Should old games be legal to download?

[playminigames]

thats a tough decision, because there some some games that wont ever be re made or the company just forgets about them. There are also some games that you can download on the ps3 that are from the ps1 and ps2. So i think there should be some games that are released and some that they can be downloaded for a few dollars onto your computer, so you can still play them.

 

[fractalfeline]

I'm of the opinion that if a game is no longer being produced by a company, and the company is no longer selling them, and has no intention of remaking it for a new system, and otherwise not making money off of it anymore, then they ought to allow it to be emulated. Or make it cheap enough and easily available so that all us game fans can get those games legally and not have to resort to piracy to get them. I like the idea with PS3 allowing users to download old PS1 and PS2 games, unfortunately I don't have a PS3 and don't know much about it. Though I would imagine most gaming companies are concerned that customers will exploit this and wait for the game to become freely/cheaply available before acquiring the game, which reduces their profits. So they keep the copyrights to prevent people from "waiting for the market price to go down." And there's that slight issue that the really good games won't ever be available cheap and easy, at least not legally, as long as the company believes they can continue making remakes for the new systems. As an avid Final Fantasy fan, this especially hits home, because they even make remakes of the very first Final Fantasy (for the anthology edition, or whatever). Good luck getting Square-Enix to release the copyrights on their big titles.

On a related note, I like how Blizzard's been releasing retro anthology packs for any of us who were too poor to buy that crap when it was new, or have loved our original CDs to death from overuse. Yay Warcraft III and Diablo 1 and 2. Perhaps I'll even pick up Starcraft.

 

[callumacrae]

I think that if a game has totally died (like Abuse, for MS-Dos) it should be legal to download it, but only if the producer of that game does not sell it any more.

To be honest I don't think you're going to get prosecuted for downloading a 30 year old game anyway.

But this raises another question, how old is an "old" game?

~Callum

 

[ichwar]

But this raises another question, how old is an "old" game?

~Callum

I would say a game is old when retailers don't sell the machine it was built to play on. So a ps1 game is old.

 

[Kayos]

I would say a game is old when retailers don't sell the machine it was built to play on. So a ps1 game is old.

I know plenty of retailers who sell old systems. That's a pretty weak argument.

 

[ichwar]

I know plenty of retailers who sell old systems. That's a pretty weak argument.

Ok, let me rephrase that. A game is old when there are no more new machines it was built for in stock or in line. How about that?

 

[Sharky]

Saw this and thought of here: http://www.remaininplay.com/

 

[Kayos]

Ok, let me rephrase that. A game is old when there are no more new machines it was built for in stock or in line. How about that?

You'll always find stores with old consoles in stock.

I see what you're trying to say but your definition of an "old game" is flawed. An old game still has the same copyright protection as a new game (unless of course that copyright has expired or otherwise become void). It doesn't matter if the original system the game was on is in stock at any store and it doesn't matter if the system, game, whatever is still being produced.

Obviously you can try and justify downloading copyrighted games with vague definitions such as yours but they won't hold up in court. That said it's highly doubtful anyone is going to sue you for downloading the Atari 2600 version of pong.

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

You'll always find stores with old consoles in stock.

I see what you're trying to say but your definition of an "old game" is flawed. An old game still has the same copyright protection as a new game (unless of course that copyright has expired or otherwise become void). It doesn't matter if the original system the game was on is in stock at any store and it doesn't matter if the system, game, whatever is still being produced.

Obviously you can try and justify downloading copyrighted games with vague definitions such as yours but they won't hold up in court. That said it's highly doubtful anyone is going to sue you for downloading the Atari 2600 version of pong.

But what if you want to play one single game, but don't want/unable to find anywhere that sells that console, but somehow manages to find the game in some store. If you buy it and somehow emulate it on your computer, would that be legal or illegal?

 

[Kayos]

But what if you want to play one single game, but don't want/unable to find anywhere that sells that console, but somehow manages to find the game in some store. If you buy it and somehow emulate it on your computer, would that be legal or illegal?

If you own a physical copy of the game and you emulate it on your PC then it's legal.

If you're just downloading it without owning a physical copy then it's technically illegal.

 

[xadrieth]

Other than game, I think that all software 15 years or older (since last production of a hard copy, ie floppy disk) should be released as public domain, because, who is really going to use it, or make a profit off of it?

I'm glad that a lot of video game companies (including Nintendo) release the source code for the games after a decade or two. And it's nice that we can now play these old games on newer machines since a lot of developers are able to create ports, but the problem is that we also need the game media, which should be free as soon as they release the source code.

Take a look at Duke Nukem 3D.

There are about 5+ ports of it, but no game media to go along, so you will need to find it, or head to a website to download for charge.

 

[felabria]

I think... YES OF COURSE. Like the GBA(or the emulator: VBA[VisualBoyAdvance]) I like that games.
But: The best that i would see to be legal to download/play is PS X!!!!
I don't think that would happen because there are now games from PS X that are available on the PSP for just 5 dollars(or 3 euro) that's nothing. The most expansive PS X game is still Final Fantasy VII that's for 10 Euro on the Playstation Store

 

[estate]

one day everything will be down loadable, i can't imagine we'll be using optical discs to play games.But u still gonna pay for it unless it's ad supported.

 

[Kayos]

one day everything will be down loadable, i can't imagine we'll be using optical discs to play games.But u still gonna pay for it unless it's ad supported.

That's actually very close to the reality of it. Right now many people don't like the idea of not having a physical copy of a game but digital delivery is the next step in the media format war.

 

[callumacrae]

I can't see the point in hard copys any more. If I have any hard copies it's because it's illegal to sell them. Well, it's not, but I'd have to delete it off my computer.

Some people say, but what if your computer dies?

Sorry to be biased, but with iTunes & online music, if your computer dies then you can redownload it for free.

And you can already get stereos that wirelessly connect to computer & the internet.

~Callum

 

[allofus]

Free version & Paid version.

If I was the gaming industry I would not be trying to get around downloads and making it illegal to do so, instead I would be seeking ways to make this trend work for me.

If adverts / product placements for example were added to games and released for free then the advertiser would get a mass of publicity and the games industry would still get paid. If you like the game and want it to gather dust on your shelf you can go but a freshly pressed on none biodegradable materials hard copy.

Everyone is then happy, except the polar bears of course and Al Gore.

Personally I do not think it should be illegal to download anything.

If you want to get paid find a way for people to want to pay you.

Besides I may download a file called "this is my opensource game.zip and it turned out to be "this is copyright material.iso" when unpacked, am I now a criminal?

Alas, these activities can find you in a civil court with a big fat corporation and hot shot lawyers looking to take the shirt off of your back.

Some artists are maturing, aerosmith released it's album for free download and had a donate the worth button.

They basically said that our fans will reward us if we do good work..... They made a fist full of cash. Concert tickets flew out of the door and EVERYONE is happy.

EXCEPT for the greedy fat lazy folk who were telling us that the 8 track would destroy the music industry and then went on to sell cd's at fixed prices, were found guilty numerous times for price fixing and still moan that their multi-million empires are at risk.

I have little sympathy for greed, but do recognise that talent is hard to come by and well invested time deserves a reward.

If you contacted the ps1 game developer directly, the creative team who put it together and said to them if I send you £1. $1 or whatever for a copy of your old title the person would probably oblige you and get you a copy.

Go direct and be human about it and I think you may get some decent responses.


Taking of old games....

Grand Tourismo on the PS1 was absolutely out of this world for it's time.... amazing piece of art and technical display.

Do you remember Donkey Kong Country??? that cartridge somehow turned the super nintendo into a super computer for it's day. I am only 30 but it seems the world is a different place already.

I had a friend in the USA who used to send me games over, had to put this converter into my machine that was like something off of star-treck. Apparently I was a criminal even at 12 yrs old. Before that we had teh spectrum games.

Who here can remember the squealing headers and yellow/blue psychedelic lines... then the colour changes, change the tape and replace it with your 'illegal copy'.

Yes I used to be a hardened criminal as a child.... I was raised on a council estate and me and my mates shafted the corporate giants out of about £5 so we could play a few games and enjoy being a child just like the rich kids could.

Send me to jail already.

Personally I cannot afford £50 for a game and empathise with the little mights of today who are expected to have a banker father and a video game library like Mr EA Games himself or they have a hard time socialising...

Mr EA Games can afford his extortionate prices, he gets kickbacks for splattering illuminate and NWO propaganda all over his titles.

If being a 14 yr old with low income family downloading the odd game that he then goes and tells his rich kid mates is awesome and should BUY is a crime then I think this is diabolical.

The game manufacturer should be paying the 14 yr old for his frank and honest review of their title.

OK, enough said...

Hope this post is not considered to be a breach of forum rules, just airing an opinion, not trying to encourage criminality...

JUST SAY NO KIDS!
There, now the lawyers are happy too...

 

[Livewire]

The only time digital-only-downloads will pay is when the entire planet can't connect at anything slower than 10megs.

I say that because I have my extreme doubts games are going to get -smaller- in size; there's ones out there like GTA4, and at 1MB/sec it'd take roughly 4.55hours to download in full (~16gb, I'm honestly not sure what size the discs are).

At 1meg (about 0.1MB/sec) it's more like 45.5 hours.

Honestly even at 10meg for a game that size, I'd rather just go and buy it.




Unless it's GTA4 for pc; stay away at all costs, I have to go head-2-head with bestbuy and see if they can take this hunk of crap back (never seen a PC game this unstable in a few years, which is horrible.). Hopefully they can, or I'm gunna be stuck with a game that can't run more than an hour without crashing and taking my audio with it.





EDIT: Back on the original subject, I'm behind the "should be able to download old games" argument, but a lot of the PC games would be -bad- to try and run on Vista or W7 when they're back from the 98se era. Can't get some of them to run on XP, let alone anything newer

 

[allofus]

ps1 games are pretty small compared with 3 dual layer dvd's

Cloud Computing and terminal access is teh internet of the future. Get a login and password and your online account is in yer face within a few seconds. No OS direct, but your preferences and subscriptions brought to you whichever machine you happen o be at.

Clearly the backbone needs to be able to transfer gigs, not megs a second and clearly boffins are working on it.

I can download a movie sized file (700mb) in 10 minutes or so already and things are not getting any slower.

I think many gamers do not bother with disks, they tend to get scratched and it is a pain to take out the rock band and put in the game. A gb of ssd can already fit on a pin head practically so flimsy cd / dvd type mediums will no doubt be phased out. Sticks and cards being the replacement. That and remote storage.

I never burn to disk because experience tells me half the time it will be a glorified coaster when I have finished with it, aka only good to put my coffee mug on.

SSD and 100+ bm's is already here, think what tomorrow has to offer.


The industry simply has to change it's ways or fail and failure is not an option.

 

[achilleasgr]

Why should they be legal? That wouldn't profit anyone.
Though if you are seriously afraid that there will be consequences if you don't follow the legal path what can I say...

 

[idontkno]

Yeah, games should be free after they've become obsolete and have become production shelved.