WEBVTT - Preserving Video Games 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.440 He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio. And 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.320 how the tech are you? You know? I thought today 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:24.480 I would talk about the issue of video game preservation. 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:27.520 I was inspired to do this because of something that 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.960 recently happened with Ubisoft, a game company that's well to 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.040 put lightly, It's had a pretty darn controversial few years. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.400 But Ubisoft makes lots of different game titles, and one 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:44.360 particularly popular franchise from them is the Assassin's Creed series. Well, 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.920 one of the entries in this long running franchise came 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.360 out way back in two thousand twelve, and it was 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:56.160 called Assassin's Creed three Liberation, and it's notable for a 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.160 few reasons. One was that the player controls the character 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:03.000 named Aveline de grand Pre, who happens to be the 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.640 first female assassin in the series that the player could control. 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:11.119 Before that, they were all male protagonists. Later on, would 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.560 be Soft released a remastered version of the game titled 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:20.039 Assassin's Creed Liberation h D. Anyway, Steam, which is the 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.240 video game store, the digital video game store so it's 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.840 an online store. It's run by Valve, which used to 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.520 primarily be known as a video game developer now is 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.920 mostly known as the company that runs Steam. Anyway, Steam 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.080 posted a message on July eleven, two thousand twenty two 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.959 that's said, at the request of the publisher, Assassin's Creed 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.360 Liberation h D is no longer available for sale on Steam, 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.200 which is fair enough. These things happen. Companies will allow 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.080 something to technically kind of go out of print, although 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.920 in this case that's kind of a misnomer because we're 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.120 talking about digital sales. But it would be Soft decided 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.960 to stop selling copies of this game now it would 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.800 be Soft had also previously announced that it would be 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:09.120 ending multiplayer functionality for several of its games, including Assassin's Creed. 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.200 Now that could be disappointing to hardcore fans, but at 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.280 the same time, you can kind of understand why it's happening, 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.919 because supporting multiplayer means that a company has to run 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:24.960 servers that host those multiplayer sessions, which also means maintaining 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.240 those servers and responding if something goes wrong with them. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:33.239 So for older games, the player base that's still accessing 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.160 multiplayer might be so small that it's difficult to justify 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:41.600 the ongoing expense of keeping those servers online, particularly if 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.400 it's a game that doesn't have a subscription model to it. 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.320 Right Like, if it's a game where multiplayer was part 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.280 of the features of the game that you got with 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:53.960 the purchase of the full game, and it's not an 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.640 ongoing expense, then the company is footing the bill for 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:02.880 providing that service even after people are no longer really 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.960 buying the game. Um, it's a bummer, but you know, 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:11.480 it's kind of understandable from the perspective of the business. However, 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.320 these days, a lot of games require at least some 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.240 sort of online component, typically as part of digital Rights 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.480 Management or DRM, which is terrible, but here's how it goes. 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.600 The basic idea is that the game you're running on 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:30.040 your local device, like on your computer or whatever, checks 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:33.680 in with a home base server that belongs to the 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.480 company in order to verify that the copy of the 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:40.120 game that you are playing is legitimate. And at that 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.840 point the home base server says, yeah, go ahead, let 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.200 let them play the game. Or if the game isn't legit, 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.520 or if the connection can't be made for some reason, 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.480 the server tells your local machine, hey, don't let us 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.120 jerk face play that game. They probably stole it. So 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.720 for players who just want a single player experience, right like, 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:01.640 it's a game that's just meant to be played on 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:05.720 your computer. There's no online component, there's no multiplayer component. 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.880 If those those folks have a poor internet connection or 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:12.760 no connection to the internet, this kind of DRM is 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.080 a huge hassle because it means there's no real way 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:19.719 to access the game legitimately. But that's the nature of DRM. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.360 I've done full episodes about this in the past. All right, 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:26.640 let's get back over to Ubisoft. So, in its initial 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.880 message that was published on Steam, the implication was that 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.239 the Assassin's Creed game wouldn't just be unavailable to purchase 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.600 from that point forward, but would in fact be rendered 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:42.440 completely unplayable. That people who had purchased a copy of 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.039 this game would be unable to access their game at all, 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.520 even if they were just trying to play local single 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.680 player mode, nor would they be able to run any 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.520 of the downloadable content or DLC that they had purchased 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.840 for the game. Steam would issue a follow up s 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.600 eatement that said people who own the game already would 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.520 still be able to play it, they would even be 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:09.039 able to read download it. So on Steam, you have 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.120 a library of games. These games may or may not 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.120 actually be downloaded to your computer, but it's a record 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.119 of all the games you have purchased throughout your time 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:22.240 using Steam, and if you want, you can read download 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.360 a game to install it on a new machine. Let's 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:28.800 say that you're upgrading your computer. You've decided to, you know, 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.400 switch to a brand new new computer system that can 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:34.560 run the latest games, but you also have a soft 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.960 spot for some older games. Well, you can re download 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:42.160 them to your new machine. So ubisof said players will 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:43.960 still be able to do that. They'll still be able 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.640 to access the game that they purchased. However, they will 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.599 not be able to access online content or DLC for 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.239 that game. That would be unavailable anyway. That whole ness 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:58.120 prompted this episode because with so many games requiring online 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:02.160 services to function, even if the games themselves are otherwise 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.679 confined to a local device, what happens when the company 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.240 that provides that online service goes out of business, because 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.159 that has happened more than once in the video game world, 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:17.080 or what happens if a company like Ubisoft decides to 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.280 shift resources away from continuing support of older games that 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:27.160 have smaller player bases, the thing you purchased suddenly becomes inaccessible. 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:29.640 Even if the code is fine, and even if you 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:32.000 have a machine that otherwise could run the game without 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.240 a problem, you still can't access the game. That approach 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:40.040 means it becomes difficult to preserve such games, and in 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.960 some cases it could even be illegal for you to 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.919 try and do it. In other cases, it might not 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.600 be illegal, but it might be practically impossible, and so 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:54.400 these games are lost in time like tears in Rain. 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.240 Let me know if you've got that reference. Now, some 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.600 of y'all might be saying, I didn't even know video 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.640 game preservation was a thing, or maybe a few of 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:06.919 you could be saying, why is it important to even 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.040 preserve video games in the first place. And it's totally 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.880 fair that not everyone is into video games. That's cool, right. 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.760 I'm not into every kind of art there is. Doesn't 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.360 mean the arts bad. I'm just not into it that 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.440 there are a lot of folks who are really into 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.280 video games, including those who consider video games to be 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.000 a type of art. I happen to be one of 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.239 those people. I don't necessarily think video games, at least 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.640 not most of them, typically qualify as high art. But 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.160 I do think there's a lot of artistic expression that 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:41.840 goes into creating video games. Whether it's from character design 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:47.000 or level design, or even gameplay elements, or the textures 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:50.000 that you use to enhance visuals or the story that 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.600 plays out over the course of a game. There are 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.600 a lot of avenues for artistic expression. Some of them 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.200 you might not classically think of as artistic, like gameplay elements. 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.280 You might think, oh, you know, pressing a to jump, 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:04.960 that's nothing. But you look at some of these games 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:09.000 and some of the elegant approaches to gameplay elements in them, 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.040 you start to think there is an art to this, 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:16.800 and people who are particularly artistic can create really transformational 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.800 experiences through that. So even if you strip all the 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:24.040 art away, right if you if you deny that there's 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:29.040 anything artful about video games, the fact remains that people, 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:31.880 and a lot of people in many of these cases, 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.160 I mean some of these games have hundreds of folks 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.600 who worked on these Well, those people worked really hard 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.120 to make that game happen. They labored over getting the 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.600 various components up to snuff, and then they also worked 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.240 really hard to make sure all these different components actually 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.880 work together so that one thing doesn't break something else. 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.360 And let's be fair, video game companies are not always 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.440 successful in doing this. There are plenty of examples of 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.960 broken games out there. Some of them got less broken 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.160 over time thanks to patches and stuff, but we have 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.600 seen no shortage of you know, games that just didn't 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.200 work properly. But I still feel like the work of 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:16.040 the people who who dedicated their time and their their 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.240 skill and their knowledge to creating these games should be 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:23.160 acknowledged and it should be preserved. I think two big 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.160 things that prompt people to question the need to preserve 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.640 games are that there's still this perception among some people 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.480 the video games are meant for kids, like video games 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.040 are for babies. They're just silly diversions, and there's really 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.520 no reason to put any effort into preserving those things. 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:46.000 There's another perception that undermines the concept of preserving video games, 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.079 and that's that they are so tightly connected to commerce. 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.960 They are a product, you know, like you would go 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.720 out and buy a hammer, but you wouldn't necessarily want 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.680 to preserve the hammer for posterity. And you know, not 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.760 all games are made specifically to be sold, but the 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.120 vast majority of them are, so they aren't really considered 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.120 art by some folks. However, I would argue that most 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.600 art is actually meant to be sold. It's not just 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.480 meant to hang on a wall, and the artist makes 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.800 no money from it. I mean, if art was never sold, 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.200 artists wouldn't make a living. Um, you know, whether it's 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:27.160 patronage or it's selling it through an exhibition or whatever. 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.120 Art and commerce always have a relationship with each other. 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:34.840 Otherwise you'd run out of artists because they all starve 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.880 to death. And of course there are countless examples in 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.160 say the fashion world, where people spend truckloads of cash 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.679 on designer goods and they consider these art. Like the 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:50.439 fashion world, that is art art that has been made 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:56.160 to be worn in some way. But even while people 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.600 are spending those truckloads of cash on the latest fashions, 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.080 they do so knowing that the stuff they are buying 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.360 is going to be out of fashion in six months 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:09.600 to a year, Like the thing that is avant garde 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:15.640 and desired today is going to be almost dismissed in 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:20.280 a year's time, which that is the stuff that wrinkles 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:25.080 my brain. Video games. I get fashion. I mean, you 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:26.480 just have to take one look at me and you 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:29.439 would know he doesn't get fashion. That's fair. And I'm 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.560 not saying that fashion is silly or frivolous. I just 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.800 don't get it. But let's talk about video game preservation. 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.320 So one of the methods I have talked about in 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:45.360 fairly recent episodes of tech stuff is the main platform 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.000 and MAME is m a m E and it stands 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:55.079 for multiple Arcade Machine emulator. Name's purpose is to emulate 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.280 or you know, simulate if you like, the circuitry and 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:04.040 program ng of various game platforms. Now, the games themselves 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.360 come in the form of rams, r o ms or 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:12.920 read only memory. There there are people who have copied 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.800 the code off of classic video games to preserve those ROMs. 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:21.480 And originally these ROMs were programmed directly onto microchips. So 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.040 if you were to open up a classic arcade game, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.520 you would see a whole bunch of circuit boards with 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.800 chips on them, and this is the game, like, the 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:34.280 game is physically coded onto the circuit boards, and those 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:38.040 microchips include the ROMs the read only memory that is 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:42.560 the game itself. So in order to create a copy 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.480 of that, you have to strip the code off of 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:47.600 the ROMs, and that's not always easy. In fact, it's 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.359 pretty complicated. And then you also have to create software 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:56.880 that imitates the operation of that actual circuit so that 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.720 the ROMs will run properly, and that also is a 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.640 non trivial thing. So the arcade machines and then later 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:09.520 on cartridge based consoles and also computers would have games 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:14.760 that were programmed in physical circuitry. UH. Cartridges in particular, right, like, 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.280 that's there's a circuit board in a cartridge and that's 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.760 what the game has programmed on. Then later on you 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.000 would have things like images that would be put on 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:26.280 optical discs. We'll get to that too. So the main 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.960 platform mimics the circuitry, allowing the copied code from whatever 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:35.600 the original ROM was to play on a computer. UH 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:39.640 doesn't always play perfectly well. Sometimes the emulator is just 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:44.199 an approximation of how the game would work. In other cases, 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.160 the approximation is incredibly accurate, to the point where it 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.800 feels like you're playing the original arcade machine. It depends 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.319 heavily on the level of emulation for that particular game, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.240 as well as the specs on the machine you're running 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.760 Maime on the first place. We'll come back and talk 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.800 more about Maime and emulation and the reasons why this 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:18.079 is important for preservation after we take this quick break. So, 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.280 the original purpose of MAINE was to serve as a 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:25.600 way to preserve games. Now, obviously a lot of people 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:29.160 have used MAIN software to create like a home arcade 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:32.960 machine that's capable of running hundreds or thousands of different games. 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.240 Like you can even go online and find companies that 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:41.240 offer these things where they will have a computer, often 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.640 powered by a Raspberry Pie, which is a very basic 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:51.280 computer that's running main emulation software and has a like 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.040 a smart card just loaded with gigabytes of ROMs on it. 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.960 But that was not the original intent of creating main 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:01.920 Like what the idea wasn't hey, let's create a way 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.160 for people to get access to these hundreds of arcade 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.360 machines in the comfort of their own home. It was 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:12.320 the idea that we need something that can preserve these 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.280 games because the hardware that the games are built upon 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:20.320 will degrade over time and eventually the last remaining cabinet 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.480 of any given game will stop working, and at that 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.479 point the game is lost. So this is a way 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.960 of preventing that loss from happening. It just so happens 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.720 that It also means that you could create a full 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:40.440 Arcade in one machine by downloading lots of ROMs. However, 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:47.080 you should know downloading ROMs can be illegal. It's technically 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:52.520 copyright violation because you're downloading a copyrighted work without legitimately 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.920 purchasing that work. Doesn't mean that doesn't happen everywhere. It does, 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.720 but it's still illegal. Now, never mind that in some cases, 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:02.760 at least, there's no way for you to buy a 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.840 legal copy of the game, or if the then may 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:08.880 be that the only legal way to buy the game 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:13.480 is to find someone selling it on a market like eBay, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.320 and it might be for an incredibly expensive price that 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.040 that might be the only and there's no guarantee that 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:20.720 those will work. By the way, like you might go 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.120 out and spend a couple of thousand dollars buying a 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.880 Classic Arcade cabinet, find out that you need to do 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:29.840 a lot of maintenance on it in order to make 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.920 it work properly. The circuitry if it's treated well will 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.880 typically hold up for a very long time, but things 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.160 like the actual buttons and controls they wear out. I mean, 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.680 that's just wear and tear. So yeah, it could get 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.200 to a point where there's just there's very few avenues 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:51.000 for you to make a legitimate purchase of a game. Uh. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.520 The way MAME is supposed to be used is that 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:57.800 someone who has a legal right to a roan, like 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.960 they own a game, or maybe they even own the 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.840 I P for the game, Well, they can download the 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:07.080 RAM for their own use and they can run the 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:10.120 main software on a computer. They can activate that RAM, 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.399 and it's totally legal. So for example, let's say that 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.159 you went out and purchased an arcade machine of a 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:23.919 classic game like Elevator Action, which I absolutely and ironically 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:26.879 love and no I cannot justify it, but I love 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.840 that game. Well, let's say you bought a cabinet of that. 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.120 You went out and you you purchased a copy of it. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.440 You could then legally download a RAM of Elevator Action 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.440 and that could serve either as a backup or as 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.440 a replacement for the RAM on the arcade machine itself 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.280 if it had stopped working. So it's kind of like 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.160 making a backup of a recording for your own personal use. 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:54.040 That's acceptable, that's fair use. But if you didn't already 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.720 own a copy of Elevator Action, then downloading the ROM 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:02.800 would essentially be piracy. In fact, not essentially it is piracy. 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.560 As for Mame itself, Mame is totally legal to download. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.800 Mame doesn't have any games on it natively, It's just 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:15.199 a program that emulates different kinds of hardware. Name is 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.719 kind of like a console in a way. It's the 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.480 thing that lets you play the games, but it is 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.760 not the games themselves. So theoretically you should not be 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.840 downloading ROMs for games that you don't already own. However, 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.560 a lot of games are otherwise unavailable, like the companies 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:36.360 that made some of those games have long since vanished, 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.400 so there's nowhere for you to go to to buy them. 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.320 Or sometimes another company has come around and scooped up 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:44.520 the old I P from someone who has gone out 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.359 of business. Sometimes that can be hard to track down, 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:49.520 Like you might think, oh, there's this great game I 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.040 loved when I was a kid. The company that made 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.520 it went out of business. I have no idea who 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:58.159 owns that intellectual property. Because chances are someone bought it 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:00.960 when uh the old but he went out of business. 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.520 So there are a lot of cases we're finding a 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.919 legitimate way to purchase the game you want just doesn't 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.840 appear to exist, and that is frustrating. That being said, 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.439 there are some game creators who have granted permission for 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.080 folks to download ROMs of their games. So these are 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.120 creators who have the right to do that right. They 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.000 are the folks who actually own the intellectual property in 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.719 the first place, so they have the capacity the authority 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.760 to grant permission to people so that they can download 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.159 the ROMs. And the main website does link to ROMs 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.359 that meet that qualification. However, you're not going to find 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.879 any real big names in that list. In fact, you 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.720 may not recognize a single title. There are a couple 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.280 of dozen titles that fall into this category. I actually 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.120 looked them over and I didn't recognize any of them. 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.080 None of them were titles that I was familiar with. 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.840 So to get the stuff that you you know and love, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:58.640 you would have to go elsewhere. Now, I mentioned Arcade Machines, 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:01.920 but that is not the only hard where that MAIM emulates. 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:06.000 Since two thousand fifteen, the main platform has integrated a 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.679 separate emulator called MESS m E s S, which stands 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:15.320 for Multi Emulator super System. So Main's primary purpose was 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:19.320 to preserve arcade games that otherwise would eventually disappear once 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.639 that last working cabinet gave up the ghost. MESS focuses 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.000 more on consoles and computer systems, most of which are 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.360 well out of production, and MESS supports nearly one thousand 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.399 systems in total. Not all of them are fully functional, however, 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.840 so while you could count all the ones that are 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.159 included in the emulator and you would get up to 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:42.760 more than nine hundred, you'd have to keep in mind 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.520 some of those are only partially functional. They are really 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.159 big names on that list, by the way, including the 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:54.760 Nintendo Entertainment System or any s. The Super Nintendo Nintendo 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.680 sixty four is on their Sega Genesis, also known as 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.840 the Mega Drive is there. The Sake of Dreamcast is 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.800 on their older consoles are on there too. The AT 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.600 twenty hundred and Colico Vision and in Television are all 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.160 on there, and obviously lots more game consoles as well 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:15.399 as for computers you name it. I mean there's everything 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:20.840 from Texas instruments to Apple to computer systems, to Commodore computers, 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.239 to Amiga and more. Now, these are all devices that 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.520 have long since been out of production, which means you're 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:29.479 not gonna be able to buy a new one. You 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:32.840 might be able to find a working used one somewhere, 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.880 but chances are emulation is going to be the only 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.719 way you will experience a lot of the programming that 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:43.000 was originally made for those devices. Now again, in a 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:47.760 lot of cases, that software is not technically abandoned ware, 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.280 meaning you know, abandoned ware is something where there's no 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.840 legitimate owner of that i P anymore. It has been abandoned. 0:21:56.960 --> 0:22:02.640 It is just existing on its own with no owner 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:07.840 above it. Someone somewhere owns the i P for most 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.200 of the software that's out there, So you might think 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:13.720 of it as abandoned ware because nobody has done anything 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.680 with it for a very long time, But legally speaking, 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:21.320 it's not because it does still belong to some company 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.639 or person out there. Now. It may be that that 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.720 entity doesn't care if folks download ROMs or images of 0:22:28.760 --> 0:22:33.280 that of that program or game or whatever. Image in 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:36.040 this case means essentially a copy of the code, not 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:41.080 an actual picture of something. But you can't just assume that, 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:43.560 and it's certainly not the case everywhere. I mean, some 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.639 companies like Nintendo, for example, are really well known for 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:51.240 being super protective of their work, even if there is 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:54.560 no way to purchase the titles from the company itself anymore. 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.600 Me just look at Nintendo, and you look at how 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:04.040 for first part games the price never comes down. Like 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:07.280 you could look at first party games that Nintendo cells 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.600 to this day, and the games themselves might be years old, 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:14.280 but the price hasn't budged. That really gives you a 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:17.280 hint at Nintendo's perspective on this kind of thing, which 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:19.680 I'm not saying is a wrong perspective. I'm just saying 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:24.359 it indicates that you're not likely to find Nintendo saying, oh, sure, 0:23:24.440 --> 0:23:27.040 go ahead download images of our games. We don't care that. 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.679 I can't imagine that ever happening. However, let's put aside 0:23:30.720 --> 0:23:33.760 the ownership question for a moment to get back to 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:37.520 the central point of this episode. The main and mess 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:41.040 platforms and others that are like them aim to provide 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:44.640 a way to preserve the games and other programs as well, 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:47.639 but we're focusing mostly on games that had been made 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:51.040 for these old platforms that are no longer in production. 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:55.440 Without the emulators, we would gradually lose access to that work. 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:59.160 We would be fully dependent upon companies re issuing work 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:04.000 which they might not ever do. And computers changed so 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:06.000 quickly that a lot of stuff that was made for 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:10.200 older systems becomes impossible to access otherwise without an emulator. 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:15.040 Right Like, you can get old PC programs and try 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:18.000 to run them on a modern PC, and sometimes it 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:21.120 just becomes inoperable. You can't even use it. I remember 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:27.520