Be Excellent To Each Other

Well, nearly worthless..

I was reading something the other day about games collectors. Currently, if I buy an old game for the SNES, Playstation or pretty any old computer or console, then I’ll still be able to play it now. Providing I have the relevant hardware then the gaming experience will be exactly the same as it was when the game first came out.

Some of the current generation of games rely very heavily on updates and patches to make them work so what happens in the future with our collections? In 10 years time, if the Playstation network has changed to coincide with a new console, are they still going to provide patches? Games such as GT5 are a completely different experience with the patches installed so any future collection will be a strange one to say the least.

It’s making me sad thinking about the future and having to rely on big companies to provide these patches to make our games work. Whilst the physical media should be around for a long time, the patches that ultimately make the games won’t be.

I had great joy in playing some games the other day that I last played when I was a child on an emulator. Old Atari games that I used to play with my parents brought back loads of great memories but will I be able to do this with my children when they’re older? I hope so... I like my games collection and I would like it to continue.

There might be emulators. Or, more likely, you'll be invited to buy the games you already own again, as per any number of re-issues and HD re-vamps this generation.

Eventually those will become the only options, as the hardware breaks down and no spares are available.

I'm all for HD remakes as they mean that people (me) who missed classics (Shadow of the Colossus) the first time around will get to play them again.

But not all games get HD remakes. The new Silent Hill HD remake is a great example as it doesn't include the first game in the series.

I understand that. That's the problem with these re-releases, you're at the mercy of whoever is picking the games. That's why Game Room died horribly, because they went straight in for the extremely old, extremely niche Intellivision and 2600 games instead of weaning us onto the idea with lots of proper arcade games first.

Perhaps in future there will be obsessives who've archived all the patches so you will be able to update your games?

Like you say it won't be as easy as with current old games and I don't know what it'll be but I'm sure that the sheer volume of nostalgic video game fans out there will ensure some sort of solution.

Didn't they omit Silent Hill 1 because it was a PS1 game and would look terrible upscaled? They'd need to with it what happened with the Gamecube REmake.

The Resident Evil remake? What happened with that?

Instead of just upscaling they completely redrew all the graphics. Sadly I don't think this would ever happen now, as companies seem to just want to churn stuff out for minimal effort.

Ah right, I thought there was something bad that happened. You're right, the Resident Evil remake was excellently done.

I'm sure in 10 years time or whatever, there'll be a way to patch these games with minimal fuss. Either via USB stick on your hacked PS3 or via internet by emulating on PC.

Conversely, I would imagine it to be quite the niche market. How many re-makes hit the iOS top 100?

Do you think? Given how popular and mainstream games are these days? Saying that though a lot of the experiences people enjoy now with games will be all but impossible to recreate in years to come since they are largely online and multiplayer.

On a vaguely similar note, I miss the fact that I can't play any of the old lightgun games as I don't have, and don't want, a bulky CRT in the house.

Very much this. I'd love to play House of the Dead 2 on my Dreamcast.

Point Blank with a GunCon, pinacle of gaming. The only game I was actually proper top of the arcade leaderboard good on, all due to playing it endlessly at home.

By keeping a collection of games, you're robbing EA of money. You're not allowed to enjoy games of more than 18 months old without paying for it in a monthly subscription model, and then they're allowed by law to electronically neuter the game from the other side of the world without notice. You're effectively snatching the diamond encrusted bread out of the hands of Bobby Kotick's child by playing games.

It's after the end of the world. Don't you know that yet?

Putting an arbitary year on it, I don't think there's much prior the release of the N64 that would garner much attention. I think that console was the pivotal moment in bringing gaming to the mainstream. Few 18 year olds now would give too much of a shit about Goldeneye on the N64, for example.

Lots of snes games that use batteries for saves don't work (for saving) any more.

I wonder how my long-dormant backup RAM for my Sega CD is doing... both the internal memory and the extra capacity cartridge.

But the batteries can be changed can't they? As I understand it, it's a bit of a faff but it can be done.

Easier than downloading a patch that may not exsist anyway.

There has been a few really good HD versions of games. The Halo one (obviously only because it is halo) was a complete remake with all new assets (but you can switch to the old graphics instantly with the press of a button), the Monkey Island remake was a similar deal. Then there's the Strangers Wrath HD version which used much hugher quality original assets (before they were squeezed into the video memory of the original xbox) and was very nicely touched up. I think the splinter cell HD collection uses the assets from the PC versions of the games too.

It certainly varies a lot from title to title. I'm sure someone will be along to tell us how the Devil May Cry remake was done...

Capcom have a track record for doing them fairly sloppily. Even for utter classics like Resident Evil 4. Just the original assets displayed at a higher resolution.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... ion-review

I'd rather have backward compatibility but with the exception of the Wii and PS2 there's never really been full implementation anywhere, so straight upscales are the best we can get in that regard. I see things like this as a middle ground between a full HD makeover and back-compatibility.

I think the big question is where's my upscaled San Andreas with achievements, so that I can stop needing any other games, ever.

PS2 had a few gaps, notably being unable to do the MGS mission disc

If GTA V isn't going to be another San Andreas, you could always just plug your 360 pad into your computer and mod the shit out of the PC version. There are some amazing "upscaled" addons for it.

(San Andreas is my favourite game of all time too: you can do anything!)

Does the PS3 that can do BackCompat not do all PS2 games, too? I've not found any it can't do. Out of the four I've tried.

It's like 99% compatibility I think. The USA model that has full hardware BC is more like 99.9%.

There's also a handful of games that require specific hardware peripherals that aren't compatible with the PS3.

And other platforms are far worse off: many C64/Speccy-era tapes/disks are now dead.