Archiving Old Games



Introduction

I was recently tweeted about an article regarding the archival of old games. The article is here:
www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-12-03-your-amiga-games-are-likely-dying

The basis of this article is that our 8 and 16-bit floppy disks were not manufactured to last 30 years, and we haven`t really been looking after them in a way that would help their longevity.

 

In order to preserve these historic games then, we are relying on failing media, and also failing hardware.

 

Now, companies are looking at archiving as many games as they can, and inviting submissions of software. Some of that software is tainted by having been cracked, altered, possibly broken. Therefore they want untainted originals that are still readable.

 

Additionally, in order to be able to see the games, either the requisite hardware is needed, or an emulator.

 

All this without treading on anyone`s toes or breaching copyright!

 

Why Doesn't the Music Industry Have This Problem?

In the games industry we would often look to the music industry as a model of how things worked. What we missed though was that music artists had struggled for years to earn rights and set up a proper royalty payment system.

 

The other difference is that artists in the studio were recording onto analogue tape, usually on 32-track tape, and then mixing down to the final stereo tape. They were smart enough to keep the 32-track and stereo masters in temperature-controlled vaults, though they are deteriorating over time.

 

The music industry has always moved with the times. Many albums have been available since the day they were released. They have therefore been able to re-release music by rendering the original masters onto whatever new media formats come along. Analogue master tapes were cut onto analogue vinyl and then onto analogue 8-tracks and analogue cassettes. Then came digital...  

 

Music publishers thrive on re-releasing the same material on a new format: a chance to sell the same thing to the same person again. The advent of the digital CD format meant that the old analogue tapes had to be rendered into digital data. Better than that, they found out pretty quickly that just copying the 2-track master resulted in a dull CD so they then tried doing it properly. Thus the CD re-master was born, whereby they might render the 2-track tape onto a hi-res digital medium, then process it to get the best out, and finally reduce the resolution for CD.

 

Later albums are all recorded in the digital arena now, so should be preserved for all time. They are recorded at a better resolution than the old analogue tapes, and better than the human ear can handle, so are as good as they need to be. The old master tapes have also been copied to digital, and though not as good as newer material, at least are no longer subject to deterioration over time. The film industry is undertaking similar transfers to digital.

 

Thus the music industry has been able to further the quality of home music into DVD, Blu-ray and FLAC, including re-mixing from the multi-track masters into 5.1 surround interpretations.

 

By supplying music in the new formats, the old ones can be allowed to peel away and die. Whilst you can still get the hardware to play the older formats you can keep your library of those formats, or upgrade at your own pace. Since the digital age the hardware manufacturers have been remarkably backwards compatible. The 5.25" aluminium disc marches on, as your new Ultra-HD Blu-ray player can play UHD BD, BD, DVD and CDs, and if you go for a universal player, maybe your DVD-Audios too.

 

Back to the Games

In the games industry the game code was written for specific hardware and is also written for specific media of the hardware, such as floppy disk and maybe hard-disk. As a developer, we would construct the original unprotected floppy disk master, possibly with many steps; as there would be the main program executable and loadable graphics and level data. This process may also involve the development kit as the code and graphics would originally be stored on a PC, and have to be saved out on an Amiga disk by the Amiga.  We would deliver a master floppy disk without protection usually directly to a disk protection specialist. They would then apply their own security and loading system to the disk, possibly being more inventive for a non-OS-compliant disk than one that has to play ball with the OS. The protected disk then gets passed to the duplicators with any special instructions. The upshot of this is that publishers don`t know how the disk is actually put together, and may not even have the master. The developer doesn`t know what the disk protection specialist has done either. I did try to debug one of our secure Amiga loaders, but it was fiendish. 

 

As time passes and machines change, the developer no longer has the hardware to make the disks any more. Additionally, we were very protective of our software. We never handed over source code to the publishers, citing that without the exact same development kit they would not be able to even compile the code. We regarded our code as trade secrets that gave us development advantages.

 

We were also so familiar with the build processes that we became very blasé about them, and never felt the need to document them. Now I can`t remember the processes or even what development kit we had for each game. It`s all a bit embarrassing. We never really expected to be talking about those games 30 years after; as we knew the hardware was advancing all the time and that our code would become irrelevant.

   

My Amiga disks

I was certainly conscious of the fragility of floppy disks from the start. I seem to recall that utility programs used to recommend that the supplied floppy disks be copied and then you put them safely away and use the copies only. That way, if you do get a disk read error; you can make another copy and carry on. I used to make a copy of my early Amiga games, indeed I have the originals and the copies in boxes to this day, though I haven't been through them all to see if they still work. I am sorting through my loft boxes to at least collect together all the games I own for each machine.

 

The article above then touches on copy-protected disks, and copy-resistant security sheets. Both of these measures cost us time and effort, and wouldn't have existed if unauthorised copying and sharing wasn't a problem, but it was a huge problem for us. Estimations were that for every legitimate purchase there were 10+ copies out there. Doubtless some people wrote out the security sheets by hand, and later the hackers removed security checks in the code anyway. The advent of disk-copier software that could circumvent our copy-protected disks was also a major irritation. Ironically I did use the same disk-copier software for the legitimate purpose of making backups of our source code and run-time disks for testing.

 

I was fortunate enough to find two Amiga A1200s in the loft. The first one I set up was my Dad`s, and has a 20MB hard drive in it. We designed an install to hard-drive script for Uridium2 and Fire and Ice, and I did indeed install those to the hard-drive. Fortunately the A1200 and the hard-drive still work, and I can play the games on it. I do also note that two games still requires the security sheet from the original game in order to play the whole game. That's what led me to instigate a search through my loft boxes for the original security sheets. Fortunately I have some of the complimentary author boxed games with the security sheets in-tact. I concur that feeding in the security info is a pain, and welcome suggestions as to what else we could have done at the time. If the un-tainted original version were implemented on an emulator, you`d still need the security sheet to play. Maybe I could set up a premium-rate phone line? I jest, maybe.

 

Fragile Media

From the time I started buying music albums on vinyl, I was painfully aware that they wore out. I accepted that I had bought a licence to listen to the music for the lifetime of the vinyl, which was limited. Indeed I still own my 3rd vinyl of A Farewell to Kings by Rush. I bought the first one in 1977, and was getting about 3 year's use out of each one. It was probably one of my most played albums. I have also bought 3 different renderings of the same album on CD, so I'm getting more like 10 years out of each one now! They're not wearing out, but Rush are finding new ways to re-master them. In fact they've released a 40th anniversary edition in 2017 and I expect to buy that too, and I'm also after the Blu-ray surround edition, but you can keep the vinyl.

 

I`m thinking then that computer games are no different in the respect that we buy the game knowing that it`s only for the lifetime of the media on which it is recorded, though I wish that it was at least a digital medium. I am therefore sympathetic to the idea that anyone who legitimately owns the original game could have access to the digital content to be able to continue to play, which is a bonus above the original deal.

 

Since mostly we can`t now buy replacement games anyway, unlike music and films, then no-one is getting any payment for the games any more. Some developers that possibly also published seem to be "re-mastering" titles for more modern kit, since they know they have the rights to do that. They presumably either still have the old development kit or have converted the source code to new kit. Even source code ages! More correctly, assemblers have slightly different flavours. 

 

We can`t ignore copyright and copy anything we want for free, but where is the middle ground? Are the publishers willing to make limited quantities of old games available for sale, either on original media or for emulators? How many 8 and 16 bit games publishers still exist? Do they even have the original materials to achieve that?  As an ex-developer I know that I don`t, and Graftgold in administration was not bought in-tact, only the IP was, and what is that worth 20 years later? To whom would publishers pay the author`s royalties on old titles, if any? Of course the contracts are written in perpetuity, so someone should be getting the author`s royalties, right?

 

In the article, above, the archival company was inviting submissions of original disks for archival copying. They had decided to send a digital copy back to the submitter. I don`t think that`s quite right. I`m happy that the submitter gets their original disk or disks back, maybe with a copy on the same type of media, for their own further use, and even potentially a personalised licence code for an emulator. A digital copy should only be supplied back to the submitter if they can prove that they are a legitimate representative of the developer of the original material. I suppose that wouldn`t even include me any more, which is a shame! 

 

In Conclusion

The only way forward is machine emulators. These appear to be the work of enthusiastic and clever amateurs who do it for the challenge and the love of the games. The real hardware will eventually fail, and if no-one brings them back into production then they will fade away.

 

Is it only the people that did own the original hardware that are in any way interested? In which case the old games will not so much be resigned to history; as dissolve into legend over the next few decades.

 

Personally, I`d prefer my games to be remembered, and seen, and played, and I have to let go of the fact that I won`t make a penny from that preservation. I`d prefer the archives to show the original work and not copies tainted by thieves. To that end I guess I should try to ensure that the archives have access to any mint-in-box originals I have, before it`s too late.