[robin_reala]

We’re coming up on 50 years for Space Invaders. We can say that it’s endured because:

- it’s self-contained: it works without dependencies, and with the hardware it was designed for

- there’s an ongoing need: peope want to continue playing Space Invaders

- it’s transposable: the environment it runs in can be recreated through additional layers (emulators here)

- it’s recreatable: the core concepts behind Space Invaders can be reimplemented in the prevailing contexts of the time

[OhMeadhbh]

Modern software development started for me in 1985 when we disassembled the Choplifter arcade game they mistakenly put in the college dorm with several student engineers. Within 15 minutes of them dropping it off, we had the back door open and the eproms lifted from the motherboard. Within a couple of hours we had reverse engineered the code, modified it for a free game hack, burned new eproms and put back in service.

In honor of thr 40th anniversary of this hack, I recently played the stock version in an emulator on a web page. Code lives on, I suppose.

[supportengineer]

Talented people with access to resources! And no fear of punishment ( fines, expulsion, etc. )

[continuational]

Yeah, Super Mario Bros is 40+ years old by now. Runs just fine in an emulator, even if you can't find the original hardware.

Modern SaaS apps can't be run once the company shuts it down. You don't have the code, not even the executable.