I wholeheartedly agree. Media preservation in general has, historically, been treated as a low priority by society. The ransacking of the Library of Alexandria, the destruction of early movies to scavenge the silver from the film reels, the erasure of T.V. show recordings because the physical tapes were considered more valuable than the media recorded on them, and now classic video games being in danger of becoming permanently lost media because companies fail to see them as the culturally relevant creations they are.
We need to be better about media preservation in general: Not just the big money-makers or critical/scholarly darlings, but obscure titles and even the outright failures as well. Think of all of the literature that was written in the same era as Shakespeare or Twain or Dickens that wasn't preserved because it lacked popularity with the right people. Think of all the movies that will never be re-released on streaming or home video (and have even become lost media because every known copy has been destroyed or allowed to deteriorate over the years) because they flopped at the box office. Think of all the games that current generations either can't play at all or can only play either by going through the expense of purchasing original hardware and a physical copy or using...internet-enabled means.
The PS1 Lunar remakes and their Sega CD/Mega CD originals are not available on any virtual console platform as far as I'm aware of. They haven't been ported to PC. You can only play them without going broke buying a physical copy (because several market-related reasons caused them to be relatively rare) through resources provided by dedicated fans on the internet. However, these are important games. They helped establish many important JRPG storytelling tropes, took advantage of the technology of their time to provide an immersive experience through impressive (for their time) animated cutscenes, The Sega CD/Mega CD Lunar games were among the first JRPG's to utilize voice acting all the way back in the early 90's! Like TS1 and many other important classics, these games need to be preserved for future generations to experience, enjoy, and learn from. We NEED to take video game preservation, and media preservation as a whole, a LOT more seriously.
