Why only games?
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:31 pm
Why only games are included in the archive and database? Why not include applications, tools, utilities, etc?
Yeah, I know that most retro sites usually implement the same policy. But personally I don’t understand this and don’t agree.
It is being said that some applications are still supported and sold, and then a moral and legal problem might arise. This might be true for 16-bit machines (ST, Mac, Amiga), and only in exceptional cases. And if there are some cases in the A8, those particular cases could be avoided.
It is also being said that you normally won’t use an 8-bit word processor or spreadsheet. But this is not totally true neither relevant. I’d say that you probably won’t use a lot games neither, not coz they are 8-bit but because they are crappy. So what? We are not preserving the better stuff, we want to preserve everything.
Btw, other retro preservation sites came to the same conclusion and are changing the “game-only” policy. My two cents …
Yeah, I know that most retro sites usually implement the same policy. But personally I don’t understand this and don’t agree.
It is being said that some applications are still supported and sold, and then a moral and legal problem might arise. This might be true for 16-bit machines (ST, Mac, Amiga), and only in exceptional cases. And if there are some cases in the A8, those particular cases could be avoided.
It is also being said that you normally won’t use an 8-bit word processor or spreadsheet. But this is not totally true neither relevant. I’d say that you probably won’t use a lot games neither, not coz they are 8-bit but because they are crappy. So what? We are not preserving the better stuff, we want to preserve everything.
Btw, other retro preservation sites came to the same conclusion and are changing the “game-only” policy. My two cents …
