My friend and I were discussing this over the weekend. Games are inherently different than movies, books, and music. They’re tied to specific hardware and operating systems that may not be available anymore.
I argue that if a game is no longer legally purchasable from the publishers or developer, it should be legally permitted to pirate it. Even EA agrees! They do not pursue copyright claims against LOTR games, as they lost the publishing license from New Line Cinemas years ago.
It should be the same for everything: if an ip is no longer used, it should be in the public domain. Therefore, a company holding said IP is forced to use it (as in selling copies) or give it up.
Yes. I can imagine a middle-ground of copyright. If the IP is still being used, it enters the public domain on the regular schedule. But if it’s abandoned, it enters earlier… perhaps after 5-10 years of non-use.
Honestly, in our fast moving world, I‘d do like a year. If nothing gets announced or release, you‘re done.
Example, you take a book, game or song from the market because you want people to be unable to buy it before you release the successor. Then you delay the successor for 5 yrs. Boom, public domain.
Eh, if you want to play retro games just buy a used console, mod it, play pirated games. Of if your PC is good enough just emulate.
I love how the author of the article says that From Software should put out ports of the old games (and maybe remaster them while they’re at it) but you know when they review the package they’ll give a low score, say the game “really show its age” and “is only recommended for hardcore fans.” Well, the hardcore fans have played the originals and if not, they know how to emulate or pirate old games to use with original hardware.
Unless you are trying to the the ps3 game the ps2 and psp should be able to be emulated on literally any pc.
Hell psp runs fine on most android phones as well.
You literally have to be trying to not find a way to play these games if you say they aren’t easy to play. Fuck legality if the copyright hold is sitting on these games for no fucking reason
I totally agree, but emulation still requires tons of unpaid work by enthusiasts. If/when Sony stops selling the PS3, they should turn over the source code and allow the community to make something really great. It’s not like they make any money of used console and game sales.
True but that’s how it’s always been. Most people who make emulators do it for the challenge or because they care about game preservation or both.
And they’ve done some wonderful things. One of my favourite things ever is the Nintendont launcher on the Wii. It lets you play GameCube disc images on the Wii natively. Even lets you use the normal controllers instead of having to plug in the original GameCube ones.
Even the PS3 game can be played via an emulator. The tech is still evolving so you still need a fairly powerful computer but it is playable. For reference, I was able to test archiving various PS3 games on my now 11 year old gaming PC which was a medium-tier system at the time of the build.
Yeah PSP games are trivial to emulate. My 2015 MacBook Air can run PPSSPP with ease, the games look great with the upped resolution.
I love how the author of the article says that From Software should put out ports of the old games (and maybe remaster them while they’re at it) but you know when they review the package they’ll give a low score, say the game “really show its age” and “is only recommended for hardcore fans.”
That’s not quite fair - Polygon had good things to say about the Cowabunga Collection for example.
Its very easy to play the older AC games. Download a rom/iso and emulator
This is exactly why emulation is a needed thing.
Shortly before launch, I set up AC4A on a PS3 emulator and it literally could not have been easier.
Well, except for the fact that all four PS3 AC games are listed as “Ingame” on the RPCS3 compatability list.
Those ratings are user-reported and most are several years out of date. I played 4A from beginning to end without any issues.
If you’re trying to do it legally, you can easily to rip your own ps1 games with a drive bay. Haven’t tried it on PS2 or ps3 games. And ps1 emulation runs amazing on phones and raspberry pis.
So my ps1 emulation collection is pretty legit.
We shall not speak of the other consoles.
haha…I play AC3 Last Raven on my PSP Its going to break my hand
I’ve been ripping PS3 games for a little while now. I’ve recently bought some Dynasty Warriors Gundam games from Japan which I’m dumping at the moment.
Armoured Core has especially been in a thorn in my side. I’ve got 4 and 5 but still trying to acquire For Answer and Verdict Day. They’re extremely hard to come across. I haven’t looked at the PS2 games but I’m sure I could find those for cheap. Super easy to rip with a standard Disk Drive.
I’m curious, can a standard Blu-ray drive on a PC rip PS3 games? Or do you need special hardware? I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to rip PS1 games.
I’ve read that you can use a Blue-Ray drive. The RPCS3 website has a proper guide on it though I haven’t tried it. I jailbroke my PS3 (not fully because it’s one of the 320GB models) and use that with FileZilla to dump games over the internet onto my PC.
I’ve got a rip of 4A if you want it. Might even have my old copy for 360 around here somewhere if you’d prefer that.
That’s very kind of you. I prefer physical CDs that I can redump if anything gets messed up. Haven’t seen what I need to dump 360 games but I can give it a go.
360 games require original hardware unless there’s been some breakthrough recently. They use their own kinda weird dual layer DVD format.
Well shit. I think I’m close to being done with the PS3 exclusives so the 360 is an option.
Yeah you can get drives that can rip them with third party firmware installed, (I have drives with custom firmware for other things) but the cheapest way is to just use an actual Xbox 360. Doesn’t need to be modded, Xenia can just use an installed game, so you just install the game to a flash drive then you can move it to your PC and run it from there.
