Decline The state of physical gaming libraries

[KeighnMcDeath]

I wasn't entirely aware that some of my older games had certain protection/activation that really makes them nigh useless out of the box even on older hardware. I'm no prude, so work-arounds, no-cd, patches, hacks, and shit are fine with me but even then, there are many games that are utterly useless as their original intended function. Is there a hot list of games and solutions I don't know about? Anyway, this video drew my attention and there are several accursed farms vids by Ross as well. I have heard about his crusade months ago but just haven't followed the progress.



Is any of this causing problems on your end? You know, I think I actually bought Fable 3 a fair bit ago but was really hoping to find Fable 2 (console only is it?). Go figure it is a damn paper weight.

 

[Lucumo]

Is any of this causing problems on your end?

Nah, even in my teenage years I was quite aware of DRM and that's why I never bought any games which required online activation. So all my physical games are either DRM-free, use a serial number or have a physical disc check. Relatively benign, from how I see it.

 

[Alienman]

Had serious trouble running Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. It also used Windows Live. It seems all games that require Windows Live kinda got fucked after it was abandoned. I remember Fallout 3 was a pain to get to run as well.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I honestly haven't checked in some time. I can imagine I own a handful, at best.

I had bigger problems with titles from the mid-to-late 1990s running 16-bit executables, as those don't work on 64-bit operating systems. Then I learned about 32-bit wrappers, so the problem is mostly moot now.

 

[GoblinMerchant]

Grumble Grumble anti-consumer practices strike again.

 

[ind33d]

physical games are worthless now. i heard if you launch Assassin's Creed 1 on the PS3 without patches the last 33% of the game is missing

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

physical games are worthless now. i heard if you launch Assassin's Creed 1 on the PS3 without patches the last 33% of the game is missing

This is what is going to cause the inevitable death of physical gaming, the nature of software development makes it much more convenient for you to have a download-only service, especially considering the updated you might need to apply. People who boast about physical libraries from the 90s often forget that they were playing unpatched versions with serious bugs in them still.

 

[lycanwarrior]

I still have some physical PC game disks from over 20+ years ago.

My new computer that I bought during Black Friday last year does not even have a CD/DVD drive. So I keep my older PC for just that purpose.

But I'm not sure if my older PC with CD/DVD drive will be able to play or even install my old games since it is running Windows 10. I still have some old PC games that were likely developed exclusively for Windows 95 lol. Not sure if any of those games received hotfixes or patches for Windows 10/11.

As much as I loved the physical CD era of PC gaming in the past, it already looks like it is well on its way to the graveyard unfortunately.

 

[lycanwarrior]

physical games are worthless now. i heard if you launch Assassin's Creed 1 on the PS3 without patches the last 33% of the game is missing

This is what is going to cause the inevitable death of physical gaming, the nature of software development makes it much more convenient for you to have a download-only service, especially considering the updated you might need to apply. People who boast about physical libraries from the 90s often forget that they were playing unpatched versions with serious bugs in them still.

I actually had two console games (Final Fantasy 7 and Bully) that had game breaking bugs and weren't able to patch them back then.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I still have a ball & a stick.

 

[thesheeep]

I still have a ball & a stick.

What happened to your other ball?

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

When I moved from XP to Windows 7 the only game that ceased working properly that worked prior on XP was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The installer would never commence and do its thing. Oddly, my retail version of StarCraft worked back when I first installed it on 7, then years later some random Windows update fucked the color palette with cyan, magenta and yellow perverting all the assets and GUI. Haven't tested either on Win10 yet but I might try retail StarCraft again due to how much I hate the new Battle.net launcher. I heard it was an issue exclusive to Windows 7.

In the move to Windows 10 from 7, the only thing I lost was Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Since I opted for the direct upgrade, it remained installed but won't run anymore. I'm too afraid to try uninstalling/reinstalling for obvious reasons.

Overall, just about every retail game I owned from the late 90s to late 00s that I had installed since the 98/ME/XP/Vista days still worked on every OS I had since. Maybe I got lucky, but then I think I only have around 50-60 retail games and half of them I didn't keep installed past 2003 or so. Pretty much all I had from the 2000s were all the big Star Wars games, NWN 1&2, TES 3&4, Halo, Fable, BFME 1&2, CoD 1&2, Quake III and Guild Wars.

That reminds me, they also cut support for Guild Wars on Windows XP some years ago. Never tried logging in since to see if it actually happened though.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

physical games are worthless now. i heard if you launch Assassin's Creed 1 on the PS3 without patches the last 33% of the game is missing

The Switch also has been doing the same thing you mention above. 10GB games with 3GB patches seems fairly average.

In the move to Windows 10 from 7, the only thing I lost was Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Since I opted for the direct upgrade, it remained installed but won't run anymore. I'm too afraid to try uninstalling/reinstalling for obvious reasons.

Update it with the 1.04 patch(I believe that's the version number, it's been a while), and that fixes the installer glitch.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Had serious trouble running Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. It also used Windows Live. It seems all games that require Windows Live kinda got fucked after it was abandoned. I remember Fallout 3 was a pain to get to run as well.

Try putting the CD key into steam. It may give you a copy on there (most games do). The Steam version runs okay on modern machines.. not that you would want to play it.

physical games are worthless now. i heard if you launch Assassin's Creed 1 on the PS3 without patches the last 33% of the game is missing

Most modern games are like this. Or you get Elden Ring where half the enemies are place holders because the day 1 patch is all balancing and finishing off a few random dudes to put in.

People who boast about physical libraries from the 90s often forget that they were playing unpatched versions with serious bugs in them still.

Most games didn't have serious bugs. There's a very you cannot finish but 99% of games released in a playable state with no game breaking issues..

My new computer that I bought during Black Friday last year does not even have a CD/DVD drive. So I keep my older PC for just that purpose.

Get a USB drive. They're cheap and your old PC can get the rest it's earned. A machine was not made to consume that much chaturbate and keep on playing DVDs.

The Switch also has been doing the same thing you mention above. 10GB games with 3GB patches seems fairly average.

And on Switch wifi, so you either have to plug your dock in or you spend 10 hours downloading a patch..

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

And on Switch wifi, so you either have to plug your dock in or you spend 10 hours downloading a patch..

The transfer rate on the Switch isn't what's bad even with WiFi. It's the latency with Nintendo Online, which is odd because it was fine for the 3DS/Wii-U and it was free then. No Man's Sky for the Switch doesn't have multiplayer because of how lackluster Nintendo Online is. But hey, you can download those gigantic patches pretty quickly.

 

[Iucounu]

How long will the physical discs themselves last before deteriorating? Are you making backup copies?

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Had serious trouble running Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. It also used Windows Live. It seems all games that require Windows Live kinda got fucked after it was abandoned. I remember Fallout 3 was a pain to get to run as well.

Try putting the CD key into steam. It may give you a copy on there (most games do). The Steam version runs okay on modern machines.. not that you would want to play it.

physical games are worthless now. i heard if you launch Assassin's Creed 1 on the PS3 without patches the last 33% of the game is missing

Most modern games are like this. Or you get Elden Ring where half the enemies are place holders because the day 1 patch is all balancing and finishing off a few random dudes to put in.

People who boast about physical libraries from the 90s often forget that they were playing unpatched versions with serious bugs in them still.

Most games didn't have serious bugs. There's a very you cannot finish but 99% of games released in a playable state with no game breaking issues..

My new computer that I bought during Black Friday last year does not even have a CD/DVD drive. So I keep my older PC for just that purpose.

Get a USB drive. They're cheap and your old PC can get the rest it's earned. A machine was not made to consume that much chaturbate and keep on playing DVDs.

The Switch also has been doing the same thing you mention above. 10GB games with 3GB patches seems fairly average.

And on Switch wifi, so you either have to plug your dock in or you spend 10 hours downloading a patch..

A lot of games DID have serious bugs, it's just that you never noticed it or cared anyways. There was a time where patches were distributed with the CDs that pc gaming mags had but that's very much not ideal.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

How long will the physical discs themselves last before deteriorating? Are you making backup copies?

You'd be surprised.

LPS/Records - near timeless as long as they aren't scratched, warped, etc depending on what they were made of (wood, wax, vinyl, metal, etc)

8-track tapes still even work today although they were always a bitch at times.

Cassette tapes still function

CDs/DVDs/Blue Rays and other discs often function and I have so very few that fail.

5.25" disks or even the older disks can still hold data. I have many that still do and again, few that lost their data. Storage and how well treated help preserve.

3.5" disks also usually hold data well and there are a wide assortment of disks and even modern disks. By far, there are too many types of physical media for me to remember.

Hard drives can be a bitch. I have mixed views on what Certain drives still hold that isn't corrupted. The problem is the computers to access them are often broke in some way. Hard drive docks can help access the data but I don't know if my newer computers even recognize the drives. I haven't tested as storage of the computers is a mess and I don't have a workstation to even want to look since I now live under a tree.

SSHD are ok but SSD are best. I still have a fuck-ton of thumb drives, different SD cards and some other media as well.

If you get a laptop, get as many SSD and as large as possible. A desktop; go the same route as a USB diskette drive or cd/dvd/blue ray works just fine.

 

[Avonaeon]

I have a large physical game collection, and several old computers from different eras to play them on, mostly just for fun, though I've had held a few LANs with them. I enjoy taking them apart and putting them back together.

I still have a disc drive in my modern machine and I've used it to rip several of the older games that only rely on disc checks. I then sometimes play those on emulators when I'm feeling lazy.
I've heard a lot of scary stories of bit rot on CD/DVDs but have found it to be exceedingly rare, even on 30+ year old discs. Scratches are far, far more deadly.
For 3.5" floppys however, bit rot seems a much larger problem and I've had about 20-30% fail when backing them up, due to rot.

As for patches, you can still find many floating around. Pcgamingwiki is good, otherwise archive.org is good. When those fail, I've also been hoarding pc mag cds

But still, physical media is dead as a doornail. And drm killed it. Thankfully most of the best games came out before it got too bad.

 

[Hell Swarm]

How long will the physical discs themselves last before deteriorating? Are you making backup copies?

Pressed discs should last our life time. Disc rot mostly happens to self burned media, which uses a different process to commercial products.

A lot of games DID have serious bugs, it's just that you never noticed it or cared anyways. There was a time where patches were distributed with the CDs that pc gaming mags had but that's very much not ideal.

If you don't notice them then it's not a serious bug.

 

[Iucounu]

SSHD are ok but SSD are best. I still have a fuck-ton of thumb drives, different SD cards and some other media as well.

If you get a laptop, get as many SSD and as large as possible. A desktop; go the same route as a USB diskette drive or cd/dvd/blue ray works just fine.

I've read worries that SSDs may start losing data if left unpowered for long time periods, such as external backups or disks inside unused PCs, but most news sources seem to be about ten years old. Any newer info on this?

A few links here: https://superuser.com/questions/133...r-minimal-write-use-archive-purposes-write-on

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Update it with the 1.04 patch(I believe that's the version number, it's been a while), and that fixes the installer glitch.

"The latest official patch is 1.4 (different files depending on language version). It includes game fixes from the 1.2 and 1.3 updates, but does not include the uninstaller from the 1.1 patch so that will need to be applied separately if using the original 1.0 release." - PCgamingwiki
"Hey guys, we're gonna release a new patch for our game and you know that bug that bricked HDs that we fixed previously? Yeah, well we're not gonna include that..." - Ubisoft probably.

Honestly, I don't trust the info well enough to take the risk and patch back down to v1.1. People were also saying the bug that wiped HDs only affects OSs prior to XP due to their architecture or some shit, so it's irrelevant nowadays anyway. No idea. I may test uninstalling it once I get a new PC and everything is safely transferred, but until then it shall remain a monument to the folly of man on my HD.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Yeah, I'm still pissed at Ubisoft for that. I lost a lot of shit on my old computer including my recording of every detail for the original Pool of Radiance through Silver Blades. Every encounter, dialogue, detail I could parse out through reloads, replays etc just so I could combine the FRC1-2 Modules and the Novels together and make the ultimate PnP version of the game to play at the table. It devastated me to lose it all because I wanted to reinstall Pool of Radiance: RUINS OF myth drannor due to a fucked up install. I figured I'd uninstall and try again but POOF! Several months work gone along with my FRUA modules. I nearly destroyed my computer physically as I was really pissed off.

Is that game the only one with that shitty protection?

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I still have discs from the very beginning of CDs, so I wouldn't worry about your games just yet unless you live in a place where disc rot is rampant. Floppies, on the other hand, are a bigger question.

I wish games would come on discs again, but let's be real, the last PC games that came on discs were done in an extremely shitty way, and even if publishers did them again, they'd be just as bad if not worse. Indie games would be nice, but let's be honest, most of those would have such awful distribution channels they'd never be anywhere you'd find them reasonably, outside of say, Ebay or something.

 

[Avonaeon]

I wouldn't mind physical releases as a box with a USB drive or something, as you see with some games. I think Ion Fury came on one.

But yeah, they'd just be loaded with rootkits like the late disc era drm. Doing them drm free would be the only way, which would rule out most games, as publishers are scared of piracy, like it's some sort of Boogeyman.