Have you ever looked for a game for hours, asking for help, scrolling trough your purchase history only to find out that the game has been pulled from the store? Got a jailbroken phone and wanted to install that pulled game but couldn't find the .ipa file? Or have you ever just wondered what great games you can no longer play, but would like to see what they looked like, how they played like?
Preservation of mobile games
The problem is the disappierence of games. On other platforms this issue was solved to some extent with preserving hard copies of games, backing up game files, using emulators etc.
But mobile games suffer from this problem even more. Why?
1. Mobile games are distributed only digitally. Therefore there are no hard copies, a developer can pull the game with no warning and no reason, and even people who have backed up the games legally cannot share them with others. We can be thankful to people who have made cracked .ipa files, because this is the only way you can get to play a game when it is no longer available in the store.
2. Free games. Nobody has interest in downloading and installing a pirated version of a game that is already free and because of that nobody makes or back-ups cracked .ipa files of those games.
3. Online games. The content of the game is stored on the server side and is therefore impossible/useless to store. The game is also unplayable once the servers go down.
How you could help (some of the things might be kind of in the gray area):
- Downloading and installing .ipa files of games that have been pulled, then do a review/record a playtrough, gameplay/provide screenshots (you could also do that if you have the game legally backed up)
- Open .ipa files and rip useful content from it (images, videos, sounds, music)
- If you have an older device you could test which versions of a game still run properly on that device/iOS
- Making cracked .ipa files of free games and upload them
- Downloading and backing up .ipa files
- Use you awesome web searching skills to track down games no longer available/telling others which versions of a game to compare/provide links where to download pulled games/track down screenshots, videos
- Interview some veteran players of online games, ask them how the game has changed over time
- Make lists of [a lot of things]
- mapping out the history and landmarks of mobile gaming in general
- Report which games are no longer playable on your newest device/OS
- Comparing game versions, the content that was altered/removed, before overhaul - after overhaul comparisons, comparing the gameplay before the freemium conversion to after the conversion
- ...
This thread isn't about recruiting anyone into doing this just yet. I posted this just to show you that there is a lot of things to be done and that you could do them too. With this post I'm mainly looking for your feedback on whether or not you would like to see the "Mobile Game Preservation Society" (placeholder name) happen. Would you be interested in contributing to or at least seeing such content or find it useful/interesting? Do you think that it is completely unnecessary because of the amount of new games, you wouldn't be interested in the old ones? Do you think the games have enough coverage on the internet from back when they were released? Do you think that simply because of the vast amount of games coming out everyday, we have to accept that some games are gone forever? Do you even think this is a problem?
I'm really interested on getting some feedback. This is just an idea and it will stop right here if the most passionate mobile gaming community expresses no interest in this.
Preservation of mobile games
The problem is the disappierence of games. On other platforms this issue was solved to some extent with preserving hard copies of games, backing up game files, using emulators etc.
But mobile games suffer from this problem even more. Why?
1. Mobile games are distributed only digitally. Therefore there are no hard copies, a developer can pull the game with no warning and no reason, and even people who have backed up the games legally cannot share them with others. We can be thankful to people who have made cracked .ipa files, because this is the only way you can get to play a game when it is no longer available in the store.
2. Free games. Nobody has interest in downloading and installing a pirated version of a game that is already free and because of that nobody makes or back-ups cracked .ipa files of those games.
3. Online games. The content of the game is stored on the server side and is therefore impossible/useless to store. The game is also unplayable once the servers go down.
How you could help (some of the things might be kind of in the gray area):
- Downloading and installing .ipa files of games that have been pulled, then do a review/record a playtrough, gameplay/provide screenshots (you could also do that if you have the game legally backed up)
- Open .ipa files and rip useful content from it (images, videos, sounds, music)
- If you have an older device you could test which versions of a game still run properly on that device/iOS
- Making cracked .ipa files of free games and upload them
- Downloading and backing up .ipa files
- Use you awesome web searching skills to track down games no longer available/telling others which versions of a game to compare/provide links where to download pulled games/track down screenshots, videos
- Interview some veteran players of online games, ask them how the game has changed over time
- Make lists of [a lot of things]
- mapping out the history and landmarks of mobile gaming in general
- Report which games are no longer playable on your newest device/OS
- Comparing game versions, the content that was altered/removed, before overhaul - after overhaul comparisons, comparing the gameplay before the freemium conversion to after the conversion
- ...
This thread isn't about recruiting anyone into doing this just yet. I posted this just to show you that there is a lot of things to be done and that you could do them too. With this post I'm mainly looking for your feedback on whether or not you would like to see the "Mobile Game Preservation Society" (placeholder name) happen. Would you be interested in contributing to or at least seeing such content or find it useful/interesting? Do you think that it is completely unnecessary because of the amount of new games, you wouldn't be interested in the old ones? Do you think the games have enough coverage on the internet from back when they were released? Do you think that simply because of the vast amount of games coming out everyday, we have to accept that some games are gone forever? Do you even think this is a problem?
I'm really interested on getting some feedback. This is just an idea and it will stop right here if the most passionate mobile gaming community expresses no interest in this.
Mobile Game Preservation Society
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