Many years ago, I worked for a software company that included code escrow for our customers. If something happened to is, they could unlock the code and support it themselves.

It can be done, but probably only is in industries with strong companies for customers

Gotta save this one

Edit: lol, I haven't realised I'm not in a video game subforum. But my point stands and I agree that old software should be pirated or downloaded for free if the proprietor is a jackass that no longer provide support but still try to milk every cent from a dead horse.

Devil's advocate: old games don't have great quality of life improvements that we take for granted today and having remakes could fix the issues.

I played Civilizations 3 again and even though the graphics still hold up quite well by today's standards, the UI doesn't hold a candle to the later releases. Suffice to say, I won't be playing Civ 3 again despite having grown up with the game. Old games like Civ 3 requires you to have like OCD and be extremely patient, which is something you can't really have as an adult with less time to play videogames. There are old games that would require retouching-- without the baggage of parasitic modern trends of course like DLshit and microtransactions.