So how long can we expect outdated technology to last? (R.I.P. GameCube)

So TL;DR: Our Game Cube is so old, that it can't read anything anymore. My DS's battery can't hold an charge. And it's normal for even mint-condition CDs to decay after an few decades, apparently.

Fortunately, there's You Tube; but it's not the same and it causes an few more issues that are outside of the scope of this thread. Which is how are we going to preserve out favorite pieces of entertainment?

But since hardly anything on this flat Earth lasts forever (and this includes the companies that makes stuff), nobody is willing to continue manufacturing old equipment, or that copying this kind of stuff isn't exactly legal, I'm curious if certain things will be forgotten? Granted, there is an organisation in USA that's dedicated to preserving films, but has anyone else caught on to this?

Edited by RabidTanker on Oct 26th 2018 at 6:08:20 AM

The software will survive until doomsday, legally or illegally. I'm certain that every game for N64 or GC is already available on ROM sites. (Not that I would ever go there, of course.)

Keep Circulating the Tapes

This is incorrect. We've already lost or almost lost numerous bits of software from the past couple of decades simply because no effort existed to preserve them.

Unlike hardware, which you can replicate so long as you have a single example to copy from, software can get irrecoverably lost if no one keeps the source code around and the storage media containing the copies that are left are too degraded or restricted to reverse engineer it.

Yeah, there's also the times when an company goes under or changes a contract and takes most of their content becomes unavailable.

How does organizations like the Library of Congress play into preservation of software?

Huh my Game Cube is still fully functional. I got an og xbox recently and I have no problems with it. My ps2 on the other hand can be a real pain in the ass. Sometimes it works fine sometimes it can't read the disk. And god help you if you put a blue disk in it. The damned thing starts making this horrible noise that makes me think it's going to explode at any second

I had mines for an few years and it was running fine until we left in storage for an month or two. Then it started to degrade to the point where it was having trouble reading games to where it turns on; but it can't read anything that I have.

I think that either the laser had finally died after years of play Rogue Squadron and Melee or or that the heat actually got to the discs while they where in storage.

Edited by RabidTanker on Oct 30th 2018 at 8:00:44 AM

Roms aside, isn't there an industry based around making new machines that can play older games? (Are those emulators? I'm not entirely sure what's what.) So the answer is at least partially "make new hardware that reads the old disks and cartridges".

Like those music players that play Vinyl (which I'm pretty sure people are still publishing music on) cassette tapes and C Ds. Those are in every Target and Fry's I've been in.

OK I looked it up and here's what I found:

https://www.gamesradar.com/best-retro-consoles/

https://gizmodo.com/this-tiny-gaming-console-can-play-retro-games-from-28-d-1789726792

Machines like the Retron are what I was thinking of, not the NES mini classic. There seems to be a fairly healthy retro market asking for and making these kinds of things.

In any case, it appears games are subject to the same thing as the earliest films: Made on things that couldn't last, or by companies that fell apart, they simply got lost to anything but vague memory. Sad, but kind of inevitable.

Edited by AceofSpades on Oct 30th 2018 at 12:40:09 PM

I've been pretty lucky. The only console I've had "die" on me was the original X Box. It's not that the console bricked, but the disc tray would never stay closed, rendering it useless. When I took it to a used game shop, it would've cost about the same to fix the tray as it would've to just buy a replacement X Box, so I went with the latter.

I've bought quite a few "clone" consoles over the last few years. I know the die hard purists scoff at them, but I've been pleased with most of them. The only one I regretted buying was the Retron 1 HD (which plays NES carts in HDMI). A good dozen of my games didn't even start up, and many others had sound emulation issues that affected my enjoyment.

Edited by speedyboris on Oct 31st 2018 at 9:37:05 AM

Depending on the console, it might not be that hard to repair. My wife and I have a gen 1 PS 3, and we've had to replace the laser assembly twice, but it still runs great aside for that. And until 1998 I still had a TRS-80 (built 1979) that worked, but then my mom sold it at a yard sale when I joined the Navy. If you can tell what's wrong with it, there are people who make You Tube videos as step-by-step repair manuals.

I've had a few computers die on me (especially Amstrad CPC and its infamous disk belt failure), but for consoles I'm not sure. I think I ran out of working controllers for my SNES, but the console itself was otherwise fine the last time I used it (may have been thrown away since). As far as I know my GameCube and Wii still work, and so do all my handhelds (though at least one has a battery pack whose locking mechanism is broken).

Edited by Medinoc on Oct 31st 2018 at 5:01:28 PM

Machines like the Retron are what I was thinking of, not the NES mini classic. There seems to be a fairly healthy retro market asking for and making these kinds of things.

I've been wanting to get my hands on one of those. I have a question? Does the super game boy work with it?

I still have my PS'3, PS'2, and an PS'1 lying around, but who knows if that one still works. I had an Advance lying around, and I've got a Sega Genesis and a Gamecube somewhere.

The PS'Classic's been re-released IIRC. I think the NES Classic was too. Companies seem to be acknowledging the nostalgia for these things is profitable, what with the Switch letting you use your old GC controller for Smash Bros etc.

Certain things are going, like those old Gamecube/Gameboy Advance discs, but some things seem to be sacred enough to preserve.

I’ve heard rumors that the ps5 wil be backwards compatible with all of Play Station but I find it highly unlikely. Especially since the current Sony President is the asshole who basically said “fuck backwards compatibility”