Based on the fact that the old saves work with the remake, I would say yes. It looks like the same old game with a modern graphical layer on top of it.
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Diablo 2: Resurrected - Released
- Thread starter Redglyph
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Based on the fact that the old saves work with the remake, I would say yes. It looks like the same old game with a modern graphical layer on top of it.
Wizardry VIII, Ultima Underworld I, etc etc,. I won't extend the lst here, there is a proper thread for that
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Oh man, do all the Wizardry's, every gold box game, all the Ultima's, and I'd be an extremely happy lad! Crank out those remasters! It could even be quite simple versions, like the Bard's Tale re-works that were done a few years back.
Piracy:
I think it's important to make a distinction between pirated software and abandonware. The latter being necessary for archival purposes, and in most cases if working copies are being provided, abandonware sites will remove the software and offer a link of where to buy the retail version.
Legislation:
Not a great idea. First of all, too hard to enforce globally when local laws differ to a great extent. But second, imagine trying to push legislation on tiny indie companies that now have to deal with all this massive legal red tape of just simply making a fun game. Some things are way beyond their control too. You can't plan for obsolescence based on an outdated OS when you have no idea what the new OS will be 20 years from now. And yes, they do get to cut off a product if it's no longer profitable. If Netflix decides to shut down completely, we don't all of a sudden have a right to their offline content.
Right to repair:
This doesn't quite fall under the same category of right to repair (which I fully support). It sucks, but the software industry is highly capitalist. We vote with our wallets. It's also how our Polish friends at CD Projekt came to life. It's not the same as an iPhone or laptop or a combine where these are required for people to survive and make a living, as video games are (with some exceptions) limited mainly to entertainment.
All that aside, I definitely would welcome companies with open arms and sing praises to them if they were able to provide the ability to host private servers of long gone MMOs and/or patched their software to no longer require activation servers, and think it's shitty if they decide not to just because.
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Most of this confusion is resolved with the difference between a product and a service. Netflix is obviously a service. When I buy a game, most of the time that's a product. Ross from Accursed Farms has a great video on this, that's much better referenced and documented.
And there's no need to confuse the issue even more with requring indies to support their game on some old OS. That's not what this is about. This is about intentional software restrictions (taking the activation servers offline, not removing DRM when it no longer works and just bricks the user's software, refusing to make available the backend of certain games, like mmos, when that mmo goes offline). All of this can be solved with minimal investment from the company, and can be planned ahead as to how it will go down when the software is retired. All of this can be done to a decent level with only there were good will involved.
Some people do make a living off gaming, but that's not really the point. The point is, if someone is selling a product they should have, ahead of release, a sensible retirement plan for how the person that purchased it can still maintain it or use it. And not just have artificial barriers put in place. Or have the software intentionally killed just to force someone to upgrade to then new version. Again, all of this can be done with little to no amount of work from the company (just publish the backend), and should be part of the release plan. Not just launching a product, milking it for all it's worth, and then abandoning it. Or worse, leaving roadblocks in just to force upgrade.
And this goes for Windows and other OSes as well. I should be able to use my Win95 license and run it, even with all the security issues that have appeared in the mean time. And in that context, that indie game will most surely run as it did before, as long as I also have access to functioning hardware or can emulate that hardware on newer hardware.
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Of course it's not what this is about. But once one proposes legislation, and even if it's meant well, in the end it's the little guy that suffers and the big ones that find the political, legal or monetary way around it. All I did was provide an easy example among thousands of possibilities. You don't want to confuse the issue, but many people WILL confuse it.
Last week it was someone saying "any politician who doesn't make good on their campaign promises should be charged with fraud" and the week before "anyone who's a billionaire should be taxed extra" when they have no clue on how to actually execute it without damaging everyone.
Sometimes you have to leave it be for the greater good. You let the assholes talk trash so that you can preserve free speech. Besides, this is not some big pandemic of lost software. I mean what games are we lamenting major losses on here? Dungeon Lords? Warhammer Online?