Internet Archive Launches Arcade of Classic Games In the Browser

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Internet Archive Launches Arcade of Classic Games In the Browser

Posted by Soulskill on Monday November 3, 2014 @10:14PM from the doing-good-work dept.

SternisheFan tips news that the Internet Archive has launched the "Internet Arcade," a collection of over 900 arcade games from the '70s, '80s, and '90s that are free to play in an emulated, browser-based environment. The Arcade makes use of JavaScript Mess, which the crew at the Archive has been working on for several years. Obviously, a lot of people are going to migrate to games they recognize and ones that they may not have played in years. They’ll do a few rounds, probably get their @$%^& kicked, smile, and go back to their news sites. A few more, I hope, will go towards games they've never heard of, with rules they have to suss out, and maybe more people will play some of these arcades in the coming months than the games ever saw in their "real" lifetimes. And my hope is that a handful, a probably tiny percentage, will begin plotting out ways to use this stuff in research, in writing, and remixing these old games into understanding their contexts.

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Sweet!! by rodrigoandrade · 2014-11-03 22:20 · Score: 5, Funny

Goodbye productivity!!
1. Re:Sweet!! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-03 23:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Goodbye productivity!!
  You can really say this with a straight face while surfing slashdot?
2. Re:Sweet!! by zAPPzAPP · 2014-11-03 23:30 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  But he produced a first post!
3. Re:Sweet!! by greenfruitsalad · 2014-11-03 23:32 · Score: 2
  
  i've made the mistake of playing Street Fighter 2. i had such fond memories of the game from childhood. some things are just better left as memories.
  i wonder how i'm going to perceive today's "realistic" 3d games in 10 years.
4. Re:Sweet!! by Tyr07 · 2014-11-03 23:38 · Score: 2
  
  i wonder how i'm going to perceive today's "realistic" 3d games in 10 years.
  Realistically!
5. Re:Sweet!! by Eosi · 2014-11-03 23:41 · Score: 0
  
  I agree completely. Now they need to add some of the classic NES and SNES games. That would be awesome..
6. Re:Sweet!! by Tyr07 · 2014-11-04 00:04 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  This has been done and around for a long time.
  http://www.virtualsupernes.com...
7. Re:Sweet!! by gl4ss · 2014-11-04 00:26 · Score: 1
  
  two things, a) virtualsupernes & others use roms without permission to use them and b) the emulator is written in java, not javascript..
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
8. Re:Sweet!! by mccalli · 2014-11-04 00:41 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Although I agree the sentiment, I disagree specifically on Street Fighter 2 (well...on the Hyperfighting/Turbo edition anyway). Always found that one holds up because the characters are well balanced, the moves are easy'ish to remember so when playing people who are good it's less about remembering the framerate for the super-ultra-mega-30-button-combo-string and more about actual weighted tactics.
  
  I find it interesting that my kids, who are used to playing the newest and prettiest editions of the Tekken series, still go back to Street Fighter 2 Hyperfighting. They weren't even alive when it came out and have no nostalgic feelings towards it, so clearly the game has got something to it which stands the test of time.
9. Re:Sweet!! by Tyr07 · 2014-11-04 00:43 · Score: 2
  
  Two things.
  A) I did not make a statement to if it was java, javascript, flash, or html 5. It has been done in a browser before.
  B) My comment was clearly directed at the comment regarding NES and SNES games, not the validity of the service.
10. Re:Sweet!! by Jason+Levine · 2014-11-04 01:18 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I felt the same way when I re-watched some episodes of Voltron on Netflix. I remembered an exciting, top notch animated show. I saw cheesy dialogue and plot holes that you could pilot a giant space robot through. There are somethings that you can relive the glory of - that stand the test of time - and other things that just are better left in your memory.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
11. Re:Sweet!! by CastrTroy · 2014-11-04 01:45 · Score: 2
  
  Go try Alone in the Dark, or even worse, Hugo's House or Horrors. I remember spending countless hours playing those two games. Went back and played them a little while ago and they just don't hold up.Granted I never really thought of them as "realistic", but I remember them being a lot more fun than they are.
  
  --
  
  Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
12. Re:Sweet!! by Jonifico · 2014-11-04 02:03 · Score: 0
  
  Oh, man. I'm so getting fired after a couple weeks with this... That is if they catch me, of course.
13. Re:Sweet!! by ArcadeMan · 2014-11-04 03:02 · Score: 2
  
  The 3D games become worst with age because of advances in technology.
  The 2D games, on the other hand, age much more gracefully since there's a limit to what you can do in 2D, apart from adding lighting and glowing effects. I can still look at Super Metroid and think it's fine, but Zelda on the Nintendo 64 looks like crap by comparison. And Zelda is newer than Super Metroid.
  
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14. Re:Sweet!! by ArcadeMan · 2014-11-04 03:04 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  ...clearly the game has got something to it which stands the test of time.
  Of course it does. Her name is Chun-Li.
  
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  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
15. Re:Sweet!! by ArcadeMan · 2014-11-04 03:05 · Score: 2
  
  Leonardo DiCaprio, is that you?
  
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  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
16. Re:Sweet!! by arth1 · 2014-11-04 03:24 · Score: 1
  
  i've made the mistake of playing Street Fighter 2. i had such fond memories of the game from childhood. some things are just better left as memories.
  Most of the arcade games of yore don't translate well to a PC.
  The controllers are very different, and not stationary. This makes a huge difference.
  And for most ports, the input is also severely laggy compared to a console where the inputs were generally hardwired in and would be guaranteed[*] to be read once every fixed frequency cycle.
  [*] Apart from the second and cheaper version of Pac-Man consoles, which was horrible in its control lag, killing the tactic of standing still by moving the stick back and forth rapidly. I think they must have re-purposed a different games console, writing an abstraction layer around the inputs.
17. Re:Sweet!! by oldmac31310 · 2014-11-04 03:26 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I watched it and other things like every Transformers episode EVAR with my son. Never saw this stuff growing up so it was all new to me. Really enjoyed watching it with my son though. See it from a five year old's perspective and it helps lower to bar - in a good way.
  
  --
  http://www.acetonestudio.com
18. Re:Sweet!! by serviscope_minor · 2014-11-04 03:44 · Score: 1
  
  While there was plenty of crap some of the best ones really do stand the test of time.
  Personally I rather Like Street Fighter II Championship Edition. Good balance, special moves possible to master, etc. Robotron is another excellent one but requires a dual joystick. There's something about the control technique of that game (one stick to move, one to fire in the direction of your choice) which is incredibly absorbing.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
19. Re:Sweet!! by Quirkz · 2014-11-04 03:55 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Five manned aircraft inexplicably in the shape of cats that can unite into one giant sword-weilding robot somehow synchronously controlled by five people? I don't possibly see how you could be disillusioned by watching that show as an adult.
  
  --
  The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
20. Re:Sweet!! by Jason+Levine · 2014-11-04 06:08 · Score: 1
  
  Interestingly, it wasn't the "manned lion robots form humanoid robot with sword" part. I'm willing to suspend disbelief for that component. It was bad dialog, character motivation that seemed to be "the plot needs us to do X so let's do X", and unexplained, story changing events (they break out of a prison on the enemy's planet and somehow wind back up on their own planet. How? Don't worry about that... they just did.). I didn't even get to the "Why don't they use the big sword as their first weapon since it works every time and nothing else seems to" part.
  Childhood memory and the progression of expectations (both in storytelling/animation and in child->adult expectations) easily turn "Fantastic series" into "Why did I ever like this?!!!!"
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
21. Re:Sweet!! by Jason+Levine · 2014-11-04 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  The same thing happened when my boys and I watched some 80's He-Man episodes. I began to cringe at how bad they were but my boys were just enjoying them too much. They didn't care that the animation was subpar or the dialog was cheesy. Their enjoyment tempered my reaction and made the entire experience more enjoyable.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
22. Re:Sweet!! by Quirkz · 2014-11-04 07:35 · Score: 1
  
  Well, that was at least partly tongue-in-cheek. I had my own jump the shark moment with GI Joe, which I watched devotedly as a child. I caught an episode as a teenager and watched out of curiosity. "Fire at will," Zoltan said, and one of his flunkies responded, "Uh, which one's Will?" I tried to remember if the series was always that dumb, or if the new version had gotten worse (the rest of the episode just went downhill from there) but I decided I didn't really want to know.
  You had another post about He-Man. Oddly, that one I couldn't stand even when I was 8. I wasn't very picky about anything else, so I don't know why that one earned my disapproval.
  
  --
  The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
23. Re:Sweet!! by Kevin+Fishburne · 2014-11-04 08:41 · Score: 1
  
  As a gamer, game dev, and huge fan of Street Fighter II, I agree with your observations. It's an incredibly well-made and polished classic, and still stands as one of the best fighting games ever made. And Chun Li. Yata!
  
  --
  Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
24. Re:Sweet!! by Dutch+Gun · 2014-11-04 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  Well, consider that you're comparing the first generation of 3D games against the last generation (in their heyday, that is) of 2D games. It's not really a fair comparison. Personally, as I move away from the awful first generation of each, I reach a "good enough" threshold, where I'm no longer distracted by the bad graphics. Halo on the original Xbox still looks reasonably good. I've recently been playing Final Fantasy X in HD on the PS3, and it looks great for being two console generations behind.
  Besides, given the fact that kids and adults alike have wasted about a billion hours on Minecraft, we clearly have to conclude that attractive-looking graphics aren't everything.
  
  --
  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
25. Re:Sweet!! by Volguus+Zildrohar · 2014-11-05 10:27 · Score: 1
  
  The Alone in the Dark remake on the Xbox 360 tries to recapture that same sense of "why the fuck am I still playing this" from the very start.
  
  --
  When confronted with one problem, some think "I'll use recursion". Now they are confronted with one problem.
26. Re:Sweet!! by vandelais · 2014-11-05 13:50 · Score: 1
  
  I think I broke my keyboard playing Track and Field.
  
  --
  Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
How long will it last... by MindPrison · 2014-11-03 22:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

...before the copyright holders come to collect?

Roms are being deleted all the time on the internet, I know...because I've constantly tried to find the original Arcade Pac Man roms, but the copyrights are still in effect as various companies sell retrogames themselves, which they hold the license to.

--
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
1. Re:How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-03 22:42 · Score: 1
  
  You just have to know where to look, you can always find what you want, if you look hard enough. I can think of three places where you can find what you want off hand. I believe there are most likely others too. One of those places is 10 years old too.
2. Re: How long will it last... by frikken+lazerz · 2014-11-03 23:29 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Wrong. Sadly, just because the company doesn't exist doesn't mean it's public domain. The copyrights don't expire upon a company going out of business.
3. Re: How long will it last... by mwvdlee · 2014-11-04 00:39 · Score: 1
  
  They may end up in a sort of limbo, with nobody left to actually sue for copyright infringement.
  If nobody can sue, it's effectively public domain.
  
  --
  Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
4. Re:How long will it last... by gl4ss · 2014-11-04 00:43 · Score: 1
  
  come on, look at the list. defender, outrun and a few others.
  but that outrun is there, but not other system16(or 16+16 whatever) games... ..I think they asked for permission to use these?
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
5. Re: How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 00:55 · Score: 1
  
  When a company goes out of business, it is because it owes more than it has. Those debts are (partially) paid off by selling the company's assets, which includes copyrights. This is the job of the receivers. So either the receivers sold the copyrights to some 3rd party to help clear the debts, or else the copyrights were transferred to some bank as part payment. Either way, the copyrights belong to *someone* now.
  OTOH this is the Internet Archive so I'm assuming they either have permission or (somehow) can argue they don't need it.
6. Re:How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 01:09 · Score: 0
  
  Umm.... you could always download a full MAME romset via bittorrent.
7. Re: How long will it last... by Jason+Levine · 2014-11-04 01:25 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Which is one big reason why I advocate for shorter copyright terms. Let's say you remembered a great, somewhat obscure game from the 80's and wanted to remake it. You wanted to do it properly, however, and get permission from the copyright owners. The company that owned the copyright is likely long since bankrupt and following the ownership of the copyright can be murky at times. You might even locate one company, get permission, and find yourself sued afterwards by a second company who claims ownership. Often, two companies will claim copyright and it will be up to the courts to untangle the mess. If the courts have trouble with this, what hope does your average producer of content have to find the right company.
  Now, if copyright expired 14 years after registration (with a one-time 14 year renewal), like it originally was set, you could be sure that any game from 1986 or before was public domain. As for games after 1986, you would know who renewed the copyright under 14 years ago so you would only need to sift through 13 years or less of copyright transferals - instead of 30+ years now.
  A 14+14 copyright system would drastically reduce the number of orphan works out there.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
8. Re: How long will it last... by printman · 2014-11-04 01:40 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, a company can go out of business just because the owners want to close the doors.
  But in either case the IP held by the company before it closes is still held by someone - the original owners or the entity that buys the assets to satisfy a debt.
  
  --
  I print, therefore I am.
9. Re: How long will it last... by frikken+lazerz · 2014-11-04 01:50 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, but in many cases it is impossible to know who has the rights. The company could have sold the IP, could have transfered it, or perhaps it had multiple owners or even the company was using it illegally! This could create sort of a chilling effect, where people are afraid to take chances because someone might own the copyrights and come back to sue. That's why the copyright system really needs to be reformed. Copyrights should have to be renewed every 7 years or so for a small fee. If you're making money from it, renew it and you still have the rights. If it's no longer profitable or you have no desire to keep the copyright, don't pay the fee and it becomes public domain. This should keep the big companies happy because they can keep their successful IP for a long time like they do now (and a small fee is nothing if the IP is really profitable) but also allow more works to enter the public domain for remixing, adapting, and other creative uses.
10. Re: How long will it last... by CastrTroy · 2014-11-04 01:59 · Score: 1
  
  Might work for games because they have evolved so much in the last 28 years that stuff from 28 years ago doesn't really act as much of a threat to those trying to sell new games. Think about how this would work with books, movies, and music though. Imagine if everything made 1986 or earlier was in the public domain. That's a huge catalog. And since things like CDs existed in 1986, there would be perfect copies of this stuff available for free. It would be a lot harder for people to sell stuff if you could get more content than you could ever consume in your life for free. Sure there's a lot of content out there in the public domain, but a lot of it is so old that the language seems almost foreign to a lot of us. I agree that copyright needs to be shorter, but it also blows my mind to think of the amount of content that would be available as public domain if copyright only lasted 28 years.
  
  --
  
  Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
11. Re: How long will it last... by mrchaotica · 2014-11-04 02:16 · Score: 2
  
  Think about how this would work with books, movies, and music though.
  Hmm... let's see: the way it would work is that only the original creator could live off the royalties, but his heirs would have to actually do something productive. Sounds good to me!
  
  I agree that copyright needs to be shorter, but it also blows my mind to think of the amount of content that would be available as public domain if copyright only lasted 28 years.
  Indeed! The cost to society of all that content not being available like it should have been is mind-blowing!
  
  --
  "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
12. Re:How long will it last... by NotDrWho · 2014-11-04 02:23 · Score: 1
  
  Did they even TRY to actually secure the rights to any of these games?
  
  --
  SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
13. Re:How long will it last... by Trax3001BBS · 2014-11-04 02:55 · Score: 1
  
  ...before the copyright holders come to collect?
  Roms are being deleted all the time on the internet, I know...because I've constantly tried to find the original Arcade Pac Man roms, but the copyrights are still in effect as various companies sell retrogames themselves, which they hold the license to.
  Get on the Usenet, there is a very active MAME newsgroup and request your needs; they will be met. -Not Google Groups they are text only.
  Myself I use Forte Agent (Windows) as an e-mailer and to access the UseNet. (1.93 as it's the best version, you need to run Stunnel for SSL, and place Agent as a DEP exception) versions after 1.93 you don't need to do those steps but have a folder setup that sucks, and will load html pages (I only do text).
14. Re:How long will it last... by Trax3001BBS · 2014-11-04 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  (I only do text).
  I speak of E-mail, stops the beacons.
15. Re:How long will it last... by Trax3001BBS · 2014-11-04 03:05 · Score: 1
  
  Umm.... you could always download a full MAME romset via bittorrent.
  36+ gigs, it's how I got the entire MAME set.
16. Re: How long will it last... by Jason+Levine · 2014-11-04 03:13 · Score: 1
  
  If having the old stuff available meant that new stuff wasn't watched, then Netflix would kill movies being released in the Box Office. After all, why watch the latest movie when there's a ton of older movies available? The answer, of course, is that the old content being in Public Domain would spur on more creativity. For example, Ghostbusters was released in 1984. It would be in the public domain. And Ghostbusters 2 - released in 1989 - would enter the Public Domain in 3 years.
  This would mean that a fan could make a movie based off of Ghostbusters (perhaps with new actors taking over the roles or as a "next generation of Ghostbusters" movie). They could also make a TV show based on it. Would much of the new content based off of the Public Domain title be garbage? Sure. But that's par for the course with any new content. (How many garbage movies get released every year versus good movies?) Mixed in with the trash spin-offs, though, would be a couple of gems that could re-ignite interest in the original while taking it in a completely new direction.
  
  it also blows my mind to think of the amount of content that would be available as public domain if copyright only lasted 28 years.
  It blows my mind how long we need to wait for content to get into the Public Domain. The trade-off was Content Creators get a monopoly on their work - getting to decide how it is used - as an incentive to produce more works. In return, the content creator gave the content back to society at the end of the copyright term. Giving the content back acted as fertilizer for others to create new works. Over the years, though, copyright terms lengthened and lengthened until they last 100 years or more. How does giving the Content Creator ownership of the content 70 years after his/her death give them incentive them to create more works? Are they going to rise from the dead to pen a sequel? As it stands now, they not only could pass the copyright on to their children, but to their grandchildren as well.
  The balance is now thrown completely off. Content Creators don't put anything into the Public Domain now. (Ok, some people do declare their works in the Public Domain, but they are a tiny group of exceptions.) A work created today won't enter into the Public Domain (assuming the terms don't lengthen again - which is a big assumption) until the year 2134. Thankfully, this wasn't applied retroactively to 120 years in the past or we would just now be able to use content from 1894. As it stands now, the Public Domain only applies to content from 1923 - just before "the talkies" started taking hold. Here we are in 2014 and the Public Domain can't even include a movie with people talking in it.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
17. Re: How long will it last... by FlyHelicopters · 2014-11-04 03:44 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm... let's see: the way it would work is that only the original creator could live off the royalties, but his heirs would have to actually do something productive. Sounds good to me!
  Who is the original creator of the movie Top Gun?
  What you said sounds great when talking about a book that one person wrote at home, it falls apart a bit when you move that to movies and other works that involved a lot of people and a lot of money to make.
18. Re: How long will it last... by FlyHelicopters · 2014-11-04 03:45 · Score: 1
  
  For example, Ghostbusters was released in 1984. It would be in the public domain. And Ghostbusters 2 - released in 1989 - would enter the Public Domain in 3 years.
  This would mean that a fan could make a movie based off of Ghostbusters (perhaps with new actors taking over the roles or as a "next generation of Ghostbusters" movie).
  You're confusing copyright with trademark.
  Just because Ghostbusters enters the public domain doesn't mean you can make a movie called Ghostbusters 3. The Ghostbusters name is trademarked.
19. Re: How long will it last... by mrchaotica · 2014-11-04 04:03 · Score: 1
  
  Who is the original creator of the movie Top Gun?
  Everyone who worked on it and negotiated themselves to get a cut of the royalties (as opposed to a salary).
  
  What you said sounds great when talking about a book that one person wrote at home, it falls apart a bit when you move that to movies and other works that involved a lot of people and a lot of money to make.
  How so? It would not be any sort of disaster for the folks involved to get royalties for "only" 28 years instead of for life.
  
  --
  "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
20. Re: How long will it last... by FlyHelicopters · 2014-11-04 04:23 · Score: 2
  
  You're thinking of the people who might be getting royalties...
  Top Gun is likely still owned by Paramount and they are earning the lions share of money from it...
  Now, the question becomes... A VHS copy from 1989 might well become public domain, but what about a 2009 Blu-Ray copy?
  Real work and real money goes into taking older films and making nice pretty high def versions of them.
  Is the old copy public domain but the new copy protected?
  If so, I don't know how much is gained, but fair enough. If not, you won't get any updated or refreshed versions of anything if you can just copy them right away.
21. Re: How long will it last... by SternisheFan · 2014-11-04 04:47 · Score: 2
  
  Archive.org prides itself on preserving media that falls under the public domain, but none of the listed games are in the public domain. There's not even any ambiguity about it.
  It's possible that the people in charge of this service assume that the project fulfils some fair use criteria for being about historical preservation, but I doubt any judge would agree with them. It's also possible that the site owners know that they don't have the rights to host these games, and are hoping to slip under the publishers' radars. Either way, they can probably expect a few cease and desist letters in the near future, so enjoy the service while you can.
22. Re: How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 05:03 · Score: 0
  
  WRONG- the US Supreme Court has ruled you CANNOT use the legal 'trick' of 'trademark' to defy the consequence of an IP (like Sherlock Holmes) entering public domain. The Estate of Conan Doyle (actually a dishonest US holding company) has tried every trick in the book to maintain control of the Sherlock Holmes IP, after the stories began to entire US public domain. Their SPECIFIC intent was to prevent companies or individuals from producing new Sherlock Holmes books and movies without their permission- effectively ending the concept of public domain.
  When 'Ghostbusters' truly enters Public Domain (which under the very changing US laws that Hollywood pays to modify every decade or so won't be for at least another HUNDRED years), you most certainly WILL be able to call your new film 'Ghostbusters X' or whatever, regardless of 'trademarks' still held.
  PS yes, I know the USSC ruled by NOT ruling- ie., they refused to 'hear' the case brought by the dishonest heirs after they had comprehensively lost in lower courts.
23. Re: How long will it last... by mrchaotica · 2014-11-04 05:04 · Score: 2
  
  Now, the question becomes... A VHS copy from 1989 might well become public domain, but what about a 2009 Blu-Ray copy?
  Real work and real money goes into taking older films and making nice pretty high def versions of them.
  
  First of all, who cares? Even leaving aside the fact that somebody would inevitably put a laserdisc rip up on Bittorrent, Blu-Ray does not make Top Gun a better movie any more than colorizing Casablanca or "special editioning" Star Wars would.
  Second, and more importantly, think of the opportunity cost! Is having Top Gun on blu-ray really worth stifling all the potential Top-Gun-derivative works that could have been?
  
  --
  "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
24. Re: How long will it last... by arth1 · 2014-11-04 06:26 · Score: 2
  
  When a company goes out of business, it is because it owes more than it has. Those debts are (partially) paid off by selling the company's assets, which includes copyrights. This is the job of the receivers.
  Bankruptcy is only one of the ways a company can go out of business. A company can also be dissolved while solvent, where surplus assets are terminated without transfer of ownership. This is not uncommon for assets that carry a risk or a future liability.
  I have gone through one company dissolution myself.
25. Re: How long will it last... by FlyHelicopters · 2014-11-04 07:07 · Score: 1
  
  First of all, who cares?
  I do, Top Gun was shot in 35mm film, VHS and even LaserDisc are bad copies of that... Blu-Ray is closer, 4K will be as close to a perfect copy as we'll get (since 35MM film has about 4,000 lines of resolution, give or take since it is analog medium).
  We wouldn't even be watching Casablanca if your idea was in place, it wouldn't have been put on VHS to begin with, since copies would be free.
  While I get the idea, I understand the problem with copyright being "forever", just cutting it off at the knees isn't the solution either.
  Revisions of works must be protected, or no one is going to spend money doing them. Putting a movie on Blu-Ray isn't a $50 job, some movies cost over $1 million dollars to do a Blu-Ray copy, since they often have to scan the original 35MM film and clean it up frame by frame.
26. Re: How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 07:47 · Score: 0
  
  For example, Ghostbusters was released in 1984. It would be in the public domain. And Ghostbusters 2 - released in 1989 - would enter the Public Domain in 3 years.
  This would mean that a fan could make a movie based off of Ghostbusters (perhaps with new actors taking over the roles or as a "next generation of Ghostbusters" movie).
  You're confusing copyright with trademark.
  Just because Ghostbusters enters the public domain doesn't mean you can make a movie called Ghostbusters 3. The Ghostbusters name is trademarked.
  Trademarks are pretty narrowly defined.
  Having a trademark on "King Arthur" (as the title of a movie or TV series) would not have prevented the TV series "Merlin" for example.
  Personally i think that works out nicely as you wouldn't really want say "Harry Potter and the Half Stoned Prince" (in which a re-imagined Harry, Ron, and Herminie solve their problems by copious consumption of illegal drugs) being confused with the books that inspired it. So enforcing the trademark on the "Harry Potter" title and the trade dress of the book covers is probably for the best.
27. Re:How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 07:51 · Score: 0
  
  Probably not.
  See: Console Living Room
  Multiple video game systems available. For instance, I could play Mortal Kombat 3 for the Sega Genesis. I'm pretty sure I can find some of those games on Steam.
  So Archive.org has a known history of seeming to not care about honoring the rights of copyright holders. If they can get by unnoticed, or use their market position (owned by Alexa, owned by Amazon, which sells current products) to not be sued, then they will do whatever they feel like doing, in the name of preservation.
  Because, yeah, otherwise the entire world would be at risk of losing all usable copies of those games that I can go buy today from Steam.
28. Re: How long will it last... by mrchaotica · 2014-11-04 08:08 · Score: 1
  
  While I get the idea, I understand the problem with copyright being "forever", just cutting it off at the knees isn't the solution either.
  TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS is "cutting it off at the knees?" That isn't even remotely reasonable.
  
  --
  "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
29. Re: How long will it last... by steveha · 2014-11-04 08:15 · Score: 2
  
  Politics is the art of the possible. There are big-money companies that really, really don't want some properties to go into the public domain... and I don't think it will be possible to make a simple scheme like 14+14 in the face of their opposition.
  I think the best we can hope for, the best we can realistically obtain in the current political environment, is to allow copyright holders to renew forever, but absolutely require that renewal (nothing automatic).
  So Disney will pay people to meticulously track every old Disney cartoon, will pay the copyright renewal fee on each one every 5 years or whatever, and won't oppose letting other stuff fall into the public domain. Meanwhile, wacky old video games where nobody is even sure who controls the copyright would fall into the public domain, as nobody would pay the fee.
  I don't even care how much the fee is. Make it $1. What I want is for the default case be that things fall into the public domain.
  I don't view the above solution as perfect, but I do think it is the best that we can hope for in the current environment.
  
  --
  lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
30. Re: How long will it last... by FlyHelicopters · 2014-11-04 08:24 · Score: 1
  
  Meh, you act as if your view is gospel and anything else is just stupid.
  Think about that for a minute...
  Is 28 years more or less reasonable than 18, or 38?
  Then we have to address revisions to works. My example, I believe, was quite reasonable for VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray.
  Gone With The Wind was expensive to restore and redo for Blu-Ray:
  http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/...
  If you are being honest, you'll take 5 minutes and read that, the work that was done to make the modern copy look so good was not cheap.
  How about this one:
  http://miamiherald.typepad.com...
  Ben Hur cost $1 million dollars to restore.
  You think that should be free? You think that would even be available if they couldn't sell it or prevent you from making copies?
  Perhaps a 20 to 30 year copyright on a specific version of each work, so that old VHS copies could be handed out, but the Blu-Ray could not be, at least not for awhile.
  In 20 years, they would have to release the codes to unlock the encryption on the disks, but by that time perhaps something new will be out, so you can watch the old 1080p copy, but the new 8k 4D super duper version would still be protected.
  Just tossing out ideas...
31. Re: How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 08:44 · Score: 1
  
  A 14+14 copyright system would drastically reduce the number of orphan works out there.
  How many 28 year old games can you name that are by companies that still are around?
  I think it would make more sense to put a requirement that you have to make the game available to keep the copyright.
  If you don't make any money of it there is no need for you to prevent people from using it anyway so you might as well let it free.
  It will also mean that you don't have a long gap between the moment it was purchasable and when it is possible for enthusiasts to archive it and keep it available.
  The last part is pretty crucial. I occasionally want to get hold on pretty obscure games for the C64 and Amiga. Luckily piracy was pretty rampant but for the less popular games the binaries available are dumped from some floppy that was copied around quite a lot and have some odd bit error on it.
  There is no particular reason for software to disappear, but if people didn't break copyright law so often a lot of computer history would have been gone.
32. Re: How long will it last... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 08:49 · Score: 0
  
  I realize that you want to see Top Gun in the ultimate quality possible, but with a lot of the 80's movies, the higher quality leads to seeing stuff you didn't see in past decades, i.e. when I watched Top Gun on a DVD recently, I noticed how fake-looking the cockpits were. I didn't notice that previously.
Wasn't this already available someplace else? by tommeke100 · 2014-11-03 23:03 · Score: 0

I'm pretty sure I've played MAME emulated games online in the past ....
1. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by bspus · 2014-11-03 23:52 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I'm pretty sure I've played MAME emulated games online in the past ....
  Of course. MAME started out as MS-DOS FOSS back in 1997 The interesting part in this web arcade is that the emulation is done in javascript. Back in 97, javascript was little more than a toy language for making animations in websites.
  
  Oh, and its obviously legal to play them now.
  MAME requires dumps of the original arcade roms which can generally not be aquired legally.
  
  But sure, otherwise, anyone who wants old arcades has already known how to get them. Almost everything that matters has been pefectly emulated for about a decade
2. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by glenebob · 2014-11-04 00:44 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Back in 97, javascript was little more than a toy language for making animations in websites
  Some things never change :p
3. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · 2014-11-04 00:46 · Score: 0
  
  Back in 97, javascript was little more than a toy language for making animations in websites.
  
  Whereas today it's a toy language for making "immersive content" websites more annoying.
4. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by PhilHibbs · 2014-11-04 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, and its obviously legal to play them now.
  How come? Has the Internet Archive negotiated permission with all the copyright holders for all these games?
5. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by Trax3001BBS · 2014-11-04 03:10 · Score: 1
  
  Back in 97, javascript was little more than a toy language for making animations in websites.
  Whereas today it's a toy language for making "immersive content" websites more annoying.
  But on the upside with java you can play any MAME game on your cellphone. Bubble Bobble, Moon patrol, lots of fun. The MAME player is in the Google store, it's versions that keep changing that keep you busy.
6. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by antdude · 2014-11-04 09:39 · Score: 1
  
  In Java and Flash? Yeah.
  
  --
  Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
7. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 09:46 · Score: 0
  
  Judging by their copyrighted rom collections, loads of russian warez collections masqueraded as "shareware CDs", and "IBM PC Compatible CD-ROMS" as a vague title for obvious warez (including a full Starcraft release!), i'm pretty sure they didn't have permission.
  
  I'm worried because it puts the whole IA organization into further risk. It wasn't like this before 2009.
8. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by bspus · 2014-11-04 19:55 · Score: 1
  
  tbh I just assumed!
  I thought it would be too bold to do such a thing without permission, have so much publicity and not worry about going to jail!
9. Re:Wasn't this already available someplace else? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-05 08:47 · Score: 0
  
  Wow, that must be super cool, trying to control a game designed for a joystick and buttons with a touchscreen instead.
Get your naming right, Soulskill by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 00:07 · Score: 0

"JavaScript Mess"? Uh, no. JSMESS is an Emscripten-converted version of MESS, which is a sister project to MAME, using the same core architecture to emulate non-coin-op games. Given that these are arcade games, then it's using JSMAME, the Emscripten-converted version of MAME.
1. Re:Get your naming right, Soulskill by daive · 2014-11-04 00:27 · Score: 1
  
  You're railing at Soulskill, but if you follow TFL down to an actual game you'll see the that they're referring to JSMESS (right or wrong) as the emulator used on the page itself...
2. Re:Get your naming right, Soulskill by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · 2014-11-04 00:32 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Besides, "JavaScript Mess" is redundant.
3. Re:Get your naming right, Soulskill by CaseCrash · 2014-11-04 02:57 · Score: 1
  
  Actually the page says:
  
  "emulated in JSMAME, part of the JSMESS software package."
  
  --
  No, that link you posted to a web comic we've all seen a hundred times is not "obligatory."
4. Re:Get your naming right, Soulskill by daive · 2014-11-04 14:55 · Score: 1
  
  Again, down to an actual game.
Planet of Zoom.... by TapeCutter · 2014-11-04 01:11 · Score: 2

First game I ever hacked, the question "Could Buck Rogers reach the domed city?" drove me nuts for weeks but it also taught me a fair bit about disassembly.

--
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Can hardly be called the Internet Archive anymore by QuietLagoon · 2014-11-04 01:46 · Score: 0

So what should its new name be?
"vector games are an issue"... by jeffb+(2.718) · 2014-11-04 01:54 · Score: 2

...so no Battlezone. :( There was ONE GAME that I played obsessively and mastered, and it's not there.
No, wait, there was one raster game I liked, but it didn't make much of a splash in the real world -- Reactor. It's not there, either.
900 games, 850 of which I've never heard of, and the two that I look for aren't there. I want a refund.
1. Re:"vector games are an issue"... by Cola+Junkee · 2014-11-04 03:10 · Score: 2
  
  OK. :) Here's your $0 back.
  
  --
  f u cn rd ths, u r prbbly a lsy spllr.
2. Re:"vector games are an issue"... by ArcadeMan · 2014-11-04 03:22 · Score: 1
  
  900 games, 850 of which I've never heard of, and the two that I look for aren't there. I want a refund.
  Here you go.
  
  --
  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
3. Re:"vector games are an issue"... by SuseLover · 2014-11-04 07:16 · Score: 1
  
  Hmmm. Found it in 20 seconds on the archive and it works in my version of mame on Ubuntu:
  
  main page: http://archive.org/download/MA...
  
  Battlezone: http://archive.org/download/MA...
  
  Reactor: http://ia601001.us.archive.org...
4. Re:"vector games are an issue"... by klui · 2014-11-04 08:14 · Score: 1
  
  Tac/Scan, Quantum, Star Trek are there. There may be others.
5. Re:"vector games are an issue"... by anonymous_wombat · 2014-11-04 09:15 · Score: 1
  
  Amidar
  Defender
  Dig Dug
  Frogger
  Marble Madness
  Millipede
  Missile Command
  Pretty damn cool. I might have to go home early from work.
Relationship between MESS and MAME codebases by tepples · 2014-11-04 02:25 · Score: 1

Is there a substantial functional difference between MESS and MAME? Do they use different emulation code for, say, an NES or PlayChoice, a Super NES or Nintendo Super System, a Genesis or Mega-Tech, a Neo Geo AES or MVS, a PlayStation 1 or ZN-1, etc.?
1. Re:Relationship between MESS and MAME codebases by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 03:48 · Score: 1
  
  No, in fact you can compile MAME with support for all of those using the same code as MAME, look up 'UME'
Graphics look terrible by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 02:46 · Score: 0

I'm sorry, but dumping the raw pixel output straight onto the screen with nearest-neighbour resizing, without even an effort to at least try and make the visuals look like they did on an actual arcade monitor, is highly disrespectful to the original pixel graphics.
SO many people are going to think this is what the games actually looked like, while in the actual arcades they looked vastly better than this.
Presenting these arcade games like this just craps all over a great piece of our gaming heritage. I'll stick to regular MAME, thanks.
1. Re:Graphics look terrible by ArcadeMan · 2014-11-04 03:24 · Score: 1
  
  Even the marquees are in the wrong aspect ratio.
  
  --
  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
No Polybius by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 02:55 · Score: 0

That game was my favorite :(
Holy Crap!! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 03:37 · Score: 0

TAPPER!!!!!!
Similar project for emulators on iOS by MoronGames · 2014-11-04 04:30 · Score: 1

I've been working on getting a bunch of emulators (NES, SNES, GB, GBA, Master System, and GameGear) online as well, and set up to use on iPhones on my own website: https://pocketga.me/ I'm also doing online per-account game storage and state saving (not for all systems right now) which makes it pretty convenient to play around with on the go reply

--
hey!
Sound issues by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 04:35 · Score: 0

For those who want sound, from the common solutions page. Sound, like Gamepads, is a little strange. It starts out muted by default. This is because the way the Webaudio API works is really poor, and you can thank Mozilla AND Google for that one. They claim they’re going to make it better. But here, you have to start the game, wait for the booting of the game, and then hit the UNMUTE button. Then you (you guessed it) refresh the browser to make sound work. The good news is, once you set this cookie, it’ll have sound for everything. The other slightly annoying news is that that Webaudio API thing means that sound can be really fuzzy and crackly on a browser, and doing anything with a lower-powered machine (including, with some of them, even moving the mouse or swapping tabs) will get that fuzziness. I get it too, especially when you’re running a post-1983 machine in this emulator. As I’ve said to people testing it the past few months, when it works, it works great. When it doesn’t, hoo boy.
1. Re:Sound issues by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 04:39 · Score: 1
  
  It's not really said, but to get the controls for each game press the tab button to pull up the menu. Usually it's arrow keys and space/alt/ctrl. P-pause, 1 or 2 start.
How does the copy right work? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-04 06:25 · Score: 0

How do they get permission to do this? Are all the copyrights in the public domain? Could I make a look alike game? Could I take actual sound files and sprites from these games and use it my own without fear of infringement?