Keep Circulating the Tapes/Video Games: Difference between revisions

** [[LucasArts]] also put up the ''[[Super Star Wars]]'' games and ''[[Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures]]'' on the Virtual Console (though in that example, they ''always'' held the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' licenses).

* The ''[[Lunar]]'' games, remakes, and extra [[Feelies]]. The first two games were released on the [[Sega CD]], which made them tough to come by in the first place. ''[[Lunar: The Silver Star]]'', is actually not too difficult to find, but ''[[Lunar 2 Eternal Blue]]'' certainly is (it doesn't help that ''Eternal Blue'' had low sales). The remake of ''Eternal Blue'' is also a hard find because it was released during the twilight of the [[PlayStation]] era. ''Silver Star Story'' and all subsquent remakes of ''The Silver Star'' are not hard to acquire, though.

* Past-generation ''[[Pokémon]]'' titles. Finding used copies isn't difficult at all, given ''Pokémon'''s [[Cash Cow Franchise|status]], but Nintendo has unusually never shown any inclination to rerelease any past game. This is probably one of the rare cases where no-one minds this at all - ease of finding secondhand copies notwithstanding, given how more Pokémon are added with each generation, and the constant fixes and revisions to the game mechanics with each new generation, rereleasing the games ''in their original form'' would have been somewhat unfeasible. Instead, [[Video Game Remake|remakes]] ensued.

** Note that if one does obtain a copy of ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver|Gold/Silver/Crystal]]'', there's a good chance that the game will be unable to retain its save data, due to the fact that the backup RAM and the real-time clock share a battery, which the latter eats up within about six years.<ref>(Since they were released in the early 2000s, this means that copies have already started to end up with dead batteries.)</ref> This also applies to ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire|Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald]]'' to a lesser extent, especially if the bug that causes the battery to die prematurely isn't fixed by ''[[Video Game Remake|FireRed]]'' and ''[[Video Game Remake|LeafGreen]]'' or the [[Game Cube]] games. The games store their data on flash memory (which doesn't require power to retain its data), so they can still be played without the save feature failing to work properly, but the cartridge still uses a battery to power the real-time clock, so difficulties can ensue (though certainly not insurmountable ones if one has enough patience). Note that the clock problems do not exist in every generation after III, as they can only be played on systems that have a clock built into the system itself, which the games make use of instead. (Of course, the main problem mentioned above will likely be an issue in the future, but at least gameplay will function normally.)

** It is possible to replace the batteries in at least ''Gold'' and ''Silver'' versions without destroying the cartridge, so the playability can be restored... for another six years at a time.

*** This led to a bizaare situation in which Yellow's most famous feature, Pikachu following the Player, was added into [[Pokémon Gold and Silver|HeartGold and SoulSilver]], along with Crystal's additions to the game's plot. It was expanded- now any Pokémon could follow the Player, not just Pikachu.

* Much of Rare's game library predating the Microsoft buyout, such as ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|Golden Eye 1997]]'', ''[[Battletoads]]'', the ''[[Killer Instinct]]'' games, and the original version of ''[[Diddy Kong Racing]]'', which may also have copyright issues regarding the T.T. theme (which is based somewhat on the Celebration song), and the characters [[Banjo-Kazooie|Banjo]] and [[Conker's Bad Fur Day|Conker]] (who now belong to Microsoft and thus did not appear in the DS remake; the latter has also been shifted into a [[Dead Baby Comedy]] character). They can only get a XBLA [[Updated Rerelease]] rather than a VC release since, save for ''Diddy Kong Racing'' and ''GoldenEye'' (which is also entangled by the [[James Bond]] game license being currently held by the [http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252 controversially greedy] [[Activision]] on top of all that [[Console Wars]] hooplah), they are now all Microsoft properties. On the plus side, this did allow for the implementation of Stop 'n Swop after the constant teasing for years...

** The ''[[Sega Saturn]]'' games aren't a walk-in-the-park to find. They can race anywhere from $40 to $80 at minimum, if you manage to find them.

* While most of [[Humongous Entertainment]]'s classic computer games are easily findable on Steam, the ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' series has been out of print since 2016, when Day6 Sports Group (which acquired the license from Atari) was sold and shut down. There's also the fact that most of the featured pro athletes have long since retired from their respective sports.

* The ''[[Breath of Fire]]'' games are an example of an entire ''franchise'' (right down to [[Comic Book Adaptation]] treatments and artbooks) that is a victim of this due to a variety of reasons:

** The licensing of at least the first ''[[Breath of Fire]]'', and potentially the entire series, is complex because of Capcom having farmed out localisation to Square and apparently ''also'' granted it North American distribution rights. Square apparently has enough pull in its contract that it may have US distribution rights to not only ''I'' but quite possibly residual licensing rights re the franchise as a whole.