What will happen to our games over time?

I see so many retro gaming sites that worry about things like bit rot, disc rot, or save batteries dying (ie. older cartridge games).

I happened upon this subject after reading an article about a museum that collects old games. They're fighting aginst time to preserve games. Some may not work due things like bit rot.

It seems as though no matter how well you take care of your games, they'll eventually deteriorate one way or another.

I don't want to take my GBA Final Fantasy or GBC Zelda or Pokemon games and try to play them years from now just to see that the save battery has died and all my data is gone forever. I worked hard on a lot of my games.

Nintendo doesn't do repair on older consoles so you have to find replacement parts on your own.

What about memory cards for my PS2 and GC? What about hard drives for newer consoles?

And DVDs and CDs. None of my games have a single scratch so they won't decay from neglect. I'm real anal about it. But mother nature (humity, temperature) has other plans.

It's like I have to store my games in a temperature controlled safe to preserve them.

A few articles on the interenet say that over time the game manuals will damage games due to chemicals in the paper. So what, I gotta store all my game manuals seperately? (This is generally referring to disc based games since they're kept in cases with the manual.)

I know that some of you don't care. Especially those that don't keep games for very long. Those who trade in games every other week to get new games. Or those that trade in consoles and regularly delete save data when you don't play that game anymore.

However, those of us that keep every game we have ever bought since we were kids certainly care. Collectors certainly care. I'm somewhat of a collector myself. Someone like me who still has 100% completion data for all my games certainly cares. I have a GC memory card just for my completed data. If anything ever happened to it...well, let's just say that those around me won't be safe. I know those with much older consoles should worry about this. I don't know about me. I have an N64, PS2, GC, GBA, and a GBC. I may have to worry about my GBC and GBA games's save batteries though.

That's one reason I think backwards compatibility is so important. If an older console breaks, it may be hard to repair it due to lack of support and/or parts. If you can still play those games on a newer console though it's cool.

This will only become a bigger issue as time goes on.

Your thoughts?

You can buy used consoles on ebay, so that's not much of a problem. I myself did it since I only had a N64 when I was young, I recently bought the other consoles used and I dont have a problem with that.

As for material fatigue on CDs, DVDs, Cartridges, well, nobody knows how old they can get, it certainly depends on where you stored them, but even then you cant be sure. I know its great playing a game that you enjoyed 20 years ago, and you can do that, but youll just have to find out how you can keep playing it without the material then. Store the data, I dont know, dont worry, if it should pose a problem Im sure that people will come up with something that will help.

Oh this makes me sad, this thread makes me think about how I am conflicted between selling my dads old Sega Genisis and his game collection on eBay or keeping it, I would be getting rid of the first game system I ever played, but I need the money to get a new computer.

What do you think of this collection, Herzog Zwei with case and inscruction booklet, Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition with case and instruction booklet, Mortal Kombat with case and instruction booklet, R-Type with case and instruction booklet, Altered Beast with case and instruction booklet, I have more games but those are the ones I really remember.

one word.

emulators.

not the real deal but a great way to preserve video game history.

The inevitable deterioration of video-games is bound to such a slow, painstaking process that by the time our bodies have shriveled and our minds have been lost, they'll still be functionally working. Even in the case of cartridge batteries, they are easily replaceable. Data may be lost perhaps, but there exists another opportunity to relive a few memories. If people are still capable of playing titles from thirty years ago and even forty years ago (those whom are perhaps addicted to the Magnavox Odyssey), then there really shouldn't be any existing concerns.

I sell most of my old games.

This is definitely something that will end up happening sooner or later. I know I was SO annoyed when my data for Mystic Quest on the SNES just vanished because it was a really old cartridge. I had the same thing happen with my save data for Soul Calibur 3 on the PS2, the memory card became corrupted/damaged and that was the end of it.

HDD's will inevitably get wiped somehow, game discs will get scratches on them or just fail to work for some random reason. Technology isn't perfect, there is a flaw in everything. To save deterioration happening I can see everything going digital, but as I said, the HDD is still a physical component that can and will deteriorate no matter what we do. Data gets damaged if we transfer it as well.

Oh this makes me sad, this thread makes me think about how I am conflicted between selling my dads old Sega Genisis and his game collection on eBay or keeping it, I would be getting rid of the first game system I ever played, but I need the money to get a new computer.

What do you think of this collection, Herzog Zwei with case and inscruction booklet, Street Fighter II Special Champion Edition with case and instruction booklet, Mortal Kombat with case and instruction booklet, R-Type with case and instruction booklet, Altered Beast with case and instruction booklet, I have more games but those are the ones I really remember.

metroidprime55

Games that old and you still have the original case and manual? Wow! Keep those! They're worth big money since they're complete.

I don't collect older games like that. I never the consoles those games were on since I was real young. I'm collecting games from the sixth gen on so I'm collecting PS1, N64, PS2, GC, GBA games and whatnot.

one word.

emulators.

not the real deal but a great way to preserve video game history.

sydstoner

I know that's one way some archives are making sure to have a copy of a game in playable format. That way, even if physical copies die, then they still have a way to play it.

Hopefully I won't have to use emulators to enjoy my games since I take excellent care of them. Furture generations? Probably.

This is definitely something that will end up happening sooner or later. I know I was SO annoyed when my data for Mystic Quest on the SNES just vanished because it was a really old cartridge. I had the same thing happen with my save data for Soul Calibur 3 on the PS2, the memory card became corrupted/damaged and that was the end of it.

HDD's will inevitably get wiped somehow, game discs will get scratches on them or just fail to work for some random reason. Technology isn't perfect, there is a flaw in everything. To save deterioration happening I can see everything going digital, but as I said, the HDD is still a physical component that can and will deteriorate no matter what we do. Data gets damaged if we transfer it as well.

Debus42

The whole corrupt save data from SCIII? Blame the game. It's a known bug. Unless of course the actual memory card got damaged. Some of my friends have a seperate memory card just for SCIII so if the corrupt bug happens, then other game data is safe somewhere else.

Since no physical component lasts forever, then we just have to keep making back-ups or transfers over and over for eternity. We just have to rely on future generations to continue doing so.

Even if I can't preserve the game the game itself or the data on it, I at least want to make copies of all my save data especially older cartridgees that rely on save batteries like my GBC and GBA games. I'll back up my game saves to a PC using "questionable means" if I have to.

I suppose they'll strictly become collectible items.