Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
Ralph, in a very broad, general sense you are right, but . . . (ain't there always a but  ) the games are being lost because they were available only in the one form. Few books are being lost to posterity because they are only available in the Kindle Topaz format. With rare exception, every book that is available as a DRMed ebook is available in some other form, perhaps nonDRM audio or p. |
May I respectfully disagree, Rhadin? Look at the creation and release of GPL/public domain emulators for so many early machines. And where the emulators are, the software can be run. Getting it converted (to the layout of the new machine) may be difficult, but once done, it can be run for as long as the emulators can be run. And yes, you can run an emulator inside an emulator.....
But DRM and the laws involved with DRM prevent you from legally preserving these games.
Let me give you an example. How many of you have heard of a game called M.U.L.E. ? It was one of the first 4 games released (in a block) by EA. It won game of the year by various publications in 1984. It was written for the Atari 800 and later ported to the Commodore 64. it was never ported to any other machine. It's still quite playable today.
If you have a working Atari 800
and a working 5 1/4 floppy
with the Atari specific controller mods. 50 Years from now it will be just a name in a magazine and old game playing manual. But if you have an Atari 800 emulator, there are "darknet" copies stripped of their DRM, that will run on the emulator with no problems (so I've heard). The only reason it may exist in 50 years is due to those 1. public spirited emulator writers, and 2. those horrible thieves who broke the DRM while the equipment still existed to save the programs.