Nintendo Okie

Does it bother anyone else that people destroy NES cartridges?  I can’t stand it.  Even when it is some lame game like Taboo: The Sixth Sense.  I have seen some cool art made with NES carts as well as some interesting videos where they are destroyed but still, it means one less cart will carry on the NES torch.  It may be a frustrating torch that you have to clean with rubbing alcohol and blow into, but it is still a part of gaming history.  That is really my concern, preserving video game history.  

On episode nine of the podcast, we talked a little about the Sega Channel (Sega was always a little ahead of the time unfortunately).  There were several games that were only available in the U.S. through that service.  Mega Man: The Wily Wars is the most prominent to me because I am a huge Mega Man fan and it was never released on a cartridge in this country.  So if I want to buy it, I would have to go to ebay and import a PAL version of the game along with a PAL system because Genesis games a region locked.

The money I could spend on ebay wouldn’t go to the developer or the publisher.  In a case like this, it doesn’t bother me to have an emulated version of the game on my computer.  I know a lot of people hate emulators, but they are actually an important part of preserving the history of our hobby.  Without emulators, some games would never be able to be played again.  Games that appeared only on the Sega Channel are great examples.  Some games are so old and so obscure that nobody knows who holds the rights to their release.  Video games were meant to be played, is it a crime to fulfill the wishes of the creators by emulating there games?  If the creators (or the current rights holders) are not trying to profit from them, I feel it is okay.  The part where I feel emulators are wrong is when you use it to play a game that is available to purchase, on the Wii Shop Channel for instance.

That brings up another question though.  What happens in 10 years when the Wii Shop Channel, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network are long gone?  Will I still be able to play my copy of Lost Winds?  What about N+?  I think this is why I still don’t trust download games and DLC.  I am scared that one day I won’t be able to use it anymore.  If I don’t own it in some tangible form, I cannot preserve it for future play.  Sure you can re-download games from the Wii Shop Channel now, but what happens in three generations when Nintendo stops supporting that service?  Microsoft will soon be ending online service for original Xbox games.  Soon I won’t ever be able to play my copy of Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II anymore.  How long until people can’t play Battlefield 1943 anymore?  Microsoft has already removed games from the Xbox Live Marketplace.  I shudder to think that these games may be lost forever.

I really enjoy when companies release compilations of several of their old games like Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, Namco Museum Battle Collection and Intellivision Lives!.  I have heard people claim that companies use these games to make a quick buck.  That may be true in some cases but I am just happy that these games will continue to live on for future generations to play.  The Virtual Console is another great example of how to keep games alive.  I hope Nintendo continues to support in with their next console generation.  Microsoft is about to release Game Room which will be their version of the Virtual Console.  Do you think the anti-emulator crowd will speak against game room because it emulates old arcade games?  Maybe paying for it changes things.

The National Video Game Archive was founded in September of 2008.  I breathed a sigh of relief when I first heard of it.  I was thankful that others shared my concern.  The archive states that they are “…working to preserve, analyze and display the products of the global videogame industry by placing games in their historical, social, political and cultural contexts.”  Not only do they work to preserve the games themselves, but they also save marketing media, kiosk displays, manuals and game boxes.  If you have never heard of them before or you share my worries of losing games to the clutches of time, I urge you to check out www.nationalvideogamearchive.org.  Perhaps my dream of an all encompassing video game library will become a reality one day.