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The Video Game History Foundation, in partnership with the Software Preservation Network, have unveiled a new study regarding the current state of classic video games and their commercial availability today.

The results obtained in the study for the US; which goes into great detail going all the way back in 1960, going through each of the video game generations up to 2009, and how much of their library has been preserved or is available to any extend in the modern day, has shown that overall a minuscule 13% of all classic video games up to that date are currently available in some form in the modern day. To make matters worse, their study revealed that no video game generation has even surpassed the 20% mark when it comes to availability.

Availability rate of historical games, by period, between 1960 and 2009. (n = 1500, ±2.5%, 95% CI)
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Basically, it means that nearly around 8 or 9 out of 10 games, the user has to go out of their way to access these classics, from options going to retaining the original releases (alongside their hardware, both in working conditions that is), to travel to another country's library, and of course, the most common form of piracy, or "self-preservation" as some might call it.

The goal of this study is expand the exceptions that libraries and organizations focused on preservation get, which for some reason seem to be heavily limited compared to other media, like movies, books and music, and while the US Copyright Office claims that the industry already does enough to preserve the games, the study shows quite the contrary, with absolutely no sign of it getting better to any extend.

The study brings up this important facts about gaming preservation:

• 87% of classic games are not in release, and are considered critically endangered
• Availability is low across every platform and time period tracked in the study
• Libraries and archives can digitally preserve, but not digitally share video games, and can provide on-premises access only
• Libraries and archives are allowed to digitally share other media types, such as books, film, and audio, and are not restricted to on-premises access
• The Entertainment Software Association, the video game industry’s lobbying group, has consistently fought against expanding video game preservation within libraries and archives

The culprit of the limitation is the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), Title 17, section 1201 according to VGHF. The DMCA will have a new rulemaking proceedure scheduled for 2024, which they hope the study will help to make a change into the limiting DMCA law.

Video Game History Foundation Study

 

[VassagoX]

This is why I hate games going online only. Look at all we have already lost, sometimes even by games that are still going like Destiny 2 cutting out so much.

 

[Kwyjor]

which is why there's a whole underground movement to keep these games from no longer being relevant.

I very much doubt most of that "whole underground movement" is at all interested in keeping things "relevant". Keeping things "relevant" implies actually playing the games and writing about them (or at least streaming them or something) and no one has time for that – especially since the vast majority of those games really aren't particularly relevant or particularly amusing to play compared to the slightly-less vast range of alternatives.

 

[DS1]

Maybe the batman and that new game are unrelated and the ideas were coincidental.

Post automatically merged: Jul 12, 2023

Sarcasm

I'm not so sure... someone named "Hanafuda" has probably played their fair share of titty-reveal mahjong games.

 

[HarveyHouston]

I very much doubt most of that "whole underground movement" is at all interested in keeping things "relevant". Keeping things "relevant" implies actually playing the games and writing about them (or at least streaming them or something) and no one has time for that – especially since the vast majority of those games really aren't particularly relevant or particularly amusing to play compared to the slightly-less vast range of alternatives.

If at least one person is interested in a game you or I think is crap, they're gonna try to save it. Also, we're not just talking about any games, but also games that were once popular that are endangered of not existing anymore. I guarantee I've played many DOS games that do not readily exist anymore on the internet, and while not a game, @lordelan is still looking for his calendar program that apparently was better than most, but he hasn't seen it, and it's possibly three decades old by now - that could happen to any game decent enough to at least garner great interest by a select few, and perhaps it even is historically relevant, yet the developers, publishers, etc. deem it has no real significance anymore.

 

[tsam2]

That's bullshit.

There are millions of people hoarding video games, even the irrelevant ones are being preserved.

"critically endangered" are the white rhinos, video games are fine, are great actually. Books, movies, music, none of those has the amount of hoarders video games have.

I think they are talking about buying today these games. That's the hard part.

 

[Kwyjor]

and while not a game, @lordelan is still looking for his calendar program that apparently was better than most, but he hasn't seen it, and it's possibly three decades old by now

I think it's extremely likely that program is actually sitting around on someone's hard drive somewhere (or more likely in some kind of CD-ROM backup) and nobody knows it's there because people are much more interested in hoarding enormous piles of crap in the name of "preservation" than they are in doing the hard work of documenting and cataloging.

I suppose that's one difference between software compared to books and movies – someone publishing a book is probably going to have to actually buy an ISBN, and there are similar motion picture registries. There are probably staggering amounts of, say, terrible fanfic or useless Youtube short films that have also become "unavailable" since their initial release.

yet the developers, publishers, etc. deem it has no real significance anymore.

That's right, a game that only one person out of millions has thought about in decades may very well be described as being of no real significance.

 

[Noctosphere]

I think they are talking about buying today these games. That's the hard part.

Im among those who support a change to the copyright law, so that when a company no longer produce one of their own product, and that if everyone started "yohoho"ing it, their sales/revenue wouldn't change because of that, then this product should become of public domain

 

[ChibiMofo]

No worries: I just conducted a study that shows that 100% of those games are on a 14TB hard drive I bought last year.

 

[Deleted member 608654]

I'm not so sure... someone named "Hanafuda" has probably played their fair share of titty-reveal mahjong games.

I think that's disgusting.

 

[jumpman17]

I mean, if you actually included all games regardless of quality or historical meaning, it has to be like, less than 1%. The Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum have thousands of games each. We don't even know how many games there are for those because no one was documenting those things back then.

 

[Noctosphere]

No worries: I just conducted a study that shows that 100% of those games are on a 14TB hard drive I bought last year.

We are talking about retrogaming, pretty sure you paid way too much for that hard drive and could have bought a 4-6tb hdd and still have plenty of space for them all

 

[Deleted member 608654]

We can all agree that shovelware, the overwhelming majority of all interactive media, is not worth preserving.

Post automatically merged: Jul 13, 2023

Having been in the hacking scene for years, I think the most likely reason for piracy is to preserve and distribute what pirates are afraid will no longer be available anymore. Soooo many games are not readily available legitimately, which is why there's a whole underground movement to keep these games from no longer being relevant.

When you have a game that people like, and you strictly tell people that they're not supposed to get it any way but through certain platforms and pay for it, it's a double-edged sword because while you may be making quite a bit of money off of it initially, when it's no longer for sale you endanger the intellectual property that YOU created by making it where it only exists with you and your distributors. This is especially true now, with monthly game subscriptions becoming more common where you don't own any game you stream or even temporarily download.

That's why there are so many pirates. I know of people (who want to remain anonymous) that are currently hoarding titles of WiiWare, 3DS and Wii U eShop content, and other digital download type content for fear that it never sees the light of day again. We need a resolution for better preservation. The nearly 87% of games are still out there in the wild somewhere, but people are either afraid to share them or are doing it in secret because of all the litigation.

In short, the DMCA's rules should be amended to allow better preservation of games.

Orphaned works clause, if owner of work not publishing it, people have the right to keep it available for the public until the owner reclaims it.

Copyright exists for financial reasons.

 

[Noctosphere]

We can all agree that shovelware, the overwhelming majority of all interactive media, is not worth preserving.

As i said earlier, i had 3 games on atari 2600 that were exactly the same except with different background color and i dont know how many more there are like that. In fact, iirc, i had some games in the same situation. Like they had the exact same gameplay but different sprites, meaning they had different "stories"

 

[Deleted member 608654]

There are probably staggering amounts of, say, terrible fanfic or useless Youtube short films that have also become "unavailable" since their initial release.

They will never really matter.

 

[DS1]

I think that's disgusting.

In Asia, they have those arcade machines in regular public arcades. Of course most of those arcades are supposed to be adults-only (there are also a handful of 'healthy' arcades that allow children that just have newer games).

So yeah, disgusting, but pretty normalized and part of the history people are trying to preserve.

I think the thing here is that artistic preservation (and no, I'm not going to get into "are games are art?" thing - I don't think they are, but whatever) is not about only preserving the things that make you feel comfortable or personally enjoy. It's about preserving everything for the sake of having a full view of history.

 

[tsam2]

I guarantee I've played many DOS games that do not readily exist anymore on the internet

So true. I have 2 cd-rom games that I haven't found them yet at any site with dos games etc. Plus, I had to search a lot to find some versions of Microsoft's Encarta. Thank God that Internet Archive exists.

 

[Teletron1]

funny how this is purposely done so that it can look like Pac Man

 

[Hanafuda]

I'm not so sure... someone named "Hanafuda" has probably played their fair share of titty-reveal mahjong games.

Played, sure. But mahjong's a mystery to me. Never get to see the titties.


But seriously, if you ever delved into the 'bootlegs' section of a full Famicom romset, there's a bunch of those type games.

 

[urbanman2004]

Game History Preservation FTW

 

[HarveyHouston]

I think it's extremely likely that program is actually sitting around on someone's hard drive somewhere (or more likely in some kind of CD-ROM backup) and nobody knows it's there because people are much more interested in hoarding enormous piles of crap in the name of "preservation" than they are in doing the hard work of documenting and cataloging.

Depends on what you mean by "crap". I think several popular games are crap, but then again, that's just me.

That's right, a game that only one person out of millions has thought about in decades may very well be described as being of no real significance.

Ignoring completely the part where I said it may be HISTORICALLY relevant, meaning it either pioneered something in video games that nobody else thought to implement, or is a reminder of some event that took place during its lifetime. I mean, E.T. the Extraterrestrial and Superman 64 are both commercial failures and complete crap games that very few people actually like to play, but they are relevant BECAUSE of their failures, and thus IMHO should be archived if only for that reason.