Jamie Lendino

So my 7-year-old daughter loves point-and-click adventure games; we've been playing old MS-DOS LucasArts and Sierra titles together, and we're about to finish Legend of Kyrandia Book One. It's wonderful.

She's also obsessed with Minecraft and just learned about Minecraft: Story Mode. I didn't know what it was, and it was quite a rabbit hole for me to fall down.

So obviously, I'm very late to this, but Minecraft: Story Mode is a series of point-and-click titles from Telltale Games that came out in 2015 and disappeared in 2019. A Netflix "interactive" version of some content was available until 2022. Telltale shut down, the DRM servers are shut down, and now it's gone forever? There's no way to buy this for her?

I already champion preservation efforts for older games. And it's not like this is multiplayer and needs servers running. This is what we do with new art when it's sold digitally--we throw it in the garbage?

Feb 12, 2023 at 1:34pmWeb
Show threadJay Feb 12, 2023
@jlendino You can't buy it anymore because Telltale no longer has the rights to the Minecraft license, which means they can't legally sell it anymore. https://www.telltale.com/minecraft-story-mode/

You can find pirated versions of it out there if that suits you.
Minecraft: Story Mode – Telltale Games

Show threadJamie LendinoFeb 12, 2023

@jay Thank you--I did read that about the license, but Telltale itself is also gone. It's not like boxed software where stores can keep selling it until stock runs out, or you can sell or trade it on eBay, or re-install it on a different machine to keep playing it, etc. (like PS5 games even now). It's just...gone.

I don't know what the solution is, e.g. someone else could pick up the license to distribute it, or at least make it available in some way, or what. And right, pirated versions are available. It's just...crazy to me how ephemeral this is compared with any other medium.

Show threadJay Feb 12, 2023
@jlendino As someone who makes games himself, many of which are no longer available/playable, I couldn't agree more. It's part of the reason why I'm interested in game preservation.

Preservation and archiving was also a part of my tasks in my day job at a major developer/publisher up until recently when I had a title switch and promotion. Of course, that perservation and archiving isn't something intended for the public at all, but does allow us to reuse code/assets or do a rerelease on newer platforms later.
Show threadJamie LendinoFeb 12, 2023

@jay Oh, nice--so yeah, you get it. (And I didn't mean to imply you didn't; one of the perils of social media!)

I've already lost my mind over how many recent Steam games stopped working when macOS went 64-bit with Catalina three years ago, and again when they moved to the M1. The Mac has always struggled as a game platform, but to see recent (2010s) quality titles that played indistinguishably from the PC versions just go up in flames because the companies weren't around to recompile them made me crazy. And in that case, at least we can still play them all on Windows machines.

Stuff like this keeps me up at night. :)

Show threadJay Feb 12, 2023
@jlendino No worries, I didn't take it that way.
Show threadf00f/eris/continuum/etcFeb 12, 2023

@jlendino fuck always-online DRM. also, fuck DRM.

not only are companies paying no attention to preservation, they're making it illegal.

Show threadKevin Karhan Feb 12, 2023

@jlendino The only way you can enjoy these is if you happen to have bought the disc versions for #Xbox360 / #XboxOne back then and/or still have it downloaded.

#Piracy nowadays is not a means to defraud artists but #DigitalSelfDefense against #DRM!

Many games are nowadays unplayable without cracking their copy protection first!

Show threadAlan MartelloFeb 12, 2023

@jlendino I’m a old guy who knows nothing about Minecraft but I read an article recently about OpenSource Minecraft play-a-likes and there are many out there being developed and maintained with a thriving community - Minetest is one, but there are others. Perhaps one of them has what you’re looking for.

OpenSource = more likely to have platform independence and longevity

Show threadcalc.exeFeb 13, 2023
@jlendino I totally wouldn't recommend torrenting the game... it's illegal and I'd never support piracy, and I love DRM.... whoops! accidentally drops this link: https://igg-games.com/?s=Minecraft+story+mode