[game_preservation] Old MP3s

[Andrew Armstrong]

That'd be the main time I'd see it as useful - this applies much more to 
older files in games I guess, where original distributions were low PCM 
WAV's (eg; soundtrack files on game CD's for playing on your PC), or 
were in games, but as different types of sound files (very low quality 
usually) where a re-release might re-record or at least upgrade the 
music and sounds.

Main thing that came to mind for me was "War Has Never Been So Much Fun" 
from Cannon Fodder, since it was a spoken track, and the game releases 
tended to be low quality, it being from 1993 (the music video however 
being slightly higher quality, and I am sure CD versions exist now). The 
lower quality versions though might be what people would recognise more 
easily, even if you can create the extra-low-quality version it might 
not be exactly the same (and even if you can, it doesn't mean you will 
or it would be easy for someone else to!).

Anyway, MP3's are tiny, well worth hanging onto I guess. If applied to 
other media (video content for instance) it might get harder to justify 
saving ever low quality Youtube version of something if a higher quality 
version was available (or if the videos used in a game were additionally 
released later, or multiple versions came out some with higher quality 
versions on them...etc.), just because it is where most people saw it 
initially.

I guess it depends? :)

Andrew

Devin Monnens wrote:

> Well, I could see that, and it especially has some historical content 

> behind it (hopefully more than 'what was the name of Bungie's MP3.com 

> account?). I own the CD. I could recreate the track exactly as it is 

> here, only with higher quality audio. Would that make this track 

> 'better'? I suppose there's also an argument out there that 'this is 

> how it's supposed to sound' from people who have grown up listening to 

> mp3s (or at least low-quality ones), that the music just 'sounds 

> better' when it's encoded at low quality. It's like low-quality became 

> an aesthetic.

>

> -Devin

>

> On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 9:59 AM, Frank Cifaldi <fcifaldi at gmail.com 

> <mailto:fcifaldi at gmail.com>> wrote:

>

>     It's not the sort of thing I'd shed a tear about if it were lost,

>     but it would have some value as part of a larger internet time

>     capsule I'd think.

>

>     On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 10:48 PM, Devin Monnens

>     <dmonnens at gmail.com <mailto:dmonnens at gmail.com>> wrote:

>

>         Do any of you guys think old MP3s still have some kind of

>         value, given that we can now get high-quality versions of some

>         of these tunes? As an example, I've got the Halo Theme from

>         MP3.com, circa 2001. The entire piece was integrated into a

>         track on the album, but this was the first time the song was

>         made widely available (I think it even appeared in the trailer).

>

>         http://vgmdaily.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/halo-theme-marty-odonnell/

>

>         -Devin

>

>         -- 

>         Devin Monnens

>         www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

>         The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

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>

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

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