[game_preservation] Kickstarting the IGDA Preservation SIG

[Greg B]

Kieron,
 Small typo at the end maybe. "greatfully" should probably be "gratefully?"
 Greg

 On 10/19/05, Kieron Wilkinson <preservation_sig at igda.org> wrote:

>

>

> You probably know the problem already. How do we ensure that the

> computer and video games we played in the past will be available in the

> years to come, not only for ourselves but also for future generations

> and historians to study?

>

> This question will not, and indeed cannot be answered by this article.

> The intention is to organise something that might help answer it, and

> hopefully actually help //do// it.

>

> This is truly a huge task when you consider the many gaming systems

> produced over the years, the different technologies in use, and the

> hundreds or even thousands of games produced for many of them. It is

> very unlikely that a single entity is able to solve this problem.

>

> Of course, some great work is being done already. There are lots of

> individuals and organisations out there that are nibbling away at the

> edges of this massive problem. Many of those entities have their own

> army of contributors, and there are bound to be many more people who

> would be willing to join in - if only they knew where to start. Without

> these efforts we may well have ended up with nearly all games

> irreversibly lost due to hardware failure of the systems that run them,

> and more worryingly, the corrosion of the media that the software

> resides on.

>

> For games that do survive their physical media by these efforts there

> may still be some doubt over their authenticity since in the vast

> majority of cases, this can only be reliably verified while the original

> is still available, and this verification should preferably be done

> around the time that the game is "digitally liberated". Since this is

> often a very complicated thing to do (particularly on magnetic media

> such as floppy disks), it is likely that most games are still in danger

> of being lost from a preservation perspective. Some types of computer

> storage media only last a few years even when kept in the most optimal

> environments, and so it becomes an increasing desperate situation. The

> most important fact is that regardless of the life of the media, they

> will all develop errors and cease to function eventually.

>

>

> This is the most pressing, but not the only problem. With many disparate

> projects attempting to preserve these titles, you are bound to get

> inefficiencies. For example:

>

> * Overlap - duplication often becomes wasted effort that could

> otherwise be targeted in other more productive directions.

> * Patchy use of standards - even though one way of doing something

> may be generally regarded as better than another.

> * Fragmented inter-project communication - projects are bound to

> complement one another in various ways but may currently be unaware of

> each other and so are unable to mutually benefit.

>

> The extent of these problems in practice remains to be seen. However it

> is probably safer to assume they are widespread.

>

>

> I propose that we, as the computer and video game preservation community

> kick-start the preservation SIG (Special Interest Group) at the IGDA

> (International Games Developers Association, http://www.igda.org).

>

> Now before the screams of horror reach my ears let me state that I do

> **not** think that all these projects should become members of an

> umbrella organisation whose purpose is to tell them what to do, and lay

> down just enough bureaucracy that nobody gets any work done.

>

> This most certainly wouldn't work.

>

> What would be helpful is to make the SIG some sort of preservation hub.

> This will hopefully become a place where:

>

> * Various individuals, projects and organisations can connect (via

> the mailing list, forums, etc) and coordinate their efforts.

> * People can find out about preservation-related news around the world.

> * New people to preservation can learn about it, what projects are

> doing, and most importantly, how they can get involved.

> * It can be used to help track the progress of the various efforts.

> * It can provide hints to projects on where best to focus their

> efforts to maximise benefit as well as help reduce duplication of effort.

> * Discussions can take place on the recommended (though not enforced)

> way of doing things. This means using standards by general consensus,

> but hopefully with preference to what is commonly used elsewhere in

> similar industries such as digital libraries and archives.

> * Younger projects can tap the experience and technology of more

> established ones.

> * Projects can coordinate buying power for large quantities of games

> that occasionally appear on auction sites. Preservation on a global

> scale may also mean access to auctions that would otherwise be

> impossible due to geographical location.

> * The SIG, as part of the IGDA, has a direct connection with the game

> industry. This may ease access/interaction between the industry and the

> various projects, certainly more so than by each project alone.

>

> Having such an entity will hopefully encourage pear-review of project

> technology and preservation procedures. This is vitally important to

> help prevent "bad" preservation. This is where a game is thought to be

> "safe" but is later found (for example) to crash in the later levels or

> in certain situations because the storage medium has been corrupted or

> altered prior to its "preservation". This is serious problem if it is

> not discovered until a time when no more working versions of the game

> exist. With such peer review, more advanced projects can help provide

> pointers on how this can be avoided.

>

> Quality in preservation is paramount. Trying to digitally preserve

> faulty games is not only pointless; it is also dangerous because it

> gives people a false sense of security over those items. With a central

> resource of knowledge and expertise, we have a fantastic opportunity to

> group together advanced projects that know how to guard against such

> eventualities along with other projects who can come to learn about how

> to do the same.

>

>

> So the question now is, exactly what and who should make up this global

> preservation effort?

>

> Firstly, and most importantly we should say that anyone and everyone

> will be welcome to participate and discuss game preservation. The

> intention is that it be open to all. There should also be a list of

> ratified projects which make up the core of the entity, which can be

> listed on the website.

>

> The kind of organisations, projects and individuals that would be good

> to attract are those that:

>

> * Collect, catalogue and archive physical computer and video game

> hardware and software. This may include individuals with large

> collections all the way to full-blown computer and video game museums.

> * Collect, digitise and archive computer and video games from the

> games original storage media.

> * Collect and digitise the physical items that come with video and

> computer games such as scanning of promotional material, packaging,

> manual, etc.

> * Collect metadata on computer and video games. An example project

> might be a web-based game information databases.

> * Specialise in locating copyright owners with a view to allow games

> and perhaps source code to be archived, or even better publically

> redistributable (this in no way means relinquishing copyright). This

> gives lots of free marketing to the copyright owner, and makes it far

> easier to preserve the item(s) in question.

> * Create expert groups who can work with games companies to help put

> preservation plans in place to protect their older, current and future

> games from exactly the situation we have now in that most games are

> still at risk.

> * Specialise in the field of metadata standards for digital

> artefacts. Adhering to standards commonly used by libraries will make it

> far easier to integrate collections later.

> * Specialise in copyright law of various countries. Getting proper

> legal advice about what exactly we can and cannot do is paramount.

>

>

> The aim is to get the above types of projects and individuals to work

> together to build an efficient and cooperative worldwide effort to

> preserve interactive works. Computer and video games are art, and being

> mankind's first interactive entertainment media they deserve to be

> properly preserved so we don't lose them forever. It is an immense task,

> but working together, with enough exposure, we can get this thing done.

>

> If you fit into any of the above categories please join with us to move

> this official IGDA Special Interest Group forward. We can then take this

> to the broader public and start discussing the issues as well as

> actually getting down and doing the work.

>

> For more information, and to get your project or organisation added to

> the list of proposed interested parties, please email us at

> preservation_sig at igda.org.

>

> Any feed back on or off list is greatfully received.

>

> --

> Kieron Wilkinson

> Preservation SIG

> International Game Developers Association

> _______________________________________________

> game_preservation mailing list

> game_preservation at igda.org

> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>

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