[game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study Research!

[Andrew Armstrong]

Thanks for the information, should be useful - if not as a direct 
statement in the case study section, in the "current problems" section 
we have.

Andrew

István Fábián wrote:

> Some of those have been recovered, but most are indeed MIA and known 

> to exist.

> As for the number of Amiga titles over 5000 commercial releases, some 

> with very limited (few hundred units) prints.

>  

> Istvan

>  

>

>     ----- Original Message -----

>     *From:* Andrew Armstrong <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>

>     *To:* IGDA Game Preservation SIG <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>     *Sent:* Friday, November 28, 2008 1:55 PM

>     *Subject:* Re: [game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study Research!

>

>     Wow, quite a list, although I'm not sure how many total Amiga

>     games exist that's a fair few which are MIA.

>

>     Andrew

>

>     István Fábián wrote:

>>     For the Amiga platform:

>>     http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?N_rarity=5

>>      

>>     Cheers,

>>     Istvan

>>

>>         ----- Original Message -----

>>         *From:* Andrew Armstrong <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>

>>         *To:* IGDA Game Preservation SIG

>>         <mailto:game_preservation at igda.org>

>>         *Sent:* Friday, November 28, 2008 1:26 PM

>>         *Subject:* Re: [game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study

>>         Research!

>>

>>         Neat thoughts, there's a lot of areas for this section to go

>>         actually and one is the entire loss of games, especially

>>         unreleased ones. I bet a lot of developers must take in their

>>         stride cancellations - there's a high percent which are

>>         cancelled at various stages, the worst being close to going

>>         gold. Anyone know any more examples of them?

>>

>>         Hmm, I'm thinking it might be better to make a fictional

>>         account up for the case study. I'm not sure what'll work best

>>         myself, but lost games are certainly one major thing.

>>

>>         Andrew

>>

>>         Stuart Feldhamer wrote:

>>>

>>>         To me the greatest loss is when a game itself becomes lost.

>>>         There have been several cases in the past where a title was

>>>         thought not to exist or not to have been released despite

>>>         the presence of ads for the title, until a copy was

>>>         eventually found. I believe the infamous Ultima: Escape from

>>>         Mt. Drash fits into that category. Well what if the game had

>>>         never been found and verified? Only a few copies are known

>>>         to exist. What if there are titles that we think don't exist

>>>         but really do and have been lost?

>>>

>>>         Even if we are 99.9% sure that a game hasn't been officially

>>>         released, does that mean it shouldn't be preserved? There

>>>         are some games that although they were never released (to

>>>         the best of our collective knowledge), may have been

>>>         complete or very close to complete and were just killed at

>>>         the end for financial reasons. One example that came up in

>>>         discussion not that long ago was Ultima 8: The Lost Vale

>>>         expansion, for which a box prototype turned up. The code may

>>>         turn up at some point  - it may even be among the mass of

>>>         materials that the Wing Commander fans got from EA from the

>>>         old Origin collection. But EA didn't really care too much

>>>         about preserving that stuff, and so for now, the code is

>>>         lost.  Another game that was killed close to the finish line

>>>         and which I personally mourned was Star Trek: The Secret of

>>>         Vulcan Fury. DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) even recorded voice

>>>         acting for that one before he died and it presumably has

>>>         been thrown in the garbage.

>>>

>>>         I'm not sure how this group feels about unreleased games,

>>>         but I would think that developers in particular would want

>>>         to preserve them. I was reading something on Gamasutra the

>>>         other day where a developer was saying that he's been in the

>>>         industry for 10 years (or something like that) and only had

>>>         2 released titles, because the other 3 were cancelled after

>>>         the team had put in a lot of work. Should that work be

>>>         preserved, if it was at the point where the game was

>>>         playable and viable? Does the decision of a marketing exec

>>>         ultimately define whether or not we want to preserve a

>>>         title? I realize there are intellectual property laws in

>>>         play here, but ultimately we have these "guerilla

>>>         preservationists" who will do what is needed despite the

>>>         law, such as finding an old Atari 2600 game prototype on

>>>         cartridge and then dumping it onto the net so it can be

>>>         preserved.

>>>

>>>         Anyway, it's late and I think I rambled a bit, but I hope I

>>>         got some coherent thought across. Happy Thanksgiving. : )

>>>

>>>         Stuart

>>>

>>>         *From:* game_preservation-bounces at igda.org

>>>         [mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] *On Behalf Of

>>>         *Andrew Armstrong

>>>         *Sent:* Friday, November 21, 2008 7:48 PM

>>>         *To:* IGDA Game Preservation SIG

>>>         *Subject:* [game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study Research!

>>>

>>>         Hey all you people with knowledge about videogame history.

>>>         There's one part of the white paper we could do with major

>>>         SIG work on as a whole - we've decided the majority of the

>>>         paper content, which you can check out here (comment on it

>>>         if you like):

>>>

>>>         http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_Paper/Before_It%27s_Too_Late:_A_Digital_Game_Preservation_White_Paper

>>>

>>>         The main part that we need information on is the Case Study:

>>>         "What If We Do Nothing?"

>>>

>>>         This requires either a savvy fictional account of the future

>>>         where we don't preserve much of anything, or some good

>>>         examples of what we have already lost (a nice twist, we

>>>         reveal this has already happened.../dun dun dun!/).

>>>

>>>         There are a few examples brought up

>>>         <http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_paper_brainstorm/Compelling_Examples#Examples_of_Historical_Works_lost_in_Videogames>

>>>         before, but nothing much detailed for a real-life example.

>>>         This means we might have to come up with a fictional account

>>>         anyway, or a hybrid.

>>>

>>>         So: ideas welcome! What's the worst story you can think of,

>>>         or the worst actual thing that's been lost so far!

>>>

>>>         It's aimed at developers remember - not

>>>         historians/preservationists/archivists themselves (we

>>>         already know how important it all is) - so a relevant

>>>         example for developers (crediting of their works? people

>>>         unable to play their games soon in the future? simply them

>>>         dropping off the face of the earth in historical terms?)

>>>         would be great.

>>>

>>>         Thanks if anyone can help on this!

>>>

>>>         Andrew

>>>

>>>         PS: we still want logo ideas from an earlier thread, surely

>>>         someone must have some good ideas for them too ;) there's

>>>         enough of you listening to these emails I hope!

>>>

>>>         ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>>

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