[game_preservation] Recreating game development environments

[Vowell, Zachary W]

I was recently approached by a game programmer who was interested in
recreating game development environments used by game developers in the 80s
and 90s, etc.  Or as he called them, "asset creation environments."

Has this been something that the SIG has considered and discussed?  If not,
I thought it might be of interest-- I for one hadn't previously considered
it as something to pursue, only because it hadn't occurred to me.  But it
seems like something that would be extremely valuable to historians and
other researchers.

The real trick here seems to tracking down the programmers who still have
the software/tools code, which is often written in-house for one company, or
even one game.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas about this, I'd love to hear them.  Also, I
thought this might be a type of videogame-related archival material to add
to the ongoing white paper discussions.


Best,


--
Zach Vowell
Archivist, UT Videogame Archive
Center for American History
512.495.4405
http://www.utvideogamearchive.org