It's sad how great games of old have little to no means of reobtaining circulation and cash flow to the proper administrations that made it happen, whether its the publisher, owner of rights, or developers. All we have left is piracy and ebay hand-me-downs that cost a small fortune. Luckily Nintendo and Sony are digging through the archives and supporting some more notable titles for download, but at the rate they're going, we'll only ever see a fraction of the golden years when it comes to games. Lucky for us though, the fans are more tenacious with their efforts and more or less, everything available for all, for free ;D
Would be neat if games can become public domain similar to films and literature, but thanks to copyright laws, those timelines extend far beyond the death of the original author lol.
Yes, and those same laws that were extended due to bribes by the very copyright holders it benefits (Disney, I'm waiving my finger at you).
It would be to the industries benefit if they opened up more, and didn't stifle content, yet they continue to close the doors.
I understand to an extent, but copyright has gotten way out of hand. It was never meant solely to protect investments or to make people money, it was to promote innovation of creative works, that's it.
I will soon get a copy of a few thousand roms, if I narrowed it down to the ones I wanted, probably be a few hundred. If I had the option, I'd gladly pay the original creator $1 each for an old game out of production.
I'm sure thousands of others would as well.