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.
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.
That’s not quite fair - Polygon had good things to say about the Cowabunga Collection for example.