[game_preservation] Abandonware

[Captain Commando]

Wow, that list is pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing! Out of curiosity, how
much space does all this software take up? I don't see any 'meta-metadata'
regarding that, but it was a question regarding the feasibility of actually
archiving all this stuff onto hard drives, digital tape, or optical media
for long-term storage. Obviously this doesn't include every single piece of
software made for those platforms though...

-DM

On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 9:28 PM, Simon Carless <simon at archive.org> wrote:


> Here's a post I made on the most recent renewal of the DMCA exemption for

> abandonware - but as Andrew notes, this only applies to libraries/archival

> institutions:

>

> http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/11/dmca_exemption_for_game_archiv.php

>

> This abandonware question seems to go round and round on the SIG from time

> to time, and the answer, I think, is simple. Leave the abandonware work to

> the crazily committed grey market orgs such as TOSEC:

>

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOSEC

>

> For those who haven't seen, it's basically the best index of games with

> associated ROMs ever created - here's a recent .DAT file:

>

> http://www.tosec.org/userfiles/Complete_(TOSEC-v2007-03-14_CM).zip<http://www.tosec.org/userfiles/Complete_%28TOSEC-v2007-03-14_CM%29.zip>

>

> Needless to say, you can find the complete sets on various torrent sites,

> and I don't really believe they are in danger of being lost. It would be

> nice for official archives to keep copies of them, but that would mean the

> archive would have to have physical copies of each of the games, of course.

>

> The problem with abandonware is that many people are willing and happy to

> stretch the concept of abandonware to any out of print game, no matter if it

> has commercial value or not.

>

> So maybe the SIG should cover and even archive the DATs from TOSEC,

> abstractly. Since that's just metadata. Just no linking to Home Of The

> Underdogs pages, etc.

>

> s!

>

> On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 3:50 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>

> wrote:

>

>> There's a large body of worthwhile research there which I had forgotten to

>> put in our resources section. It is still very worthwhile, and if not more

>> so due to each articles respective age. While it might have dried up right

>> now, a future project for the SIG certainly will be more articles like those

>> :) so maybe in the future a push can be lead to get a few people

>> contributing there.

>>

>> Problem is it must take a long while to properly research each article in

>> any kind of depth. I presume if anyone wanted to contribute to the features

>> they still could though? (you won't remove it entirely I hope!)

>>

>> And your thoughts on it are noted, a shame such a mission was thwarted

>> even if illegal, although it is interesting to know the past of it, since I

>> had no clue (I wasn't even online in 1997). I'll keep in mind your view it

>> is still worthwhile though, which I do agree with.

>>

>> Andrew

>>

>> Jim Leonard wrote:

>>

>>> Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>>>

>>>> Thanks for the article link in any case Mike, I should really categorise

>>>> the Mobygames features articles into the resource list properly.

>>>>

>>>

>>> While I'm flattered, I don't think you'll be seeing many MobyGames

>>> feature articles in the future.  I think that aspect of Moby has atrophied.

>>>  Still, I did do legitimate research on the subject back then.

>>>

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>

>

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>



-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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