Microsoft gaming chief calls for industry-wide game preservation
axios.com
axios.com
Microsoft's DRM on their latest xbox is insane – they actively consider the customer hostile at every available opportunity, have essentially always-online DRM, including for physical discs [1] and have had senior architects giving talks explaining how the "only" way to make a games console is to have a physically secure enclave in a chip with a truly unique root of trust, a very strict hardware watchdog, engineered resistance to under/overvoltage or clocking techniques and literally everything, including all buses and IO, encrypted to the nines. This is clearly incompatible with recording history (and also produces lots of errors like "this game isn't ready yet" – utter tosh. New Xbox consoles require an internet connection at least once to "activate" and play games – meaning any unsold will become e-waste once the servers shut down [2]).
I'm glad they're making the argument -- the preservation of our culture is hugely important, and emulation is a good way to do it, particularly if industry sponsored (I think it's a shame that, e.g. there isn't a good PS4 emulator yet) -- but there's a definite false narrative behind this.
[1] https://nichegamer.com/xbox-series-x-reportedly-has-always-o...
Hmm... not sure I can imagine preservation of video games being high on legislature's priorities.
In the UK (and I think most of the EU) there are similar national bodies to which one can apply for permission to break DRM -- e.g. in the UK there's a long and complex review process by the civil servants at the department for culture, media and sport [2]. Of course, none of these things actually break DRM. They just say that you can break DRM without getting in trouble.
Who knows, in 2055 maybe my handy device at `/dev/quantum/simultaneous_annealer` will magically break five rounds of 256-bit AES or whatever Microsoft use...
[1] https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/26/18027200/video-game-drm-c...
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technological-pro...
"I am the library of the Senate!" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtaEdpEuOyE)
I find it amusing that this power is vested in the library of congress.
It's certainly admirable, but to me it feels like Windows and all of the closed OSes will eventually die outside of museums and give way to open systems instead, at the same time killing any hopes of running older games and such, outside of cases where they are pretty simple, there have been source code leaks or other things to make running them easier (e.g. huge cult following). For example, you can probably port over something like "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" in a feasible amount of time[1] but something like "Cyberpunk 2077" or "Grand Theft Auto V" would be way more complicated in comparison.
Thus, your choices are probably limited to the following:
- use open systems and say no to playing games that don't support them, out of principle or otherwise
- use both open and closed systems, like in a dual boot configuration (or VM with GPU passthrough and relative mouse movement mode which is hard), for when you can't go without those games
- attempt to use workarounds like Wine or Proton or whatever, but don't expect everything to work out of the box, especially with hostile DRM
Linked, because it's actually pretty interesting:
I am sour however that the Wii Remotes are not working with the Switch though, as I find the Wii Wheel to be a superior experience when playing Mario Kart. There is no technical reason for this as far as I can tell as the Switch still uses Bluetooth for connectivity. Now, there are new wheels, but just like the Joy-Cons, they are far too small to be comfortable given the size of my hands.
Specifically: I want to add direct support for proper e-drums played via MIDI into Dolphin, without the various hacks to get it to emulate a keyboard etc, and compatible even with the Pro Drums mode in RB3.
Guitars are simultaneously an easier and harder question: would require a DIY guitar, but can be fed into Dolphin just by emulating a HID device.
email is in my bio if you want to discuss
Well, funny you should mention it because this came out less than a month ago:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-10-28/pdf/2021-2...
> Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies
> [..]
> 1. Computer Programs — Video Game Preservation
> SPN and LCA petitioned to renew the exemption for preservation of video games for which outside server support has been discontinued. No oppositions were filed against readoption of this exemption, and Consumer Reports submitted a comment in support of the renewal petition. The petition stated that libraries, archives, and museums continue to need the exemption to preserve and curate video games in playable form. For example, the petition highlighted Georgia Tech University Library’s Computing Lab, retroTECH, which has made a significant collection of recovered video game consoles accessible for research and teaching uses pursuant to the exemption. [..] This existing exemption, as well as the above exemption pertaining to software preservation, serve as the baseline in assessing whether to recommend any expansions in Class 14.
as if it was better in flight simulator dvd edition deluxe premium whatever. that thing gave me windows 98 floppy vibes and than the windows store basically failed to play it, even on completly newly installed windows. basically I helped a customers son to install and play his 130€ game..... support was clueless, you won't make this shit up, just google https://www.google.com/search?q=flight+simulator+windows+sto....
I mean you install the game with 10 DVD's !!!! 10 and that alone takes like over 1-2 hours. after that you NEED to keep dvd 1 inside the drive AND you of course need an internet connection and the store needs to work and and and, most often the store just fails to activate. (good news you can download it from the store and if you are lucky it will start)
That same DRM has kept consoles from becoming a wild west for exploits and hacks. MS has the right idea, conservation should be on the creators, not a community hacking away to do what the creators could have easily...
To improve responsiveness and reduce lag clients today run a lot of simulations and the servers just do basic consolidation within a given time window, server side anti cheat alone is very hard to implement without degrading the user experience on the client which is why anti cheat today is so aggressive on the client side basically looking for any possible manipulation.
Anyone who actually knows the state of the art (or even just knows what DRM actually is...) realizes this.
I've worked as a game networking programmer on a console title and can confidently say the most reliable protection against cheaters is DRM.
DRM isn't just you can't pirate it, it's: you can't modify it, you can't deeply inspect it, you can't redefine aspects of your identity (ie. hardware bans)
These are things that are nightmares for Stallmanists, but this is one case where they're perfectly matched to the use case.
A console is a game playing machine primarily and sold on this premise. The only time we ever saw a deviation for that was the PS3, and they were punished when they had to walk it back. Don't expect it that again...
I would not buy a console without DRM. It's practically the only benefit over PC and its wild-wild west of cheating. The lengths that console players end up going to for any sort of unfair advantage are almost comical in comparison...
There are difficulties in this with third party licensing, which can get quite complex, going beyond content licenses (such as a Star Wars game or licenses for music tracks) but including many third party technology licenses. Those kinds of issues don't come into play as much with things like movies and other media.
What Spencer is proposing makes a lot of sense but it's not really done from the perspective of rolling back DRM or sunsetting copyright protections. It's about encouraging publishers and developers to support old titles better for emulation, and making it into a business. They're not really thinking about archival considerations or opening up modding.
Particularly now, with the games industry entering into a mature phase, they're mostly tapped as it relates to new ideas and are looking for ways to make more money on the back catalog.
These days crossplay removes that secuirty blanket (After all, thats all it was, a secuirty blanket).
The 360 is a nice example, until the DVD-Rom firmware mod was out there things were pretty peaceful in the online gaming space (Excluding people using external manipulation such as network manipulation or exploiting bugs in the code allowing them to get into out-of-bounds areas. Things like aim bots just wasn't a thing).
Once the DRM was bypassed starting with the DVD-Rom mod people quickly found that often the only file that was checked for modifications was the .xex file that the console executed. Many games would just have their configs in scripts that could just be easily edited, burnt onto a fresh disk and the game would just happily use those edited configs because the games were pretty much client authoritative esp thanks to the peer to peer nature most games used.
To get around Tilte Updates / Server side game configs people would use scripts which were still loaded off disk to change the TU/server side loaded config values back to what ever they wanted after the game had loaded/fetched them.
The JTAG & Reset glitch hacks gave cheats more freedom as a) they didn't have to burn a new DVD with every change they wanted to make b) gave them even more freedom on the system to change things as they were basically "root".
My point being that many console games at the time used the consoles DRM as their anti-cheat, once one was broken, so was the other.
lumping competitive multiplayer games in with single-player games, then saying DRM is required is all nonsense.
anti-cheat measures and DRM are different things.
Who needs freedom if the dictator is always benevolent?
What changed this generation? Game Pass? Maybe consumers becoming accustomed to streaming services and being held hostage by monthly fees?
It's quite curious.
Sounds bleak but likely to me.
Stuff got normalized.
Reverse-engineered implementations of server software (eg, https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiimmfi) can only go so far.
A game is rarely just the binary execution itself, but often depends on an interconnected mesh of services and downstream partners - most of which are rarely set-up/committed to multi-decade durability, especially as the surface area of problem domain, and actors/threats have grown. For example, who’d willingly port a service that only worked on Centos 5, with SHA1 hashed TLS, or the CDN service that your game update assets were delivered from in 2007.
The techniques to isolate a game from its gradually crumbling ecosystem are an after-thought when priorities are survive to shipping. I’m not inferring this is right or wrong, just indicating that it is not even in the calculus on the path to shipping.
Hardcore fans of the game. Instead of making the game abandonware, one solution is to open source the whole server-side shebang and let the community sort it out themselves. If it's too difficult, at least there will be some sample source code that is known to interface with the game, so alternative server-side implementations can be built.
The problem with this is that it goes directly against the business incentives of the companies in control of the franchises.
Just look at this: https://dontfeedthegamers.com/ea-battlefield-cease-desist/
And sometimes profit motive is not enough. I worked adjacent to the games division at Disney, and in spite of customer appetite for adapting their 16bit classics for new consoles, there was not a lot of internal support for years...simply because no one saw it as a project to build a career on. Until you solve THAT problem, no company will throw more support behind emulation than they already do.
[1] gog.com
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOG.com
[3] GOG: Preserving Gaming's Past & Future Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffngZOB1U2A
Microsoft Games for Windows Live is gone (2007 - ~2015), for example, taking down the hosting infrastructure for hundreds of games. Games I loved like Section 8 can be started & have some skirmish modes available. But the serving infrastructure is all missing, the core multiplayer expperience is not possible. My all-time favorite game ever, PC or mobile, is Titanfall Assault, a cute fast mobile game: another game that, without the vast wide cloud hosting infrastructure, is dead. All I have are some random cell-phone videos I decided to take.
There's some wild wild works every now and then. Return of Reckoning, for example, is a reverse engineered server for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, a shuttered MMO. I haven't logged in to find out, but I'm quite curious if any or all of the quest lines &c still work. If the various PvP modes work. https://www.returnofreckoning.com/
As for keeping games running, emulation? He's probably almost certaining meaning consoles. And yes, the people traditionally seen as pirates have long been doing the good thing, have been doing the careful work. But I also think of works like Proton & WINE, who similarly are better at running many old games than Windows often is.
Where we're headed sucks. Endless remakes of games. Oh yet another Skyrim you can purchase. Yet another Grand Theft Auto 3 you can purchase. I feel like trash for eventually having given in to Steam & having collected a huge library of games I don't really own but paid for, games that are non-transferable. The future is only getting worse, is only making us less empowered.
[0]: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/farewe...
I also worry for Steam one day, even though they committed to making a plan for releasing titles if they were to ever shut down. How could they possibly honor that commitment when millions of players log in to download their terabytes of content the day they decide to shut down? Maybe they would do it in waves, but it won't be pretty.
> I strongly encourage all game developers to take steps to archive their development environment so you are confident you can rebuild things years in the future, which does not automatically happen!
https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1461024415274176517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29256240 (0 comments)
The users need source code access and the ability to modify those systems so they can do this themselves. They need the right to distribute it. Copyright protection needs to be shortened dramatically to make this possible. Imagine books with drm that nobody can open with updates that change the entire meaning that nobody will share, and no ability to reproduce the book if the papers start to fall apart. Books that nobody is able to read without connecting to some drm server, and where if you try to, you are committing a crime - it would be a loss on the scale of the famous ancient book burning events
Ie, we need to be allowed to own things in some sense again, not just license them under unintelligible and constantly changing and one sided, non negotiable terms
I moved to Ireland five years ago and I find it's impossibly hard to find and preserve a lot of interesting European computers because people took recycling so very seriously. It's sad, really.
And DEC had a large manufacturing plant in Galway. I expected to be able to find more interesting objects.
source: experience in the E*Waste recycling business, and lost my shirt in it like many others
How much would it cost to buy the rights to an essentially now semi-zombie game, that may have been been popular a decade+ ago?
Say a wealthy benefactor wanted to do so strictly to open source and preserve a series, not create new titles.
Maybe for a series that stills sells copies here and there, but is well past it’s prime?
Say, the Empire Earth franchise?
Or something with relatively more recent releases, like Heroes of Might and Magic?
Would it be the millions? Would one be able to do so for individual titles within a series?
Money never seems to be the sticking point, the problem is (a) figuring out who actually owns the rights, and then (b) actually tracking that person (or company) down. If we're talking about games from the 80s and 90s, many of those rights changed hands a number of times and the people/companies involved have since died/dissolved/retired/disappeared off the radar.
Another very good reason for a shorter copyright expiration period.
If no one claims it or enforces copyright, then nothing is stopping anyone from attempting to work on it, but without the source, it'd be all reverse engineering or something to that affect.
[1] https://kotaku.com/metal-gear-solid-games-being-removed-over...
Most competitive online games (including Fortnite) have changed so much over the past 4 years, and if no concerted effort is made, earlier maps, weapons and other unique historical and cultural artefacts may be lost forever.
I mean how many games are broken now just because Windows Live Games got discontinued?
Mirror's Edge gives me DRM-Server error messages when I start it sometimes...
My only real frame of reference on this is the Wii U (https://wiiu.hacks.guide), but for that platform, it's absolutely trivial to either dump them from a console or even pull them directly from the original Nintendo servers (which won't be there forever of course, but you only have to pull them once for the purposes of archival).
Of course there's exceptions. Animal Crossing New Horizons dripped its content out over the course of 20 months. I'm not sure if recently minted copies come with updates on the cartridge.
PS, I know this is a weak argument but do you really think you buying a video game legally, directly fills the devs pocket or just the top management getting salary bonuses every year with the profit ?
I think this will eventually be all that we have of many titles.