Why History Needs Software Piracy

I just wanted to share this article from PC World's website. There has been recent concerns over SOPA and PIPA, and even more significantly the closure of Megaupload and other download sites. This represents an erosion of many years of archiving by valued sites such as Snesorama and RetroMags, to name but two. The latter of which has lost 99% of its archives. These insidious actions by the governments and corporations of the world are tantamount to mass book burning. If that simile upsets a few people, then good, because the destruction of our electronic cultural heritage upsets me deeply. We are losing our history, people. Read the article, write letters, blog about it, don't let information be lost in silence.
<!-- <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjotX0xz4hiYnuE6jdFMZslX-aba4zrvUWW_Ib-hH8kOgALWFJ43ex9FQF3bssJudhyphenhyphenu504QRmXXGGnveC68253fhLFqkRNRYNFgSyJ7DP_t677XQQd5zNamMvJdg1N_YqysVyv_2arq-U/s1600/bb160.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 317px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjotX0xz4hiYnuE6jdFMZslX-aba4zrvUWW_Ib-hH8kOgALWFJ43ex9FQF3bssJudhyphenhyphenu504QRmXXGGnveC68253fhLFqkRNRYNFgSyJ7DP_t677XQQd5zNamMvJdg1N_YqysVyv_2arq-U/s400/bb160.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703922920886599890" border="0" /></a>--><br /> I just wanted to share <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/248571/why_history_needs_software_piracy.html">this article from PC World's website</a>. There has been recent concerns over <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/248298/sopa_and_pipa_just_the_facts.html?tk=rel_news">SOPA and PIPA</a>, and even more significantly the closure of Megaupload and other download sites. This represents an erosion of many years of archiving by valued sites such as Snesorama and <a href="http://www.retromags.com/">RetroMags</a>, to name but two. The latter of which has lost <a href="http://www.retromags.com/forums/topic/7018-megauploads-shut-down-99-of-retromags-collection-unavailable/">99% of its archives</a>. These insidious actions by the governments and corporations of the world are tantamount to mass book burning. If that simile upsets a few people, then good, because the destruction of our electronic cultural heritage upsets me deeply. We are losing <span style="font-style:italic;">our history</span>, people. <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/248571/why_history_needs_software_piracy.html">Read the article</a>, write letters, blog about it, don't let information be lost in silence.

Satellablog deserves our appreciation and respect

I’ve been meaning to post about Satellablog for months, but kept forgetting.

Apologies to all involved. Satellablog is dedicated to all things Satellaview, the satellite-based add-on system for the Super Famicom in Japan. Arguably one of several forerunners to today’s PSN and XBLA download services. The problem is, the service contained a lot of exclusive content, available nowhere else (most infamously a special version of Zelda which was dumped). In addition, neither Nintendo nor any of the companies from the time are interested in archiving or preserving this rare data. So it falls to Kiddocabbusses and his comrades to source the memory packs from Japan, pray they contain a never before found download, and then dump them for the world. It’s an expensive mission (there’s a donation plea), but it does yield rewards, such as the Satella-shooting trilogy, which ties in with our own Dezaemon feature. I feel no shame in saying that it’s absolutely worth donating a few spare dollars for the preservation of games history. Satellablog and its many ROM dumping specialists deserve our utmost appreciation and respect – because Nintendo sure as f*** doesn’t care about this stuff. Without us, the obsessive geeknocrats, history would simply die. My only criticism: create a proper site with easily navigable news archives. Blogs just don’t cut it for something so important.


<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXPYh7hRv-t4FpjxsT_rxU2NYNm-wRj_8vH5CaCsnMDRwCvdcD_QXKbJLgBmqtceKSmbuzpP4LpEr9wX5yDtQ55UtDyEyEV83rdGapmMQmTDrrGiyocQTHK-G4T0veNs4pXoHsCvf9pY/s1600/Satella.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678902524561018258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihXPYh7hRv-t4FpjxsT_rxU2NYNm-wRj_8vH5CaCsnMDRwCvdcD_QXKbJLgBmqtceKSmbuzpP4LpEr9wX5yDtQ55UtDyEyEV83rdGapmMQmTDrrGiyocQTHK-G4T0veNs4pXoHsCvf9pY/s400/Satella.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>I’ve been meaning to post about <a href="http://superfamicom.org/blog/">Satellablog</a> for months, but kept forgetting. <br /><span class="fullpost"><br />Apologies to all involved. <a href="http://superfamicom.org/blog/">Satellablog</a> is dedicated to all things Satellaview, the satellite-based add-on system for the Super Famicom in Japan. Arguably one of several forerunners to today’s PSN and XBLA download services. The problem is, the service contained a lot of exclusive content, available nowhere else (most infamously a special version of Zelda which was dumped). In addition, neither Nintendo nor any of the companies from the time are interested in archiving or preserving this rare data. So it falls to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/kiddocabbusses">Kiddocabbusses</a> and his comrades to source the memory packs from Japan, pray they contain a never before found download, and then dump them for the world. It’s an expensive mission (<a href="http://superfamicom.org/blog/2011/11/yet-another-donation-reminder/">there’s a donation plea</a>), but it does yield rewards, such as the <a href="http://superfamicom.org/blog/2011/11/new-rom-dumps-bs-x-shooting-extras/">Satella-shooting trilogy</a>, which ties in with our own <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/dezaemon/dezaemon.htm">Dezaemon feature</a>. I feel no shame in saying that it’s absolutely worth donating a few spare dollars for the preservation of games history. <a href="http://superfamicom.org/blog/">Satellablog</a> and its many ROM dumping specialists deserve our utmost appreciation and respect – because Nintendo sure as f*** doesn’t care about this stuff. Without us, the obsessive geeknocrats, history would simply die. My only criticism: create a proper site with easily navigable news archives. Blogs just don’t cut it for something so important.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1oFmqaqRGy1MHe8gJxW8LlXtwF_HObmDjLe8drZ2TY8XaG-eZrNcGuAbQ7cYAwGvd4vP_13F9KNMTh2Wxfqd0uDj0i6ih7gMuXU8kOKbBv3nzmLJup8KfGpapgJCbpNpwtB4IYD5L14/s1600/BSX+shooting.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678902521491069826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio1oFmqaqRGy1MHe8gJxW8LlXtwF_HObmDjLe8drZ2TY8XaG-eZrNcGuAbQ7cYAwGvd4vP_13F9KNMTh2Wxfqd0uDj0i6ih7gMuXU8kOKbBv3nzmLJup8KfGpapgJCbpNpwtB4IYD5L14/s400/BSX+shooting.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a></span>

Irem destroys online archives in an attempt to rewrite history

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing Irem’s websites for Zettai Zetsumei Toshi (Disaster Report/Raw Danger) and Bumpy Trot (Steambot Chronicles). I was planning a comprehensive article on the games since the man behind them agreed to an interview, and Irem had lovingly created websites filled with screenshots, character art, concept art, schematics to make your own Trotmobiles out of paper (these were amazing!), and even the vocalised songs from the game. Everything fans of the two series could want. I grabbed the songs and a couple of screens, but made a note to come back later and save everything else. Well today I find that Irem have removed their websites and all content – all in an attempt to cleanse the internet of any evidence that they existed (they've become "ungames" as one Irem fan put it). Did anyone save their archive of hi-res concept art? All that is left are Wayback archives, which never saved the hi-res imagery. Disaster Report isn’t too problematic, since I can just screengrab more images – but the Steambot Chronicles concept art and Trotmobile designs were beautiful, precious and unique, and now they’re gone forever.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt7-3oOoDo9R0muGZY-_rr8_s_A5PEbKGBpFA9W-xWeY6O9I46-JybffEcO3SgFFi9qeK_9t4O1uaxmyT8i7DqQrY7yB5ZTU2XxwmCSc-GUMaFxtlLtCTppCabtsNU-KYkNZR5tQBpm8E/s1600/wall_23_b.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617254959347863442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt7-3oOoDo9R0muGZY-_rr8_s_A5PEbKGBpFA9W-xWeY6O9I46-JybffEcO3SgFFi9qeK_9t4O1uaxmyT8i7DqQrY7yB5ZTU2XxwmCSc-GUMaFxtlLtCTppCabtsNU-KYkNZR5tQBpm8E/s400/wall_23_b.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><br />A couple of weeks ago I was browsing Irem’s websites for <a href="http://www.zettai-zetsumei.com/">Zettai Zetsumei Toshi</a> (Disaster Report/Raw Danger) and <a href="http://www.bumpytrot.com/">Bumpy Trot</a> (Steambot Chronicles). I was planning a comprehensive article on the games since the man behind them agreed to an interview, and Irem had lovingly created websites filled with screenshots, character art, concept art, schematics to <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070629020342/http://www.bumpytrot.com/bt/download/wall_pc_e.html">make your own Trotmobiles out of paper (these were amazing!), </a>and even the vocalised songs from the game. Everything fans of the two series could want. I grabbed the songs and a couple of screens, but made a note to come back later and save everything else. Well today I find that Irem have removed their websites and all content – all in an attempt to cleanse the internet of any evidence that they existed (they've become "ungames" as one Irem fan put it). <span style="font-weight: bold;">Did anyone save their archive of hi-res concept art? </span>All that is left are <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090619163953/http://www.zettai-zetsumei.com/">Wayback archives</a>, which never saved the hi-res imagery. Disaster Report isn’t too problematic, since I can just screengrab more images – but the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070824164642/http://www.bumpytrot.com/bt/download/index_e.html">Steambot Chronicles concept art and Trotmobile designs</a> were beautiful, precious and unique, and now they’re gone forever.