The Vimm's Lair Scare: Why is Nintendo, Sega, and the ESA Killing Game Preservation?

Game preservation…it’s not a controversial topic. It’s a principle, really, that should be universal—should be agreed between all cultures and creeds. Who would trumpet the destruction of fine art? The demolition of historical buildings? The closure of museums, the burning of old books, the censoring of ancient manuscripts, the banning of black-and-white cartoons and silent films? Who wouldn’t want to save neglected 16 and 35mm movies from disintegration? Who wouldn’t want to reintroduce, or at least make accessible, the stories, photos, crafts, and handiwork that defined earlier cultures—mankind’s very ancestors? The answer, of course, is no one.

Except corporations.

Especially video game corporations.

No other entity is as hostile to its own creations, to its own sacred history, as the monolithic game company. Companies like Sega and Nintendo sit on a nest of properties extending back into the late 1970s—games that helped influence and inform the art form up to the present day. These titles are likewise surrounded by concept art, design documents, and early alpha and beta builds which maybe…possibly…still existing somewhere. But, circa 2024, can a Sega history buff easily experience Sega’s Girl’s Garden, Clockwork Knight, or Sonic Heroes without resorting to some form of unauthorized emulation? Does a Nintendo fan have reasonable access to Sheriff, a 1979 arcade game? Or the Super Famicom’s Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium? Or the DS’s Electroplankton and Super Princess Peach, or the Virtual Boy’s Mario Clash? Not at all. For those without the Internet savvy to find them, these games are essentially lost media. Elusive curiosities now restricted to retrospectives, blogs and blurbs and video clips.

The solution to this problem, or rather, its salvation…is emulation; although never a mainstream solution, gamers with a little intrepid know-how can scrape beneath the Web’s sanitized veneer and find the keys—usually—to gaming’s lost or fading history. ROMs, the programs of every video game released since Spacewar!, are scattered like confetti across cyberspace, waiting to be unearthed and experienced again. It’s an uneasy compromise between copyright and consumer rights, but it allows the industry to have a legacy without requiring game developers to both archive and provide the software themselves.

But not anymore. Gaming companies have become increasingly “protective” of their many properties; ROM sites and emulators are under attack, the most recent being against the venerable sanctuary known as Vimm’s Lair, and easy-to-use website that hosted some forty years of gaming history. NES, TurboGrafx-16, Sega Saturn, Nintendo DS…the site was a trove for both the curious and the connoisseur, that would-be student of history wishing to visit the relics of a bygone time. But some of these games’ owners, corporate curators turned curmudgeons, have seen privy to scrape these games from the site…and in effect, from near-existence. Nintendo, Sony, Sega, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), even Lego…all told Vimm’s Lair to let their precious cargo go. But where? Where indeed?

For most of these games don’t have a better home, a place where gamers can rent, stream, or otherwise buy them painlessly at a reasonable price. Want to play Lego Star Wars as seen on the PlayStation 2? Better go scour eBay or a used game store for a working system and a dusty copy. Want to easily compare NES Super Mario Bros. with its Game Boy Color counterpart? Guess it’s YouTube videos (which Nintendo also doesn’t like) or, again, some hefty hardware purchases on the secondhand market.

The biggest irony might be the ESA; despite its claim “We Love Video Games,” it clearly doesn’t—it loves only its members, those greedy centers of self-interest whom feed its coffers. The ESA’s mission statement is equally disingenuous: As players ourselves, we know and love games just like you do. Our mission is to help expand and protect the innovative and creative marketplace for the video game industry here in the United States.

The ESA knows and loves video games? The ESA wants to “expand” the marketplace? That’s a laugh and certainly a lie. If the organization cared, it would be fostering a means to save games of a vintage persuasion. It would be encouraging the likes of Sony and Nintendo to find a legitimate means for well-meaning gamers to purchase or borrow from their back catalogs—a certain innovative and creative marketplace, one might say. But no, the ESA doesn’t care about the past, not about the art form’s origin or legacy. It only loves itself and those greedy corporations to whom it’s so beholden. And really…money.

This attack on Vimm’s Lair is a travesty, but not a surprising one. These game companies don’t care about preservation, the past, or the public they supposedly aim to entertain. Forget that these businesses wouldn’t exist without the gamers, hobbyists, and fans who are willing to support their releases. But again, these companies don’t care about the consumer, history, art, or anything…just themselves. Sony, Nintendo, the ESA itself…they’re like giant dragons hoarding caverns of treasure they’ll never use. That they certainly won’t share.

For those concerned and, especially, those who want to take action, I recommend visiting the Entertainment Software Association website. It’s an interesting hole to poke around in—everything from Tencent Games, a Chinese-based company, to Nintendo and even Netflix are members. More importantly, however, is the leadership team: a Stanley Pierre-Louis is the President and Chief Executive Officer, along with five similarly apathetic female vice presidents. Let them know, politely, that their organization is helping no one. Certainly not the consumer, not history, not the art form. If they really “love” video games, then prove it. Stop attacking emulation sites…or come up with something better.

Lastly, YouTube’s Modern Vintage Gamer has an excellent video concerning this topic. He goes into the weeds explaining why this attack on gaming history is wrong—indeed, why these ROM takedown directives are malicious and should be stopped. Be sure to watch and give him a “like.”

We preserve old movies, old buildings, old books…why shouldn’t we also preserve old games, too? It’s what the Internet is best designated for, after all—a perpetual archive of history…and not just games, either, but of culture…of mankind.

Shame on Nintendo and its crony cohorts for only seeing green and greed.--D

Nintendo is especially notorious--not only does it attack ancient, well-meaning ROM sites, it even goes after well-meaning homages and fangames. AM2R (above) and Pokemon Uranium (below) were forced out of the "Best Fan Category" at the 2016 The Game Awards by, yep, Nintendo.

The long-running "Vimm's Lair" website is now limping after being raided (given a sinister cease and desist) by Nintendo, Sega, and other such illustrious denizens of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

Want to play the obscure, weird, and largely ignored Donkey Kong 3? If Vimm's Lair was your source, well, it's not anymore. Nintendo just couldn't bear the thought of those five people out there daring to download the game's 45-year-old NES port.

Thanks to news sites Polygon and cgmagonline.com for the fangame pics.

The ESA "loves" games, but actions speak louder than words. Killing the preservation of, and access to, games ranging from over the past forty years is not exactly a message of warmth and compassion. It's down-right antagonism.

The ESA leadership team. Express your polite dismay of its recent actions by writing in here.