[game_preservation] Kickstarting the IGDA Preservation SIG

[Simon Carless]

Kieron Wilkinson 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?


Thanks and congratulations to Kieron for stepping in to this role - I'm 
hoping that he will be able to extend the SIG's activities far beyond my 
initial set-up! Unfortunately, since I run Game Developer magazine, 
Gamasutra, and the Independent Games Festival nowadays, plus continuing 
Internet Archive spare-time responsibilites, I'm just not well-equipped 
to run the SIG, so I'm happy that he's going to be officially in charge.

The key resources I see right now as it being important to unite:

- The Computer History Museum (Sellam Ismail is a full-time software 
curator there now!)
- Stanford University's game archives.
- CAPS Project
- the Berlin-based efforts!
- The pay services that are licensing classic games (particularly 
Turner's GameTap and Microsoft's Xbox 360 Live Arcade) - that's legal 
preservation in action, though done for profit based reasons!
- Others I've doubtless forgotten.

Regards,
Simon.