> I stumbled upon some code that actually checks if the current date is before 2038. If it’s not it refuses to run. I have no idea why they put this kind of check in the game's code,
That's actually very clever. Instead of crashing in unexpected ways or doing odd things, just cleanly exit. If you really want it to run after 2038, you have to emulate the clock, which would then avoid these potential Y2038 bugs.
Clever would be fixing the Y2038 bugs. This sounds more like a lazy/overworked programmer getting a QA bug report and marking it as WONTFIX because 2038 is going to be someone else's problem.
To clarify: Clever would be to to spend several days hunting down a bug that will affect 0.0001% of your users, and has an easy, well-known workaround?
It's going to affect 100% of your users in 2038. So yeah, if you see the game as just a product with a limited lifecycle then sure you can make excuses for cutting corners. If you see the game as a piece of art then you should have some interest in it working in the future. It's not like time_t overflows are rocket science.
Although the most clever solution would be to not have any bugs in the first place ofc ;)
That's actually very clever. Instead of crashing in unexpected ways or doing odd things, just cleanly exit. If you really want it to run after 2038, you have to emulate the clock, which would then avoid these potential Y2038 bugs.