say, jazz music. Despite the fact that many classic films or compositions are about to hit 100 or more years old, they are still relevant. And games older than 10-15 years are already perceived by a wide range of users as something “old”, boring and useless.

Meanwhile, the situation surrounding the games already portends problems with the preservation of cultural heritage. If historians of the game industry cannot get their hands on the original games, they will not be able to document their cultural impact. (Exactly the same problem comics researchers faced a few decades ago: at the dawn of comics culture, library staff considered them complete nonsense and did not bother with acquisition and preservation. Much the same is happening now with games!).

Despite the indisputable importance of the historical context, the problem of acquiring old games is relevant primarily for ordinary gamers. Many of them would happily buy old games. When Digital Eclipse released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, a collection of 13 games, it sold nearly a million copies in less than a year. And when the arcade hit Robotron came out on Xbox, I got stuck in it literally until my thumbs were bloody calluses.

Of course, it is not easy for game companies to maintain the releases of old titles. Sometimes the problems are of a purely technical nature: for example, porting a game to a modern device can result in a hefty sum. And sometimes there are subtleties of a legal nature: in particular, it is very easy to get confused in legal matters, especially if the company that was responsible for the release of the game was responsible for it.

In any case, we geeks will most likely agree that losing this entire layer of digital culture would be incredibly sad.

That is why world civilization owes a huge debt to…pirates.

Pirates are keepers of old games

Almost thirty years ago, I first came across emulators of old gaming hardware. Originally it was MAME – “Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator” developed by Mykola Salmoria. It allowed emulating several popular arcade machines with variable success.

It is important that the development of emulators as such does not contradict legal regulations. All you do is write code that mimics the computing capabilities of an old iron, arcade machine, or game console.

But creating a ROM of a specific game, such as Space Invaders or Mortal Kombat, is considered a much less legal action. Since the code is protected by copyright, anyone who makes a copy of it and puts it publicly available on the network is infringing this notorious copyright.

However, few are deterred by these ephemeral obstacles when it comes to gaming! Shortly after being introduced to MAME in 1997, I came across forums where people were sharing ROMs of their favorite arcade games. I downloaded a copy of the original Mario Brothers 1983 game and went off the radar for a couple of months.

Over the next few decades, ROM sharing culture only gained momentum. With the advent of emulators for more modern game systems, such as GameCube, PlayStation or Nintendo 64, gamers have been able to share games with each other for these platforms as well. Now the Internet is literally teeming with sites that offer to download countless ROMs of old (and not so) games.

Piracy helps keep these games alive and has a huge impact on modern culture. Thanks in part to him, both teenagers and those in their early 20s can touch these antediluvian games and platforms. That is why indie game developers actively exploit the aesthetics of low-fi, 8- and 16-bit games. They saw these hits of the 80s and 90s with their own eyes. After all, it’s almost like the original vinyl releases for 45 RPM, but from the world of gaming culture.

I repeat – there is still a demand for old (as well as retro-styled) games! People are willing to pay good money to play something like this. Sometimes publishers who own the rights to retro titles go out of their way to meet fans. And evidence of this is the multitude of emulators built into the TV with legal copies of games from Bandai or, for example, Namco.

However, in most cases, classic games cannot be bought.

Piracy or nothing

Emulators are not always the best way to get acquainted with retrogames.

Unfortunately, they do not come with the original controllers, which were often a key component of enjoying the game. (Of course, you can download a ROM for Missile Command, but without a trackball the size of a bowling ball, with its luxurious rolling inertia, it just doesn’t feel the same). In addition, the picture on a modern TV or monitor is often far from ideal. In their heyday, arcade machines resembled colossal cabinets with CRT screens. Modern LCD monitors mostly lose to their “bellied” counterparts. Still, classic games should be played on classic hardware.

Therefore, enthusiasts who have found the strength and desire to study old games in their “natural environment” have to look for computer museums and libraries where collections of old games and game systems are collected. But even here there are certain nuances and difficulties. Suppose someone wants to use the original ROM of the game, launched through an emulator, as an “exhibit”. For this, you will have to obtain legal permission from the right holder – and it is not so easy. One letter to the company’s legal department is unlikely to be enough. In some particularly advanced cases, you will have to go to great lengths before you can determine exactly who currently owns the rights to an old game. And if it fails, what then?

All of the above – the fate of geeks and enthusiasts from the world of retro gaming? But what about everyone else – ordinary people who want to run their favorite childhood game without problems or, for example, complete a cult platformer? Will I have to buy the original disk (cartridge, diskette, cassette…), the set-top box itself and the CRT monitor for return?

It is not possible to give an unequivocal answer to this question. On the one hand, the most ethical way is to look for used games and consoles on sale, remove copies from your media, emulate on a PC and do not distribute copyrighted ROMs anywhere. On the other hand – the game industry, what the hell! Can only pirates save our digital heritage?