The difficulties of legal game preservation and backups showcased in latest Completionist video



The Nintendo Wii U and 3DS eShops are closing next week, which means hundreds upon thousands of games will imminently be forever lost to the shutdown of the respective console's storefronts. Many here are aware of how important game preservation is, and with both the Wii U and 3DS being easy to put CFW and load backups on, it's a fairly simple task to obtain near-complete libraries of either. Of course, while backing up those games may be a legal grey area, playing them without owning them is unlawful, and audiences not tuned into the world of homebrew may not even know about such things to begin with.

Which is why YouTube personality The Completionist has decided to purchase every single available game on both the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii U eShops. This endeavor consisted of purchasing 866 Wii U digital titles, and 1,547 3DS games, including all DLC and Virtual Console releases, totaling at over $22,000. The video showcases the difficulties in legally compiling a complete backup of both the Wii U and 3DS, ranging from the problems arising from trying to obtain $18,000 worth of eShop cards, to trying to actually make purchases since you can only load $250 worth of eShop credit at a time, being locked out by Nintendo from making so many transactions at a time, slow downloads from Nintendo's servers, the limitations of the 3DS, and other obstacles.

The video is an important display of why video game preservation is so important, and the arduous process of backing up media so that it does not become lost forever.
 

EduAAA

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So he was bullying others just for call the attention...
Changing the subject, what we should archive is a copy of ourselves preserving some of our new born stem cells ( it has to be being new born because while cells replicate lost some crap mixed inside the DNA, so adult stem cells are spoiled...
And we should make a copy of ourselfs because we are unique and future generations should have the option, I mean the right! to know every person that has lived in this world.
Why only some nerds can be next to Jennifer Aniston ( younger ) or flirt with that girl from game of thrones, not Daenerys I mean Margaery Tyrell. I should have a chance too, it's not fair just because I didn't get to meet her I will never be her boyfriend. Free Celebrity Clones for everybody right now! I love you Margaery with all my heart
 
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Kioku

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So he was bullying others just for call the attention...
Changing the subject, what we should archive is a copy of ourselves preserving some of our new born stem cells ( it has to be being new born because while cells replicate lost some crap mixed inside the DNA, so adult stem cells are spoiled...
And we should make a copy of ourselfs because we are unique and future generations should have the option, I mean the right! to know every person that has lived in this world.
Why only some nerds can be next to Jennifer Aniston ( younger ) or flirt with that girl from game of thrones, not Daenerys I mean Margaery Tyrell. I should have a chance too, it's not fair just because I didn't get to meet her I will never be her boyfriend. Free Celebrity Clones for everybody right now! I love you Margaery with all my heart

WTAF did I just read?
 
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Goku1992A

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My only issue is the "updates" what happens 10 years from now will the servers be up and running? This is why I am all favor for ROMS and etc.. because it's no GUARANTEE that you will be able to update your game in the future.
 
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godreborn

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My only issue is the "updates" what happens 10 years from now will the servers be up and running? This is why I am all favor for ROMS and etc.. because it's no GUARANTEE that you will be able to update your game in the future.
you shouldn't worry as the updates are likely backed up on a certain site with afaik, the entire repository. ;) you may know which one I'm talking about. there was this same discussion with the ps3, but I have every ps3 update for every game, not every region, but at least USA. you could probably do the same here, using a wget command to download the entire repo.
 

Goku1992A

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you shouldn't worry as the updates are likely backed up on a certain site with afaik, the entire repository. ;) you may know which one I'm talking about. there was this same discussion with the ps3, but I have every ps3 update for every game, not every region, but at least USA. you could probably do the same here, using a wget command to download the entire repo.

Yes but I'm talking about the legal console not the CFW one.

My CFW consoles I have all the games and updates my main concern let's just say when I do get a PS5 10+ years from now I can't download the update because the server is down idk.

EDIT: Maybe I'm living under a rock we can update PS4/PS5 files from on the net?
 
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godreborn

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Yes but I'm talking about the legal console not the CFW one.

My CFW consoles I have all the games and updates my main concern let's just say when I do get a PS5 10+ years from now I can't download the update because the server is down idk.

EDIT: Maybe I'm living under a rock we can update PS4/PS5 files from on the net?
technically, you can update ps4 and 5 games without psn, but they have to be legit games, not fpkgs. it's oribspkg for ps4 and prosteropatches iirc for ps5. you just have to install them like normal, then if you want an fpkg of the update, dump it like you normally would. I'm not in the ps5 scene, but afaik, dumping is exactly the same for the most part as the ps4.
 

Clydefrosch

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i hate how much of a calculated waste of time and resources this likely was.
you can't tell me they didn't research this enough to not understand that these ssds and sd cards with data on it are essentially useless, cause neither console will access its content and you always have to redownload any software not currently installed.
they can't not be aware of how little this did for preservation of any kind.
at the least, if they meant to be serious about this, they would've had to put all of these on several consoles, to even make them accessible.
like people argue that videogame scientists can now legally do research on these titles but no, they don't have the license to play these games. so even if they were actually usable on these consoles, it would just be a notch below straight up pirating them anyways. not that any video game scientist would ever go to that foundation and request the wii u system to do anything anyways.

not to mention the wii u imploding on itself one day (which granted, likely only came out towards the end of their endeavor). this is meant to be a story (its just like the tetris movie, it just goes very much over the top on hurdles anyone should have known about before they started), one that goes viral and brings in fresh viewers, with honestly too much self-adulation, which is honestly beneath the guy.
i'm not even sure if i can trust that he needed to save up for a year for this stunt.
 

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“Don’t live your life because you’ll inevitably die.”

Much inspiration

we die because we are born.
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By that logic, families owning land should not happen because "people need go learn to let it go."

Nah, dude, we need to preserve all good things in life when and if possible for future generations to appreciate and experience it.
That's how families broke apart - fighting for inheritance. People in the future will not own anything and they will be happier.
 

JakobAir

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Out of curiosity, how big in gigabytes is each consoles library? Just asking....for a friend.

edit:

Funnily enough, I'm having issues with bad preservation right now, I can't find the latest stock rom update for my old semi-bricked XDA Exec. On one site it seemed like the wayback machine had archived everything except the ROM update.
What exactly are you looking for?
 

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I am among those who wish that when a game is no longer available to purchase legally, we should be legally allowed to download it for free
In this case, we should be allowed to download for free wii u games since they shut down the only way to buy them
(I'm not considering the used market ofc)
it will never be legal and it shouldn't be, but it will always be possible to do so underground, where it should be and stay.
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Wow...imagine having money to burn and demonstrate it Online for everione to see.15 years ago these type of videos would be idiotic, now people break phones, burn money, spoend on stupid things... itnternet has become hot garbage of content
 

MetoMeto

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So he was bullying others just for call the attention...
Changing the subject, what we should archive is a copy of ourselves preserving some of our new born stem cells ( it has to be being new born because while cells replicate lost some crap mixed inside the DNA, so adult stem cells are spoiled...
And we should make a copy of ourselfs because we are unique and future generations should have the option, I mean the right! to know every person that has lived in this world.
Why only some nerds can be next to Jennifer Aniston ( younger ) or flirt with that girl from game of thrones, not Daenerys I mean Margaery Tyrell. I should have a chance too, it's not fair just because I didn't get to meet her I will never be her boyfriend. Free Celebrity Clones for everybody right now! I love you Margaery with all my heart
Oh youre right, that tottaly has everything to do with gaming.
 

Axido

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Just imagine that in a different timeline his Wii U has died in the middle of this process due to a crappy Hynix NAND chip.
 

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Just strange. All games released on a single console's lifespan are not meant to be owned by a single person. It's like a menu in a restaurant. You're not supposed to order everything on the menu and eat it. Besides, he will never have time to play everything he just bought. As for game preservation, most of these games are available to download with just a simple google search. There was no need to panic and buy everything.
Exactly. And on the Switch, most of the shitty indie titles are just duplicated from Steam. All the games that already matter are dumped and preserved upon release, and sometimes before. So I feel the Switch is lucky in this regard.
 

duwen

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He had to fund this whole project with multiple sponsorships so I doubt that'll happen
You're kind of ignoring the fact that the whole video was essentially an ad for his 'charity' livestream... and it's a pretty sound idea; get viral view numbers with a ridiculous concept for a video, convert a chunk of that new audience to subscribers/patreons, get more eyes on the livestream, profit.

Oh well, at least Pink Gorillas Kelsey, via the Video Game Preservation foundation, will get a partially complete 3ds/Wii U digital library.
 
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NinStar

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Exactly. And on the Switch, most of the shitty indie titles are just duplicated from Steam. All the games that already matter are dumped and preserved upon release, and sometimes before. So I feel the Switch is lucky in this regard.
I think it is always important to preserve all versions of a game, regardless of opinions on one version or another.
 

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