According the the ESA and more, they want "to prevent the preservation of old games because it believes the process of restoring them is illegal 'hacking'." What exactly would that mean, as it puts a lot of different perspectives into light: Like if it affects owning a hard copy of said old game, putting games out as ROMs, emulating, ones in museums and websites for people to see, using consoles for research, etc. In short, they don't want us playing and preserving old games cause they think that counts as hacking.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/04/09/esa-says-preserving-old-games-is-illegal-because-its-hacking

Here's how to get a hold of the ESA and speak your mind directly:

http://www.theesa.com/
https://twitter.com/ESAGovAffairs

Screw the ESA, they cannot tell us what we can do to entertain our selves, you want to know what that is called, conformity, want to know who did a lot of that? The Nazi's, I don't really think anyone cares what The Nazi Software Association says about emulators and retro gaming I grew up on that. I'd like to see them try to make this form of entertainment illegal.

1sam234 : This is the most retarded thing I've ever heard. My guess as to why they could even think this would be a good idea is that they want people to not only buy more new games, they want people to buy more re-releases of old games. Think about it. What other reason could they possibly have for doing this? I don't think even they really know what they mean by "Preserving old games is illegal hacking!"

Can you imagine just how much sales would go up for retro game re-releases if this...thing actually went into effect? It's not like there'd be any other way to play them legally...although torrent sites would experience a mysterious jump in activity. And what the hell kind of punishment would they give out for emulating old games?

   Preserving is technically hacking if you use ROMS but it is hacking in the slightest in my opinion. Since hacking is getting into the games code and changing it. If you put a game from console onto a computer you are hacking it but you are not hacking it enough to change anything major in it. You are just changing the controls and such. 
 
   To be honest though I have to say one thing. Why do they care about this exactly? I mean really. People are just editing old games and playing them a bit. Why would they care? Are these people harming them in anyway? I think not and that is what I do not get about this.
 
   I can see the view they on this from a business standpoint though. Seeing they want people to buy new games instead of old ones but saying people cannot play these games just makes them sound like jerks. Old games give us types of games we do not see anymore so I do not see why I would buy the newer game they want us to if they do not have the library old games have.
 
So really I think this is just a stupid attempt from them to ruin other peoples fun and troll.

One of the reasons backwards compatibility is so important is so that we can avoid these kinds of things in the future. But with old games like this, stuff like we have on this site is the only way we can preserve them. People who are involved in these kinds of decisions (for the most part) aren't concerned with the implications this has on the gaming community, and aren't involved in it in the slightest. We can't just let this part of gaming history be forgotten, and they need to know that. 

My impression about 'not being able to have retro games in museums and on websites for people to see' threw out the window any rational reasoning I would have had with their argument.

So if I understand this correctly... this would mean that digital copies of games would be illegal 100%, no matter what? 

pretty much, the RGR would be screwed? 

thing1 : Should that be the case that the RGR would be screwed by this, then the VGR would be as well. Davideo7 would have to close the Retro Game Room AND Video Game Room.

Yeah, I thought it was irrational and stupid too. There should be some petitions made by now to try and keep that from happening, right?

Companies want to make a profit when they re-release retro games for inflated prices. Utterly ridiculous, unacceptable, and completely ignorant to the satisfaction of the public.

This is most retarded thing I have ever heard! There is so much wrong in their statement that I don't even know where to start! First of all they do not know what hacking is if they say preserving old games is hacking you don't see the Declaration of Independence being taken down because it's "hacking" same goes for other old things what hacking means is gaining access unknown to the creator of the accessible data and either using it to get information or to cause damage. For gaming it is used to edit the game to make it different and sometimes better than the original game so what in the world makes them consider preserving old games hacking? I mean what the heck? Gosh ESA use your brain I know you have one!





P.S. I have not been this angry at someone since the brony thread in which I defended the bronies from the haters and now once again need some air to calm down because of the stupidity of some people thank you :3

I... I really don't get their logic here. I mean, sure, I guess you're ripping the game onto the computer, and I can see that being an issue for games still making money but... Even counting stuff like Virtual COnsole, not every game gets rereleased. What about those games Nintendo ignores, like Bomberman 64? Are those supposed to just sink to the bottom because no one's making money off of it and nobody can get their hands on it? That seems more than a little ridiculous to me.

That is ridiculous! While understandable about putting a game onto a computer to potentially give people. But they have to let it go because they aren't making money on those games anyway. If companies won't rerelease all their older games. (Like the Wii U only having three N64 games, and about 20 GBA games for instance) They really shouldn't complain about it. They weren't providing a complete service, so the consumers will take their attention elsewhere. Whether that be buying a old game secondhand, or downloading a restored ROM.
If you're not selling us a game, you can't complain about losing money on it.

Then we have the problem of reselling old games digitally anyway. If you're going to charge 15 dollars for a game that's about 20 years old, and long by almost no means by today's standards. They need to be aware that there are other cheaper ways of playing the game. And yes, I'm aware that would only mean they will try to take down ALL of them, cry piracy, and watch as people's only option is to pay for games they may already have.

Yup, they have no logic... All about that money and moolah is why I think they're going so far as to do this. Hopefully by now, lots of gamers and people have told the ESA just how crap of an idea that'd be.