this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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I agree with the goal of this, but don’t necessarily agree with its specific assertions.
Like yes, 100% we would be way better off if companies would actively support emulation by selling super-cheap any games that they otherwise have no interest in anymore.
But actually, yes, I do enjoy paying $40 for the remake of an old classic, if it’s done well.
The Spyro remaster from a few years ago was extremely well-done and I loved being able to play a favourite from my childhood on my computer. It was exactly the same game, only with modernised graphics. Well worth it.
Even better, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. It upgraded the graphics, but also added an enormous amount of new content and (most importantly) quality of life features, all done in consultation with the community that had been playing the original game for 20 years at the time DE came out. It would be best if you could still buy the original 1999 version for five bucks, but frankly I doubt many people would if you could, because the Definitive Edition was done so well.
It’s obviously different when there’s a remake that’s nothing but a cheap cash grab. Or when there hasn’t been any type of modern update. I wish, for example, it was easier for me to get my hands on a copy of Battle for Middle-Earth 2 to play with my friends. But the company that made it isn’t even allowed to continue selling it, for complicated licensing reasons. Because copyright law sucks.
Yeah, but quite often it's not done well, and is still explicitly intended to replace if not displace the original.
Yeah for sure. That's actually another reason that old abandonware should be kept available for people to play. If they come up with a replacement that's good enough to displace the original, that's awesome. But if they come up with a replacement that isn't worth it, they shouldn't be able to artificially prop up that version by making the original unavailable.
If you own it, you should be able to copy it for your enjoyment.
If it was or is critical to work, you should be able to copy it.
Licenses back when this all started were perpetual. I use it for the entirety of my life. So long as I breathe I have a license for it. Emulating that shouldn’t be illegal at all.
No disagreement from me whatsoever.
I personally hated the Definitive Edition for AoE2 :(
Huh, that's very interesting. I'm genuinely curious to know what it was that you didn't like about it.
Because the truth is that you're seemingly in the extreme minority. While 2013's HD edition seemed to split the community and received a bit of a mixed reaction, since 2019's DE has been an unmitigated success in terms of both finances for the devs, and in terms of unifying and growing the size of the community.
I'm still unhappy about them initially locking content behind time-limited challenges. Didn't buy the game early enough or just didn't happen to play at the right time? No 256x tech mode for you!
It's blatantly coercive design and even though it appears they've since unlocked the content for everyone I still have a negative opinion of the game because of it.
Yeah that's not great. To be honest for the most part I really like it. Most of the stuff you unlock is pure cosmetics (profile pictures or alternate looks for units—which only display as different for you, not your opponent). They're just some good fun, and I find my completionist nature enjoys jumping into the game to get them.
But there have been a few of the things unlocked as part of the challenges—that 256x mod is one of them, and there have also been a couple of cheat codes more recently—that did feel like more substantial things to miss out on if you happened not to be able to play while they were on offer. I wasn't playing when the 256x mod was around, but when the cheat codes first appeared I recall thinking it was pretty disappointing for anyone who might have wanted them that would miss out for whatever reason.
I was expecting they wouldn't change the visuals and feel of the game so much, I guess. Don't know if it was the idea but I tried for a few hours and ended up refunding it because I was expecting the same "feel" I had from the original/hd version and everything felt so... different. Maybe I need to give it another try but I remember at the time I decide to stick with the HD Version because it was what felt more familiar for me.
Yeah fair enough. That sort of thing is definitely subjective and it would be impossible for anyone to say you're wrong.
Personally, I find the new QOL features impossible to live without now. Shift-queueing absolutely any task, being able to queue multiple techs or techs and units, villagers keeping one resource until they actually start gathering—rather than losing all the gold they're carrying just because you accidentally clicked a tree—farm autoreseeding. To me, none of these really change the fundamental way the game feels, they just make it feel like a smoother, more polished version of the original game.
Did the spyro remake give you a headache too?
Uhh, no, not for me. Was that a problem quite a few people were reporting?
Just something I had, made me need to stop playing it. Wondered if the refresh rate or motion blur was off or something.