After revealing he was ordered to destroy his copy of Fallout's source code, OG lead Tim Cain says we're losing game history because companies "take authority but not responsibility" for preservation

www.gamesradar.com

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I beg people, learn to disobey and lie to authority.
- Hopefully he did and is lying to us too
- Seriously. These people have zero respect for you. Have respect for yourself.
  What are they going to do, sue you for a 30 year old game? That no one at the company made? Really, it proves that the average software dev isn't a creative. They have 0 respect for prior work, even if its their own creation. And I say that as a dev. Like sometimes old code sucks and isn't worth the bytes. But a whole work? Gone because a company decided it cut into their budget by more then a dollar?
  Rome total war has problems, but its still probably the best TW game. CA released a "remaster" that is... just trash. The original got a patch, and that patch completely broke it on windows 10. They pushed that patch onto steam, hid the original, and now only sell the remaster. Its a fucking joke.
  Meanwhile I've see the source code for one of the original MMOs because the devs threw it out there, and people picked it up and got it running. Its impossible for me to follow (I wanted to pull the sprites because they're amazing), but I respect it because it was and is impressive for the mid 90s. Incredible to think that if these dorks were in charge, it'd just be gone.
  
  Really, it proves that the average software dev isn't a creative.
  If anything, being slightly ashamed of your old work and not really wanting copies of it around is a pretty clear sign they are creatives.
oh yes, capitalist entities are just going to suddenly decide to take responsibility for preserving history, sure
The last thing the industry wants is another Doom (1993). A game that is (now) open source, highly portable, highly moddable, and still FUN and approachable 30 years later (and well preserved, as a result). At the time, it made sense for Id to release the source, because it held their competitors feet to the fire. Today, there is nothing left to innovate on the technology side of video games. They want everything to work like Madden/FIFA, where the publishers do the work a couple modders can pull off in a week and charge full price for it all over again.
"I think more companies need to step up and take that responsibility more seriously"
[laughs in capitalist]
I don't understand those kind of scenarios. Isn't it trivial for anyone involved to just anonimously smuggle the code out?
Are those data handled like in a Mission: Impossible offline casino?
- but that would be a crime! instead, we'll just ask the companies to do the right thing, surely the only reason they're not already doing that is because they're unaware
  
  Sarcasm aside, why not both?
- For real. Like dude, learn to steal from work. It’s a fun and easy thrill
  
  Companies committ time theft on my wages. So I can compensate by stealing from the company.
- I assume game studios are currently extremely well secured on par with film production considering how much money goes into it. Back in the day, maybe not so much. But then you might also be limited by the capabilities of portable data storage. Kind of harder to smuggle out a dozen floppy disks than one thumb drive. Plus, they literally get the FBI to investigate if they notice something gets stolen, so it's really not a simple thing to just walk out of work one day with the source code of the game you've been working on for years.
  
  For current production, obviously, but those titles are quite literally close to abandonware range.
  But I guess once they have the systems in place they use it for everything...
"Yes I deleted every copy of it from my work computer."
"What about your other devices?"
"Why would I have work code on my private devices?"

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