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So for the gamers among us, Final Fantasy VII and IX recently became available on the PS4.
Took a while, but they're here.
But where's VIII?
This is what I read: apparently the sources for those games were stored on some dev's machine who threw parts of it away when he needed disk space.
The version of FF IX that's not available on PS4 isn't the same as the one you used to play back in the day.
For example, the high res backgrounds in battle arena's are gone and they were only able to salvage the 800x600 (or whatever low resolution they used back then).
Getting FF VIII to work needs considerable work.
So this happened to three of the most iconic games ever, but all from the same studio, could be they were just a bunch of bunglers...
But then I read the source code to Baldur's Gate, another iconic game, got lost because it was on a computer in some basement that was flooded.
Sounds like these aren't incidents...
Anyone here knows what's up and why I've had to fix VB6 software written in the 90's while big ass studio's can't keep their most iconic games? 
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Sander Rossel wrote: But then I read the source code to Baldur's Gate, another iconic game, got lost because it was on a computer in some basement that was flooded.
Maybe they could use Ghidra or IDA to recover the source. Both support exporting binaries back to source code. Although it would take a lot of effort to make it completely human readable.
Best Wishes,
-David Delaune
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Maybe it is like you suggest, and they just didn't have enough storage space to do everything properly...
Whatever the reason though, I hope they sort it out for FF8 because I really want trophy support on it like they did with FF7 
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While FF VII is my favorite game ever, I must admit I haven't gotten the PS4 version 
Just checked out the trophies, the Barrett date looks like a PITA, you go for it from the beginning or you'll miss it.
And for the story you'd rather have Aeris.
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Yeah, it's probably the most annoying one. But if you have played the game as many times as I expect you have, then your are not really missing anything with the story.
Also, if I remember correctly, there is a bug where you can repeatedly increase Barrett's "date score" to make sure you get him - when you are in the Midgar buildings cells, just keep talking to Barrett over and over before talking to anyone else.
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This may just me being cynical, but ... once a company releases a game (and gets the worst bugs fixed so people shut up moaning and buy the thing) their interest in the source code pretty much goes out the window - they have the master binaries, they have the money rolling in. The dev team have been redeployed (to another game or the unemployment office) so who cares where the source is? It's not as if "Attack Dwarves In Space 2" is going to share much with it anyway as the V1 Engine won't support the new graphics cards ...
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640
Never throw anything away, Griff
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I guess that was the case back in the 90's... Nowadays they'll need that code for the remaster, the special edition, the HD re-release, the VR re-release, the mobile app edition, legendary edition, GOTY edition, etc. etc.
Anyway, I guess Square-Enix is learning that now too 
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Sander Rossel wrote: Anyone here knows what's up and why I've had to fix VB6 software written in the '90s while big ass studios can't keep their most iconic games?
Most probably because you were not working on a video game but something that is going to be in use for the next 20 or so years.
The average life of a video game (for the studio) is around a year (generous) unless they keep updating it.
So after a year, it does not make them a considerable amount of money meaning spending time and effort on it is not profitable anymore.
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I for one find that 'worrying',I have committed many things that shouldn't be done (Thread.Sleep(10)) to slow down program...
modified 4-Apr-19 9:37am.
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GKP1992 wrote: So after a year, it does not make them a considerable amount of money meaning spending time and effort on it is not profitable anymore.
Tell that to all remasters and re-releases!
Well, to be fair, those weren't a thing in the 90's.
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Back in the 90s...they probably only had Visual Source Safe as source control. Understandably, people would rather rewrite code from scratch rather than use that..."tool".
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I used openVMS CMS. Not transactional based, but I actually had a stable and well designed OS. Never had an issue, and if I could not build from scratch, there was hell to pay. 30 years later, I am unable to drive home the point of weekly builds. I've given up on nightly builds.
Years later, I lost my VSS project because of a network fart. That started my descent into learning of the half-whits that worked at MS. A year later, I forced development to SVN, and I never looked back.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I'm assuming you realize I was joking...
I just can't pass up an opportunity to deride VSS every time it presents itself...
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I'm not. I got burned badly by VSS and cheesy MS coding. One day, my customer's IT department installed WiFi in our area. Since I was working on embedded systems and needed my wired ethernet to talk to the hardware, I used the WiFi for the corporate stuff - including talking to VSS. Our repository was out on a network drive (and in my opinion VSS was never designed for that..."
So, the Wifi hiccuped, and our repository was trashed.
In my efforts to recover it, I came across some angry, dark, and occasionally hilarious rants. The best one was, "Using VSS is like printing all your source code, deleting all of your files, then shredding your printouts...."
I promptly ordered a USB to ethernet adapter and turned off my WiFi.
VSS should be derided.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Oh Sander, such a noob 
Seriously, I'm messing with you. The US can't build the Saturn 5 anymore for similar issues - it just wasn't deemed important. Issues like this almost become mythical when it all comes together.
True Story:
1) Contracted to attempt a port of FORTRAN code developed in the late 70s to the PC.
2) After examination, missing 40+ source files. Did my best reverse engineering, no go. Delivered the bad news.
3) Co-owner of the company accepted bad news, said he knew who to contact. Luckily this guy was not dead (we're all getting older, it happens).
4) Guy says, "Yeah, I know who has the backups, but he had a house fire that leveled his place, let me call him."
5) Guy makes contact, #2 says, "Oh hell, I have no idea where the backup tapes are, but if anyone does, it's xyz."
6) Xyz is called, "Sure, I still have those. We got them from the garage of the house that burned down."
7) I got the original source code.
After nigh 40 years of writing code, I have come to the conclusion that most of what makes the world run is 30 years old. See that old grizzled fart? Buy him lunch and find out what he knows.
I am seriously anal retentive when it comes to backups, source control, etc. It's amazing how most just don't appreciate the value of what they have done. I still have code from the mid 90s I wrote - just in case. I know for a fact the code is still live in Germany.....
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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In Dutch we have a saying, freely translated "who saves some, has some."
Can't find any English translations, but it basically means that if you save something now you'll have something later.
I guess that's not very popular in software
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Lol, I love it. I've gotten over "supporting legacy code" - I've just made so much money diving in and helping.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Been in bed with the flu since Sunday.
I don't think I've ever been this sick in my life.
Today I woke up and I had more energy than the rest of the week combined (which has mostly been negative anyway).
Even just laying in bed was too tiresome.
Things started to get better when my mom brought me some high dose pain killers.
Anyway, glad that's (mostly) over...
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Sander Rossel wrote: I don't think I've ever been this sick in my life
I've heard that from other people too - either we are getting older, or diseases are getting stronger.
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Rage wrote: we are getting older
I almost didn't this week 
Rage wrote: diseases are getting stronger
Apparently they are[^].
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Rage wrote: either we are getting older, or diseases are getting stronger.
I suppose a mix of both, but the second option is sadly a real menace.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Rage wrote: either we are getting older, or diseases are getting stronger.
You forgot the third option - we are getting weaker.
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Touch wood, I've only ever had the 'flu once - 8 days of absolute hell.
Hope you're fully better soon, Sander.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. - Mark Twain
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Wow, eight days... 
I've had four and it was driving me mad.
The worst part was wanting to get some pain killers, but they were downstairs and I had to get out of bed to get them.
Don't be sick and alone.
Always have someone to bring you your meds 
At least I had the cat to keep me company.
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Sander Rossel wrote: I've had four and it was driving me mad.
Hope you're feeling better. Did you sleep the entire time?
Best Wishes,
-David Delaune
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