I've heard stories like those sticky notes. People had a somewhat similar problem with Half-Life, with a single mechanic, but they managed to eliminate it from the equation and glue two pieces of code together. From what I've heard, this was a fairly common practice. Especially since programmers like Gabe Nevell and John Carmack often sat after work hours and tested every solution they could think of. Did something work? Did the tests confirm it? Then we write the solution down on a piece of paper... Or maybe not, and then think in that jumble of code about what the author meant :D.
Oh yes, porting games from archaic platforms is a problem. Besides, some PS1 games were difficult to port due to their technological limitations. I don't remember the details, but some/many PS1 games had some graphical limitations.
I did janatorial work for a development company here locally many years ago and you would not believe the amount of sticky notes that were everywhere. I had coworkers that would just throw them away if they were on the floor.
I got so mad over that.
I picked them up and stuck them to the seat of the chair instead. That way the person working there might see them and be able to put them where they belonged - at the very least, potentially some archaic code/trick might not be lost due to someone throwing it away. I never put them near any other sticky notes in a work station because I understood how that could easily throw off their work.
I can only imagine the number of tricks and code snippets that were lost because they were on sticky notes that fell off and got thrown away.
I know 3DO and Sega Saturn games are horrible to port due to them using square polygons instead of the industry standard of triangle polygons. I talked with many programmers that hated those two systems for that fact. Of course, when they came out, especially 3DO, 3D stuff was still quite new and an industry standard was not really set. They simply picked the wrong horse to bet on.
By the time the Saturn was in development I don't think there was a standard either. We would not see that actually occur till the 3D card wars on PC.
I know a lot of PSOne games were developed outside the standard tool kits that Sony provided which causes trouble porting to other platforms now. Probably because source code is not available anymore or something.
PlayStation games had a lot of that jittery warping going on with the textures. Some were much worse than others but some were almost unplayable without getting a headache.
Omg, I pictured that moment and genuinely felt like my current partner had cleaned out my room of "junk." You've definitely saved more than one programmer's nerves. People without technical predispositions or those not working in a similar profession won't understand why these notes or records are so important. As you say, even with "notes for notes" written on simple phrases, you can recreate the thought process.
A fair point – they didn't know the standard, they programmed however they felt most comfortable. No one back then could predict which trends would prevail. What mattered was profit in the here and now. As for "disappearing codes," it's likely no one was keeping track of them. Many much more recognizable series/games (I'm thinking of Blizzard or Konami) lost their codes and were found by luck... or not. As for the PlayStation, if my memory serves me right, I think they only realized the limitations of their hardware over time.
Considerinng the history of the PlayStation and the changes it went through as it was developed starting with the failed Nintendo partnership, then the failed discussions with Sega, I am surprised they were able to hit a home run like they did. It was not just money, which Sony had plenty of, it was a technical marvel. It didn't follow industry standards, what little there were at the time, they kind of marched to their own music. They did right by developers with easy to use, well easier than what Sega, 3DO, Atari, etc offered, software development kits and such.
I have talked with people that worked at game companies back in the 80s when storage was expensive. Kind of like the NASA situation with tapes and such. It was economical to reuse what they could so things were lost left and right. After all, in 1988 or so, no one was thinking that someday gamers will want ports of these games on newer hardware.
The fact that storage was so expensive is a big reason we no longer have source code for so many commercial games from the 80s. It was simply not in the budget. Even Nintendo went through this with many of their early titles. Everyone thinks Nintendo has always been flush with funds but back in 1982/1983 they were near bankruptcy, struggling to make rent for their U.S. location. If not for luck we would not have Nintendo today, gaming as a whole being different too.
Even more recently, there have been people that bought computers on eBay from defunct companies liquidation services and ended up with SDK units for PlayStation, Dreamcast, Xbox, etc. That is how we ended up getting access to the source code for many Dreamcast games that were thought to be lost because the developers went out of business before completing the games.
Watching various materials from the history of the PlayStation, I came to the conclusion that we were dealing with a fluke. A few people with shared desires were lucky enough to have a console created. As you said, it was imperfect, after unsuccessful discussions with major players. However, gamers aren't unique, especially console players. You have a console that can run many new games, but with certain limitations—that's enough for us. Sony provides enormous freedom for developers. Publishing Nintendo games is associated with higher costs and restrictions that Sony doesn't face (as you safely know, cartridge production was limited, and the disc quickly dominated the market despite its initial setup).
As for data storage, I have nothing to add, because you've exhausted the topic. While larger gamers could afford it (apparently, Nintendo archived all its games despite several bouts of bankruptcy, or so I heard a few months ago), for smaller players, every cent counts, so... And it's good you mentioned those auctions. Lots of people don't realize what artifacts they have lying around. Sometimes you can buy a real treasure for less than the price of an average, average-quality kebab. A friend of mine from the UK once bought the entire collection of some super-famous band from the '80s or '90s. An exclusive edition, barely touched, just dusty. The Englishman didn't know what he was selling and needed the cash to pay off a debt. My friend took it, refurbished the packaging, and sold it on eBay for many times that amount.
I know there were many variations of games once the NES came out, even more on SNES that featured "uncensored" versions of games. Such as the first Mortal Kombat, I have talked with people that said there was a version for SNES that was much closer to the arcade created and, obviously denied by Nintendo, but that version was archived as they said - on some hard drive somewhere. I wonder if one day we will hear about an auction where someone bought old computers in a liquidation or something and bam, there is the uncensored Mortal Kombat on SNES?
Others I talked with said that Nintendo actually did not request the SNES port of MK be as censored as it was - apparently that was retaliatory by Acclaim over having to change anything. Someone took it personal basically.
Then there are the people I talked with that mentioned there were at least 3 versions of MK1 on SNES submitted to Nintendo, all denied, and archived.
Same for Robocop vs Terminator on SNES. So many games fell into this category having versions out there somewhere, probably on an unlabeled harddrive in a storage unit somewhere.
I have bought many bulk lots over the years, some gaming, and gotten some gems. One time I bought a 200 game collection off an eBay seller. It ran the gamut from Atari to Xbox 360. I was amazed to find a sealed Donkey Kong Country on SNES in it. I knew enough at that time to not mess with it. I set it aside and years later remembered I had it. Listed it on eBay and sold for more than I paid for the whole lot of 200 games.
Another time, at a charity store I found several Nintendo SNES games like Kirby's Avalanche, Super Mario All-Stars plus Super Mario World, and many others. 25 cents each. I bought them all. Listed them separately but ended up doing a bulk listing for one guy almost immediately for over $300 for 11 SNES games. I was not worried about "making bank", I was just happy to move them with little hassle. I had already received many questions from interested buyers wanting more pictures, pictures of specific spots on the cartridge, etc - obviously trying to see if they were fakes. When I took them down and did the bulk listing I got so many hate messages from people because they "were going to buy it tomorrow".
If you can make money without hurting someone or hurting yourself, I am all for it.