SpaceSimCentral

starlord wrote:
True, but for instance, gametap didn't stay...Also, this wouldn't be the first time. I'm not paranoid: I speak of experience... How many times do I recall having wanted a particular title from a company that they simply stopped providing support for (well at least a keycode for the program), and the sad truth is that winning everyone of them was an epic battle! Truth is no matter how well a company is doing you can never be sure of what's going to happen tomorrow (I've seen this before), so they should at least think of the "in case" scenario: it's only fair for us who are financially supporting the company.Which brings me to yet another thing: Stop using those "one time, three times, or five times" activation keys! if we buy a game today we (or at least I) consider having the right to do anything with it on a personnal level, and that includes uninstalling it or reinstalling it on another computer I might have replaced at leisure. This is one of the limitations that was unheard of in retail days.
Gametap didn't sell games, they were only a service that provided access to them, you never owned the games, so it's a bit unrelated. I honestly do agree with the limited activation nonsense, but from what I've read, most companies will give you more keys if you write and ask 'em. Anyway, sadly the retail days are mostly gone when it comes to PC games, and that's just the reality of it. I certainly wish PC games dominated physical store shelves as they once did, but they don't, so the best way to acquire PC games these days is usually through DD.

BrianRubin wrote:
This is defeatist and paranoid, in all honesty. Steam, for example, makes MILLIONS of dollars a year, and it just gets bigger every year. You think that's just going to go away?
No, I am just being realistic. I have seen many changes in the game market from it's birth in the late 70s, both good times and bad. If its taught me anything, it's that nothing (no matter how successful) remains forever. I do hope though you are correct Brain I certainly would not like to see Steam, Impulse or any other online retailer fail but who really knows what the future holds? Like Starlord, I too would like to see a fall back position put in place. You know,....just in case. Its better to have something in place you will never use, rather than go for the want of a place with an archive of gaming greats. Note, I am not talking about pirate sites here, instead I am thinking about places like GOG who buy the rights to old games and release them DRM free. Certainly a good thing in my view. Still, this only goes partway to a solution for those of us who have already bought these games. In my view these online retail site sites should start building these redundant "safe" archives and explain their usage in their policies. Would it do any harm to know that no matter what happens, your games will always be there for you or your children even? Also, perhaps a 10 or 15 year official rule could be introduced into the gaming industry. Any game once it reaches this age, would be deemed as distribution free. That way fans of the games could maintain their own archives legally. More or less this is just what happened to many Amiga classics. Without those sites out there preserving the past, many gaming greats from that platform would have been lost forever. Just my thoughts

I second this, and add regarding your argument on keys being provided by companies that some companies actually don't even have to close in order to discontinue sales or support of their previous games at leisure... I for one appreciate the liberty of being able to buy what I want when I want (even if second hand) and not to be dependent on anyone when my items are bought!

Good point about nothing remaining forever after all in the last 40 years or so we have had Paper tape, tape, disk, cart, CD, DVD, BD and Digital DownloadsIt possible DD might be a with for us only for a few short years, if you look to the end of the decade and if game distribution system like on demand or cloud gaming takes off. Then it quite possible that we won’t even be downloading anything, just paying to hire a game like a video rental.If any one looking for a thread on Star Raiders this ain’t it.

Yes it has gone off topic a bit...............

I liked the game! :3 Though the sound effects are bloody awful. Pew pew! Pew pew!

I just played this for about 30mins the other night on my PS3 (yeah PSN is up again) and I wasn't that impressed and I thought the ship controls were awful. I have no idea why Atari decided to go with this control scheme and not just used the classic gameplay which was just fine in the original. If I have time I will maybe do a small write up on this, this might be my first negative review for a game because I was really turned off on its remake of this classic game. Another complaint I had was the mission briefings, even though I have a 52" TV I could barely read the text when sitting 8-10ft away. Voices would have been nice

I hope you only played the demo and didn't waste your moneys on this piece of garbage.

It wasn't THAT bad, though I played it on the PC - I ended up having to use Joy2Key and spend at least an hour getting my controls to work right; and I never use much besides the fighter mode (turret mode is great for shooting down cap ships). It's honestly a fun little romp; I feel like I got a good amount of enjoyment out of it for $10.