I've heard a lot of people in games industry talk about the short life of games. How games they enjoyed as a child may not even be playable by the time they have grandchildren. Or how their Steam libraries may be lost someday when the servers shut down. While I understand that, what I don't understand is when they claim this to be a new dilemma unique to gaming and the digital age.
Sure, there are new ways for the actual process of losing the game to occur. Last I heard, movies on DVD didn't have to worry about their servers shutting down. However, books and movies had their early times as well. Many early films were lost within a few decades, and not all of the first books were written on long lasting paper. They also bring up how the game we know today may not be the game of the same name in a decade, or even just a year. Thus is the way of constant updates, but so too is the way of translation and rewriting.
So while we wonder at how long Homer's "Odyssey" has remained a part of culture and worry about whether or not our kids will be able to enjoy Banjo Tooie, do realize that the former still had centuries of progress in its art to build off of. Games have only been around for a few decades and we've already recognized and go to lengths to deal with the problem.
I'm optimistic that your Atari Jaguar exclusive "Highlander" game will somehow be playable for the decades to come. You'll probably be able to thank The Spoony One for it.
Unless the apocalypse or something like that happens. Then you can forget about it.
Sure, there are new ways for the actual process of losing the game to occur. Last I heard, movies on DVD didn't have to worry about their servers shutting down. However, books and movies had their early times as well. Many early films were lost within a few decades, and not all of the first books were written on long lasting paper. They also bring up how the game we know today may not be the game of the same name in a decade, or even just a year. Thus is the way of constant updates, but so too is the way of translation and rewriting.
So while we wonder at how long Homer's "Odyssey" has remained a part of culture and worry about whether or not our kids will be able to enjoy Banjo Tooie, do realize that the former still had centuries of progress in its art to build off of. Games have only been around for a few decades and we've already recognized and go to lengths to deal with the problem.
I'm optimistic that your Atari Jaguar exclusive "Highlander" game will somehow be playable for the decades to come. You'll probably be able to thank The Spoony One for it.
Unless the apocalypse or something like that happens. Then you can forget about it.