The Future of emulation
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Does the gaming industry move from games on physical media to digital downloads present any challenges to the emulators' world of copying game roms? i'm wondering if the games I purchased and am presently enjoying ( say on switch) will eventually be unavailable once my dedicate hardware stops working and cannot be replaced?
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@ras_oscar There are already preservation from download content and games. I have seen Nintendo DS or PSP download only games archived already. You have to download the game in order to play it "offline", so it can be archived. The bigger problem to me are all the updates or worse, the online only games like MMOs. Or worse, if some games become Streaming only, then it is impossible to archive them. Even on the Switch some games are only available through Streaming, because the cartridges are expensive. I think most games are available on other platforms too, so not a big loss. But what if they start doing this with games not available somewhere else?
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I for one decline to support any games that aren't playable without an internet connection. I bought it I should be able to play it when and where I choose.
I am playing GTA definitive (physical) all 3 games require a digital download to play. Not sure what exactly is on the carriage, I suspect nothing that would allow me to play without the download. I'm fairly sure I would not be able to loan( or sell) a game cartridge to another person and have the able to download and play play the game, like earlier game carts.
If/when nintendo issues the inevitable next generation hardware and closes the eshop for the current hardware, are my games going to break?
What concerns me is that periodically my internet connection drops off. There are 2 games I have played that will pause and complain that they cannot connect. If I poke it a couple time it will resume without the internet connection. Not sure why it even maintains an internet connection.
It is my practice to test a game by turning my switch to airplane mode to verify I can still play the game. -
@ras_oscar I think this is in general a common sense I would expect from people, sadly not everyone thinks like you. The thing with online games is, that some games only work as online game in multiplayer sessions in example. Some games allow for custom server, so you could play these games even if the official servers was offline and no longer supported. In that sense, these games are preserved. What I don't accept are single player games that require internet connection to be played. Even if I am almost always on.
When a game company shuts down the server for a specific generation of consoles, then there are three ways: 1. Either you can still download and play the games online, but not purchase, 2. You can only download games, but not play online, 3. You cannot download, play online nor can you purchase something. Nintendo seems to going the route 1. For digital only purchased games, this is acceptable. But the question is how long. Most companies do it like 2 or even often 3. EDIT: Okay, so I am watching some news with reports (take this with a grain of salt) that in the future Nintendo could really shutdown everything, like in the category 3 I have listed above. So, I take my word back about Nintendo, until everything is clear.
But as said, for preservation purposes, as long as games can be downloaded and saved, they can be archived. So for the future of emulation, this is not an issue. Even games that require internet connection to pass can be modified in a simple manner to ignore that test.
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Any Idea why games that have no online component ( say GTA3 of ACNH) maintain a connection and complain when it is interrupted? to me its unnecessary processor overhead and server space.
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@ras_oscar As a sort of DRM, at least this is how I understand it. You have to be an authorized user and the system checks all the time.
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@ras_oscar said in The Future of emulation:
I for one decline to support any games that aren't playable without an internet connection.
Same here, with only a handful of exceptions (Minecraft, the Borderlands series, Dying Light). I also boycot Steam while having 500+ games in my GOG library, that I also keep locally on my NAS. Finally, I support the Evercade (handheld and VS) for its physical, offline concept.
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If that is the case, the license checks will eventually go away as the manufacturer looses interest in maintaining servers to support them.
I have an old copy of a popular office suite on my PC. When I installed it (from CD) on my current computer it complained that my licenses have been consumed. I had installed it on 3 previous computers, all owned and still physically in my possession. The manufacturer does NOT have a mechanism for harvesting unused licenses to reuse on future computers :( The office suite told me I was working on a 90 day "evaluation license", after which it still opened files and displayed them but would not let me save changes. I moved on to other things, mostly because I have a work computer with a more recent version of the software and any new files I need to create I can do on that machine.
A couple months went by and I forgot I was no longer licensed. I opened my old office installation and was able to create, edit and save old and new files. I believe in the interim the manufacturer had decided that license checks were no longer cost effective for that generation of software and repurposed the servers to other products. I keep this version because its one of the last ones that don't purport to rent you the software and charge an annual fee to maintain operation.
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The Wiiu and 3DS emulation scene will be the area to watch for the foreseeable. Nintendo is about to cut off their online stores. Both scenes are very big on emulators using personal copies of legally purchased games and both systems are still 'current' product for Nintendo. Copyright is copyright no matter the age (in as far as 99% of video games are concerned) and scenes can impose any restrictions they like, but when was the last time someone insisted you have a legit copy of a arcade board for MAME?
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