A lot of old games have become unplayable on modern hardware and operating systems. I wrote an article about how making games open source will keep them playable far into the future.

I also discuss how making games open source could be beneficial to developers and companies.

Feedback and constructive criticism are most welcome, and in keeping with the open source spirit, I will give you credit if I make any edits based on your feedback.

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[–] Kelly@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

For a company that is iterating on its products this is probably fine from a mechanical sense but would be a nightmare for their IPs.

Consider the early Super Mario series:

1985 - Super Mario Bros
1986 - Super Mario Bros: The lost levels
1988 - Super Mario Bros 2
1988 - Super Mario Bros 3
1990 - Super Mario World
1996 - Super Mario 64

If in 1990/people could legally make their own "lost levels"-esque remixes with the SMB1 engine that would be paltry competition with SMW.

Similarly if people started remixing SMW in 1995 it wouldn't have stopped SM64 from defining the 3d platformer genre and presenting a very strong argument for the analog stick being required for any 3d console.

But if people could tell their own Mario stories, that might tarnish the brand. If that happened we might not still be getting Mario games today.

I'm not sure how you open source both engine and assets without losing control of the narrative.

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Easy -- Nintendo simply has to release innovative Mario game after innovative Mario game to keep the community efforts at bay.

Why maintain a 20 year old game, when you can play the latest game with the knowledge that it too will be open sourced in X years?

[–] Kelly@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah as far as gameplay mechanics go they would be fine, most main line Mario games have a unique gimmick.

I wonder if the family friendly branding would be as strong if people could publish rom hacks in retail channels.