Backing up Video Games

[ExCyber]

The biggest problem I have with the retro collections is that so many of them are cheap (in the production value sense) and incomplete. If the companies would produce and promote proper collections I suspect that they'd sell quite well. However, too often we end up with stuff that ranges from lackluster to outright shovelware:

- Phantasy Star Collection on GBA, which is missing PS4. Yeah, there's a cost argument for this. There's also a cost argument for not releasing it at all.

- Square's Final Fantasy "Anthology" that only had FF5 and FF6, followed up by Final Fantasy Chronicles with the inexplicable combination of FF4 and Chrono Trigger. All of which have in-game load times and more slowdown than the originals despite being on a system that's at least ten times as powerful with enough RAM to hold most of the original game.

- Konami Classics Collection: Contra, Super C, and Castlevania 1-3. Not too bad, but they restricted themselves to NES games. Where are Contra 3, Castlevania 4, and Dracula X? Oh yeah, they're probably hoping to charge $35 each for them as cheap GBA ports. <_<

- Gradius 3&4. Maybe it's different in Japan, but it's a little tough to get hold of Gradius 1&2 stateside, not to mention Parodius and Salamander.

To be fair, Capcom seems to be headed in the right direction with Mega Man Anniversary Collection. Although I would have liked to see Mega Man X-X3 on it, or at least Rockman & Forte (which is probably excluded solely to not undercut sales of the GBA port <_<) the Mega Man collection has all of the main series and throws in the arcade games as a neat extra. Sonic Mega Collection seems similarly good; it likewise collects the main series but leaves out Sonic CD. If they could just bring themselves to go that last ten yards, they could set an awesome example for the rest of the industry...

 

[Dyne]

Originally posted by it290@Sep 2, 2004 @ 06:57 PM

I buy a lot of games new upon release, just because there's been a lot of good stuff coming out lately and I don't have the patience to wait that long. But I have pirated my fair share of games/software in the past. Usually with games, however, it's just older stuff that's no longer available retail. With apps, it's usually little utils and stuff I would buy if the prices were more reasonable (graphics software in particular -- the main apps are usually priced OK, although I think Adobe's stuff is a bit expensive and Quark is ridiculous -- it's the little plugins and utils that cost an arm and a leg for no good reason). However, I won't attempt to justify these actions within a moral context -- I'll freely admit that they don't entirely square with my morals.

you think adobe and quark are bad (which they are)? have you looked at maya and lightwave prices? $5000+. it makes it completely IMPOSSIBLE for anybody to learn this or even have access to this stuff legally unless they go to school.

 

[it290]

Maya is pretty expensive, but Lightwave isn't that bad. I own a legal copy of Lightwave 7 which I bought for around $700. I just looked at their website and it seems they've increased their prices a bit for version 8, but really it's not that bad considering what you get for the money. Photoshop, while it's a fine piece of software, IMHO is not worth what it sells for. And don't even get me started on Quark....

 

[CrazyGoon]

To me, this poll is just refuge for people to justify their reasons why they backup their crap. I not going to list the reasons why I backup shit, but I am going to say this: Do as you please - no one has much power at stopping you. But remember that one person pirating stuff means nothing. If it becomes a trend and everyone starts pirating, bad things will come of it.

Oh, ya - and for those talking about the expensive prices of 'design' software: it's not targeted at the average joe - it's targeted towards businesses; people who have lots of money/ investments. They also appeal to schools by offering cheap deals when you buy in bulk.

 

[it290]

Yes, I realize that, but I work at a place that does graphics stuff, and believe me when I say that we are very hesitant to buy the latest versions of all the software we need. Consider that the price Adobe sells Photoshop for is a per machine license. Then take into account the need to run it on several different machines and across platforms. It quickly adds up. And the new features are rarely worth the upgrade price, however you must upgrade ie Illustrator and Quark to maintain compatibility with newer version files (thankfully this is not generally true in PS).

But really, I'm not complaining about the price of those apps - I'm griping more about the price of the small utils and plugins. Just look at the prices on some of the Lightwave plugins out there, and keep in mind that a big percentage of Newtek's customers are small shops that produce mainly short animations for ads and interstitials.

 

[Alexvrb]

Originally posted by CrazyGoon@Sep 4, 2004 @ 02:33 PM

To me, this poll is just refuge for people to justify their reasons why they backup their crap.

Not speaking for others, but it doesn't seem like such a refuge to me. I essentially said that pirating even old games is wrong. I just don't think it's as wrong as the somewhat comical Halo 2 option for the poll.

 

[SamIAm]

Originally posted by CrazyGoon@Sep 4, 2004 @ 09:33 AM

To me, this poll is just refuge for people to justify their reasons why they backup their crap. I not going to list the reasons why I backup shit, but I am going to say this: Do as you please - no one has much power at stopping you. But remember that one person pirating stuff means nothing. If it becomes a trend and everyone starts pirating, bad things will come of it.

I wouldn't back up games of the kind I spoke of earlier if I didn't think it was something everyone could do without causing problems to the video game industry. I would be pretty selfish otherwise. Let me reiterate: People should buy new games from licensed retailers if it is possible. Under such circumstances I would shell out $50 for a new copy of Radiant Silvergun in a flash.

 

[callieboy]

As long as there's ignorant people out there willing to shell out fifty bucks for a game, the developers will continue to make money.

if movies and games were not meant to be burned or downloaded, God would not have invented burners and the internet. :smash

 

[lordofduct]

spoken like a true american eh.... damn jar head.

 

[lordofduct]

grrrr, cant edit posts.... stupid comp. just messing' though brah

 

[schi0249]

In that respect, computer viruses should be fine to spread. God would not have invented viruses if he didn't want them distributed.