XBox 360 still sells NFL Blitz on their digital store. This is the last version of Blitz ever made. It has an ultimate team mode and lots of on-line features. If you boot this game up now most of those features are dead. EA requires you to update the Terms of Service and that’s not possible anymore so without the Terms of Service the game won’t let you access any of the on-line modes. The game is a shell of itself. NFL Blitz 2000 on Dreamcast works with no missing features. It only has an arcade mode and then local co-op but it works.
I purchased a Sega 32X from a wonderful gentleman on Facebook. The 32X is a touchy piece of tech at best, at worst it’s an easily broken mess. The 32X came with a 10 pin cable and everything I needed to play NBA Jam on it. When I plugged in the machine, it would show the black screen with the white writing on it that shows up before the SEGA logo on most games. Then the screen would go blank and I could hear the game but I couldn’t see it. Since this is a machine of the 90’s I know I have options. I start the googling promptly and start searching for Youtube videos to see what the problem may be and how I might be able to fix it. I find a few videos that surmise that the 2 white ribbons inside the machine probably need cleaned. Video issues usually stem from these white ribbons. Unscrew a few screws, remove the heat sink, clean out all the easy to access parts and then unplug the 2 cables to clean the connection points. There was actual visible grime on the ribbons, I wiped it off. I put everything back together and the 32X works perfectly. The 10 pin cable is actually not correct for the 32X, the 10th Pin give the unit power from the Genesis and stops you from being able to power off the unit. I used pliers and took out the 10th pin. Problem solved, now I can power on and off the unit. My cell phone on the other hand needed a new battery, the back cover is connected to important internal components and I needed to be sent in to Motorola to have the battery replaced. It cost $80. I bought a new phone.
A PSP I purchased on Facebook has a cracked Face plate and was bought “as is” which is code for it’s probably broken but for 30 dollars I know I can risk it. I found new faceplates, new battery, and learned how to replace the disc drive. As a consumer, I have so much control over how I approach repairs to this. It’s mechanical, it’s fixable. If I can’t fix it, I know people who can. My switch has a Joycon with analog stick drift. I can take it apart but it voids the warranty and may not be real solution. Joycons are very expensive but the best option is to replace the unit (this was after sending it in because the left joycon wouldn’t sync properly). When my Switch has issues, nobody local wants to fix it and I can barely fix it myself. The analog stick is doable but no amount of googling was going to solve the de-syncing issue.
What I am trying to point out here is the freedom and flexibility given to the consumer when they have options to repair their consumer products. Right to repair seems to work with hand and hand with planned obsolescence. You can’t affordably fix things so it’s cheaper to dispose of the item and buy a new one. Games fall into this with constant on-line connectivity and download codes. No more used games. This is terrible for the environment, adding waste of lots of easily repairable electronics and it’s awful for consumers. I should be able to replace the screen or batter in my cell phone without spending hundreds of dollars. I should also be able to go to a 3rd party vendor for repairs. Anti-consumer designs become a profit center for companies who are the sole entities that can fix an item. All of this is compounded by the internet where firmware updates and “support” can make electronics obsolete as well. My printer downloaded an update that stopped me from being able to use the 3rd party ink I purchased. If I update my PSP it will stop me from being able to run emulators or anything on it. I love that I can soft mod my Saturn to play Japanese games, if the Saturn was made today that option would have been patched out. Then consoles and phones officially stop getting updates and then they become obsolete on the software side even if the hardware still functions.
Right to Repair hits me hardest in regards to consumer electronics but it’s really most diabolical when it comes to repairing cars, medical equipment and farm equipment and the businesses that rely on being able to repair those things in a timely fashion. Companies don’t even have to release the manuals and equipment needed to repair expensive equipment, forcing people to wait for certified techs and proprietary parts. The days of the home mechanic and the 30 year old tractor will be relics of the past. Someday in the future my Nintendo Switch and Xbox One will be useless bricks. So many of my games will be useless. Battleborn, something I have written about extensively here, is having it’s servers shut down in 2021. Even though the game has story content and modes that can work without being on-line, everything is server based. The game will just be gone. I can play any Dreamcast game I want, servers be damned but I am losing access to games I recently paid 60 dollars for. There is no regulation for it. Game publishers have no rules on how long they have to keep servers active. So many on-line games flame out fast and hard. We saw it with the battle royale boom, a lot of games were just dead in the water and faded away.
There are about 20 states with right to repair legislation being considered. If you want to be able to repair your own items, support small businesses, and protect the environment you can reach out to your legislators. Repair.org is a solid web site to learn about the issue and it’s an umbrella organization for lobbying and organizing the fight for consumer rights to repair. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is fighting the fight on the copyright side of things, looking to help defend consumers and business owners from getting stymied with licenses, DMCA violations, and other software issues that prevent repairs. For me personally, it comes down to ownership. I feel like I own my Sega Genesis and it’s games. I own my Turbografx-16 and it’s games. I rent my Steam games on PC and hope that Steam gives me access in good faith if they ever went out of business or stopped their storefront. I won’t buy a Tesla because you’re a firmware update away from losing access to core features, and if you buy a Tesla and they go under what happens when the updates stop? That isn’t ownership. Fight the good fight, advocate for your rights! I enjoy playing 30 year old consoles now, but I fear in 5 years I won’t be able to revisit games from this era. Thanks for reading, Peace!
Sources- https://www.wired.com/2017/03/right-to-repair-laws/, https://repair.org/, https://www.eff.org/issues/right-to-repair
J3Blackgamer 