the missing retrogames

content/post/2023/08/the-missing-retrogames.md

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+---
+title: The Missing Retrogames
+date: 2023-08-05T09:20:00+02:00
+categories:
+    - retro
+tags:
+  - gameboy
+---
+
+In [Retronauts Episode 550](https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-550-feat-86774501), Kelsey Lewin and Phil Salvador of the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) are interviewed in context of their recent study, "[87% Missing: The Disappearance Of Classic Video Games](https://gamehistory.org/87percent/)". The study reveals that older video games are becoming unavailable---that is, not in any legal way accessible in the current market. The VGHF advocates to expand exemptions for libraries and organizations preserving these games, which is currently very difficult given the state the (U.S.) copyright laws are in. 
+
+I found both the study and [the explained methodology](https://gamehistory.org/study-explainer/) to be very interesting. It's clear that this wasn't some quick Saturday night job carried out simply to promote the VGHF. I'd encourage you to read both articles on their site, which are easy to read and digest. 
+
+One particular subgroup of disappearing games that interests me more than others is of course Game Boy games. Since the closing of the 3DS eShop, hundreds of virtual GB and GBC games simply vanished. There are still two ways to get a hold of these games: the [increasingly expensive](/post/2022/10/is-collecting-physical-games-worth-it-part-iii/) second hand market, with a good chance of getting ripped of by fake cartridges, or of course piracy---which to many apparently isn't a big deal since they're thirty-year-old games anyway, right? But because re-releasing older games is a popular way to monetize on your history, publishers aren't too happy about that. As an aside, the amount of Game Boy re-releases can be counted on one hand, of which the most popular is probably _The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening_.
+
+The study inspects games from three different hardware ecosystems:
+
+1. Abandoned systems: low commercial interest and few games available (their example: the Commodore 64);
+2. Neglected systems: high interest but not many games in print (e.g. the Game Boy);
+3. Active systems: where games are being re-released regularly (e.g. the PS2).
+
+So, how bad is it? Only 13% of the 4000 processed games---based on the MobyGames database---are still available. It gets worse: when zooming in on the Game Boy systems, that percentage drops to less than 6%:
+
+> From our results, as of April 2023, only 5.87% of Game Boy games were still in print. That’s a pretty bad number, but it gets even worse when you consider that an additional 6.5% of Game Boy games used to be in print on the 3DS and Wii U eShops before they closed. This means that when the eShops were shut down, the majority of all Game Boy games on the market fell out of release!
+
+The VGHF articles do elaborate on what they consider to be "out of print", and how the selection was made. 
+
+Something I noticed as well when pouring over Rock Paper Shotgun's [GOAT game top 100 list](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-rps-100-reader-edition-2023) was that people simply tend to forget about older games. As you play new ones, the less memorable ones from back in the day inevitably get pushed back into a dusty old corner of your brain. After a while, the dust gets cleaned up and we simply forget about the classics we once played. The average gamer will probably glance over the _87% Missing_ article and shrug: who cares, there's heaps of good games getting released constantly!
+
+That is true, but they're missing the point. There's also the preservation aspect that plays an important role here. Furthermore, the VGHF found that as games get re-released, the availability rates of games actually **gets worse**! How is that possible? Simple:
+
+- Digital marketplaces we don't control that get powered down means thousands of games lost in the blink of an eye. Ever had Steam games disappearing? Think about your favorite Netflix series, suddenly gone.
+- Publishers typically and very aggressively push re-released games in the form of "remasters": up to the point that they pull the plug on the original ones. See the recent Grand Theft Auto debacle. No, they're not exactly the same games. 
+- Some re-releases happen on single platforms, with the original multi-platform one disappearing into the void. 
+
+Again, the volatility of digital games is painfully apparent here. Ironically, the problem gets even worse if illegal torrents would stop circulating. 
+
+---
+
+What now? With this study, the VGHF first and foremost wants to raise awareness. They want the industry to acknowledge that, yes, games are disappearing, and the video game market alone will very probably not solve this. I think they're aiming for archivists and librarians to take up that role. Does this mean I get to loan an old Game Boy game from my local library, or download and temporarily store a `.GB` ROM on my hard drive? I don't know. 
+
+As a retro game enthusiast, I'm glad someone is doing this work, but I don't see these staggering second hand cart prices dropping any time soon. Partially thanks to companies such as Analog who make new hardware for old games, there will always be a market for collecting original physical carts and boxes. Video game preservation will do little for that. 
+
+What it will do, however, is help raise some cult classics and underappreciated games from a too early grave---and perhaps even help fuel the re-release market in a better, sustainable way. Cheers to that!