For those of us who grew up in the 80s, playing games in arcades or on our computers and game consoles was a major part of our childhoods, and we often have the nostalgic desire to replay those beloved titles. Others not only want to play, but have dedicated their scholarly attention to the study and preservation of videogame history. Sometimes companies who own the copyright to these games are able to repackage them and make them available on the shelf; there are countless “Games in a Stick” mini-consoles and plenty of “Arcade Classic” compilations for the PC and modern consoles. Unfortunately, only the most popular and well-known classic games from the biggest companies are available. Sure you can play Ms. Pac-Man, but what if you’re looking for Paul Norman’s_ Forbidden Forest_ or Bill Hogue’s Miner 2049er? While many such games are impossible to find at stores, emulation enthusiasts have made them available for download from the web. Unfortunately, downloading games from an “Abandonware” site might mean breaking the law. Thankfully, people like Matt Matthews of Liberated Games are leading the effort to legitimize “ROM collecting” by contacting abandonware authors and copyright holders, asking them to release their games and source code under public licenses. This is an important effort with significant cultural and historical connections and major implications for future game research. This article will offer reasons why preserving older games is important, why having access to the source code is just as important as having the games themselves, and finally, why we need to do all of this legally instead of relying on abandonware sites.

Who cares about old games?

Many people may find it odd or even laughable that some people care about preserving old, “obsolete” videogames. Why should we care if future generations of gamers are able to play out-of-production games and experience working with antiquated computer systems? More specifically, aren’t games simply a useless diversion anyway? While many people may agree that preserving Casablanca _or Shakespeare’s _Julius Caesar _is a culturally significant task, taking pains to ensure that future generations will have access to _Robotron and Zookeeper may seem silly. Videogames have long been a “subclass” of entertainment; something that kids do rather than what they’re “supposed to”, namely, their homework or playing outside. Another problem is that too many gamers view game development as a strictly linear process, with the “best” games available on the shelf today and past games as inferior or primitive in comparison. All of these factors add up to the prejudice that someone dedicating herself to the serious study of videogames is wasting time and resources. However, there are historical, cultural, and scientific reasons to care about classic games and study them with the same devotion that old books and movies receive by venerated college professors.

Those of us involved with the burgeoning field of game studies don’t hold the view that games are simply too frivolous to be worth taking seriously. For one thing, games are an important part of our cultural history. Students in 2050 will need to know about Space Invaders and Pacman if they hope to understand the America of the early 80s, just as anyone studying the 60s will need to know about rock and roll music. One should never refuse to take something seriously just because people find it enjoyable. Videogames have become a fundamental activity for a great number of people, and ignoring them is also ignoring an important chunk of our culture.

**There are historical, cultural, and scientific reasons to care about classic games and study them with the same devotion that old books and movies receive by venerated college professors**

There are other good reasons to study videogames. Many games are “deep” and have a similar emotional impact on us that great movies and books do. While many, if not most games are “me-too” rehashes of familiar formulas and gimmicks, other games explore more exciting territory. Nick Montfort identifies some games of literary weight in a brief essay named Literary Games, but one need not look hard to find games of cultural merit. Certainly anyone who has experienced Floyd’s sacrifice in Infocom’s Planetfall or April’s confrontation with her stepfather in Fun Com’s The Longest Journey is aware that games can affect us as strongly as other mediums of expression. The _Fall Out _series gave us a vivid portrayal of civilization after a nuclear disaster, and Janet Murray has even argued in her book _Hamlet on the Holodeck _that _Tetris _is a “perfect enactment of the overtasked lives of Americans in the 1990s”. Matt Matthews, host of _Liberated Games, _argues that _Missile Command _is culturally significant. “When Missile Command came along,” says Matthews, “the idea of the end of the world coming in a hail of nuclear missiles was on a lot of people’s minds. To see that acted out on a screen, to be in a position to try to fend this off for apparently helpless cities, to know that no matter what you did, there was no end to it—the fact that you could not avoid this fate once the missiles were launched is a political message.” The point is that games can teach us valuable lessons, albeit in a vastly different way than older, more respected media have done.

We could go on like this for quite a while if it were necessary. However, if we can agree that games are culturally significant, then we are likely to agree that they are worth serious study and effort to preserve them. Though some people would argue that studying any history or literature is a waste of time, I wouldn’t expect a reader of Free Software Magazine to share such a dismal view. So, I’ll move on to the more immediate issue at hand: namely, how we can access these older games, either for fun or study.

The Colecovision. Pic via Wikipedia.

As anyone who has ever played a videogame knows, it is a very different experience reading about a game or seeing someone playing one than experiencing it for oneself. Videogaming, just like any gaming, is clearly a participatory medium that derives a great deal of its popularity from the special demands it makes on players. Unfortunately, playing older games can represent a significant technical challenge. While it’s easy enough to buy a PlayStation 2 and plenty of games, finding a working Atari 2600 or an Apple II, much less games for such systems, is not. Some of us have dedicated ourselves to scouring flea markets and yard sales and preserving old games, systems, and accessories in well-kept private collections. While these collections may have cultural as well as monetary value, they are not likely to benefit many people besides the collectors who cherish them. Again, merely seeing a Colecovision in a museum is one thing and playing one is something else entirely.

Other people are not only motivated to collect classic games and hardware, but to ensure that other people are given the opportunity to experience them. One common means of achieving this end is separating the software from the hardware for which it is designed. The next step is to create an “emulator” program capable of synthesizing the original hardware. Such programs are plentiful and available for a variety of platforms. It is even quite common to find older system emulators for modern game consoles. A recent Slashdot posting identified the plethora of emulation software already available for Sony’s new handheld game console, the PSP, and Sega’s Dreamcast is the platform of choice for a thriving community of emulation and homebrew enthusiasts.

Abandonware, emulation, and ROMs

A great many, if not most, of the games we enjoyed as children and young adults are freely available for download online. Sites like _Back to the Roots, Home of the Underdogs, _and _Abandonia _provide downloads to countless games for PCs and game consoles that are no longer being sold. Thousands (if not tens of thousands) of arcade games are available in a variety of ways (including DVD mail order) for use in the well-known MAME emulator, and a cottage industry has grown up to provide hardware. Devices like the Xgaming’s X-Arcade allow modern gamers to experience the feel of classic hardware. Never before in history has it been so easy to accurately emulate so many classic games on a modern PC.

**Seeing a Colecovision in a museum is one thing, playing one something else entirely**

Still, even though emulation has seen significant technological progress, it remains quite illegal. The problem is that in all but a few cases, the copyright, patent, and trademark holders of these classic games and systems have not granted their permission for these downloads and are not being compensated for them. Even though most sites that host abandonware are non-profit and committed to selflessly serving communities of classic game and system enthusiasts, their activities clearly constitute copyright infringement.

The attitude of most of these sites is that they will keep a game available for download as long as they do not receive a specific request from a copyright holder that they take them down. Not many copyright holders bother to do this, and others give their blessing. The majority are probably unaware of the whole enterprise. Some abandonware authors have retained their copyright and are more than willing to release their games and code under a public license (or even dedicate them to the public domain) when they learn of any interest whatsoever in their creations. Others may not realize what is going on until their games have been downloaded thousands or millions of times; then they may feel that they have lost a great potential for revenue.

That some old games still hold significant value ought to be obvious to anyone. This is certainly the case with games like Frogger, Galaga, Super Mario Bros., and Ms. Pacman; these games have often been repackaged and made available in a variety of compilations for modern PC and consoles. However, why should anyone buy these often expensive compilations if they can get them for free? Nevertheless, unless we’re willing to break the law, we need to pay the price for these versions, since they are either being sold by the copyright holders or someone who has licensed those rights from them. Illegal downloads of classic games may seem harmless, but any attempt we make to justify doing so ends up sounding like the shoplifters who claim they steal because the store charges outlandish prices. As supporters of free software, we acknowledge the right of programmers to release “non-free” software and earn a profit doing so, even if we celebrate those who privilege freedom.