Will Classic Games Disappear Forever?

Knightfall writes "Who doesn't remember pumping tons of quarters into games like Joust and Tron? I shudder at the thought of what could have become of that large quantity of money. Well, it seems remembering those games may soon be all that is left. As companies are dropping support, but not property rights to our old favorites, many are in danger of vanishing forever. There are a few trying to prevent this though. An article in Wired tells a little about it. I for one still find these games, on a pure gameplay level, better than most anything out there currently. What can we do to prevent them from no longer being available?"

Comments

How can that article even be taken seriously

[criquet]

with no mention of M.A.M.E.?

Re:MAME?

[gpinzone]

MAME is legal. Possessing copies of the ROMS is the sticky issue.

Legacy

[rf0]

Games will live on because people will still at some level want to play them. If that is through illegal ROMS or they actually maintain the physical hardware they will always be there. Also with any luck the rights will expire in a few countries so that ROMS etc will be legal there
Of course there are people who write there own which also captures the original. Good things won't die quickly. Tetris + Pacman live on. Ultimate Fighter 400 FX Special Edition doesn't (and I just made that name up)

Rus