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Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

npr.org

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Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#61

Post by mattl »

bentley wrote: post #60
mattl wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's strictly true though... if you bought a Beatles' LP in 1971 you can't do what you want with it. There are still rules about what you can and cannot do with the reproduction of it.

There are basic, fundamental things you can do with a physical LP that you can’t with “licensed” bits. For starters, you can resell an LP. Can you resell a music file?

Probably not from any of the big labels at least, so you couldn't resell your Beatles' album download.

Physical media makes it easier to do things but those same things aren't without issues just because they originated on physical media.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#62

Post by toast0 »

rektide wrote: post #42

I'm shocked a company with as good of a track record as a reliable gaming company to have in your living room & backpack would make such an incredibly shortsighted & negative a frackas as this. This is such a huge unforced error. Nintendo has such a huge cash reserve, & can easily own this for another couple decades, at minimal cost. However they failed to materialize the internal will to do the obviously right & eas…

They already shut down the Wii shop, I think with about $4 of my credit on it too. If I had a Wii U, I think there was a way to migrate content and credit, but I don't have a Wii U; thankfully, they've moved away from the Flooz model of buy credits in fixed amounts before you buy content with the credits that many of the consoles were doing. That they're keeping the store online for redownloads is a nice touch though, but for how long?

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#63

Post by bastardoperator »

asdff wrote: post #5

What a shame the article spreads some fud about roms and diminishes the community, making it seem like a futile individual effort: "In order to play a game on an emulator, you need a copy of the original title, commonly saved as a ROM (or read-only memory) file. Depending on how the title is copied, what the condition of the cartridge or game disc is in, or the geographic region the game is locked to, you can find yo…

My kid has been playing with mame and roms since around 8 years old, he's 16 now, sure I used to have to jump in from time to time, but if anything ROM's and custom built images are what got my son into a basic understanding of how a lot of tech works. If a kid can do it so can others. The sheer amount of effort that goes into emulators is insane and I'm grateful for being able to share a lot of my childhood with my son because of those people's work and dedication.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#64

Post by deergomoo »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #46

Does anyone have any 3DS Eshop game recommendations I need to buy before the closure? Unique stuff that can't be obtained on other platforms?

Attack of the Friday Monsters has shown up in a lot of recent “cool stuff on the 3DS eShop that isn’t available anywhere else” retrospectives.

It’s worth noting though that it’s trivially easy to softmod a 3DS and install any game you like from archive.org, as well as a bunch of cool homebrew.

I’m torn, personally—I of course want to support the developer, but buying something in the knowledge that I’ll lose the ability to re-download it almost immediately feels like it’s just encouraging the apathy the commercial games industry has towards preservation.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#65

Post by sumtechguy »

jamesgeck0 wrote: post #57
dbrueck wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how Valve will behave in the long term, but so far this has been one of the best things about Steam (other great things include auto management of updates and making multiplayer Just Work). Our Steam games library goes back well over a decade and anything we ever want to play still works. Separately, during that same time period we bought 4-5 consoles, and currently exactly zero of those console games ar…

Older titles do occasionally have issues. Fortune Summoners has weird input lag, and Split/Second is incredibly picky about gamepads, for example. Fortunately the community guides usually have workarounds or fan patches.

I have about 2500 titles owned going back to the early 90s. Of those I have about a dozen or so that just do not work. The entire DOS set is emulated fairly good these days. A few are starforce being the usual suspect and a 'no-cd' crack not being available. I have 5 or so that just do not work on newer version of windows. Either relying on some quirk of XP/98 or a particular CPU speed range. One is longest journey which works again thru scummvm.

Emulation is about the only way I can keep my games running long term. Due to hw changes or OS changes.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#66

Post by jonny_eh »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #9
asdff wrote: post #5

What a shame the article spreads some fud about roms and diminishes the community, making it seem like a futile individual effort: "In order to play a game on an emulator, you need a copy of the original title, commonly saved as a ROM (or read-only memory) file. Depending on how the title is copied, what the condition of the cartridge or game disc is in, or the geographic region the game is locked to, you can find yo…

>Meanwhile, people have been distributing roms for 25 years Almost exclusively illegally, hence the "fraught with legal issues." Downloading a ROM for a game you own on a cartridge violates US law. You need to create your own copy, where you very likely will face the issues they raise. Or you technically violate the law, which NPR likely doesn't want to condone for a puff piece.

> puff piece

How was this article a puff piece? It's highlighting a large and growing issue around preserving our culture, often overlooked by the mainstream.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#67

Post by jonny_eh »

bentley wrote: post #24

It doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve been buying games on Steam for 15 years. Even my earliest purchases are still downloadable and playable, and have been on every PC I’ve owned, including most recently the Steam Deck. The same is true for my GOG library. Even more so, since I can (and do) save the DRM‐free installers of the games I buy. Don’t reward hostile media platforms with your money or your attention!

It's the same for the 3DS and WiiU eShops. Nintendo has said you'll be able to download your purchased content into the forseeable future. They're shutting down the ability to purchase content.

Steam has also removed the ability to purchase some content: https://delistedgames.com/all-delisted-steam-games/

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#68

Post by jonny_eh »

ticviking wrote: post #12

My question in the face of these kinds of actions is what can a non-technical person do in the face of having access to their “purchases” taken away? My younger brother deals with autism and is worried that he won’t be able to play his games anymore if something happens. What’s the first place to go to to actually own what you bought on these platforms?

Your purchases are not being taken away. This shutdown only affects future purchases.

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#69

Post by htag »

lawn wrote: post #48

I recently bought a console and was considering a Nintendo Switch but went for the much more open Steam Deck instead. And I can now play almost any released Nintendo game, even a lot of the Switch games can be emulated well (my kids love Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros!). Honestly, if you're fine with tinkering a little bit it's a much superior platform. And I haven't even mentioned access to the amazing Steam store,…

I own both the Switch and the Steam Deck and use neither regularly. I use my PSP Vita and Gameboy Micro much more frequently because they are easier to carry around, and both system are hacked wide open. I have friends with keychains larger than the GB Micro. I wish we would go back to more portable systems, and I feel like the Steam Deck is a step in the wrong direction because of it's bulk.

Re: Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS stores closing means game over for digital archives

#70

Post by jterrys »

mattl wrote: post #61
bentley wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are basic, fundamental things you can do with a physical LP that you can’t with “licensed” bits. For starters, you can resell an LP. Can you resell a music file?

Probably not from any of the big labels at least, so you couldn't resell your Beatles' album download. Physical media makes it easier to do things but those same things aren't without issues just because they originated on physical media.

Actually its the opposite. Digital media makes it far easier to copy, redistribute and modify, hence why there's so many restrictions placed on it.

If I wanted to sell my Beatles LP I could do it no problem, because reproduction of it (now bear with the metaphor here) is more difficult and time consuming. Hell, even bootlegging it (which is illegal) would be an order of magnitude more difficult because I'd need to set up the equipment to do it and there's a cost of of entry associated with that. Scarcity of supply affects demand yadda yadda.

Digital? Just a few clicks. That's their problem. The fundamental shift to digital media has removed all these barriers hence completely removing scarcity from the equation. They can't control the scarcity. They can't control their product. Once its out that's it and that makes it fundamentally "worthless" in their eyes. And so here we are with laws passed that try to fight the inevitable: helplessly maintain control of their withering walled garden.

Don't pity them. These motherfuckers don't deserve it. Not with how they treat their artists like cattle, or how they happily got away with printing albums with one good song and 13 dogshit tracks. Now they try to muscle in on live shows which are the only way artists make money.

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