[game_preservation] [Monthly SIG Roundup] May 2009

[Andrew Armstrong]

In the previous month we're trying to restart some of the projects the 
SIG wants to run. Hopefully anyone who is interested can get involved!


      Preservation SIG April 2009 Work

The projects listed on our front wiki page 
<http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG> have been put forward 
on the mailing list to get volunteers and interested people involved. 
Sadly, if there is no action on some fronts the projects will 
indefinitely lie dormant. If you know of anyone outside the SIG who is 
interested in videogame preservation and can lend a hand, please invite 
them!

The Memorials project <http://www.igda.org/wiki/Memorials> has had a few 
updates, both to the layout and to the people added to our records. We 
are looking for biography writers, and also any missing entries, so 
please email memorials -at- igda -dot- org to suggest anything.

Devin Monnens has also started setting up Facebook and LinkedIn 
pages/groups, we'll advertise the links once they're up and running :)


      Future Work for May 2009

Apart from being late doing the roundup (with a mixture of a server 
issue for a week at the start of May and me being busy), so actually 
this is mid-may, there are still things to finish. Among them I intend 
to finally get the last museum I actively know collecting a major amount 
of videogame material which is situated in Japan, and then hope to 
publish the list and start on gathering more detailed information about 
the museums soon.

The projects also need some active work put into them, but this is up to 
the individual project leads. I can help organise things, so give me a 
shout if you're too busy to get specifically started or need some help.

Any unassigned projects also need leads, and all the projects do need 
more help (since no project has more then one person working on it!). 
Please see the main page for basic information and the mailing list 
discussions below:

    * Collectors Information
      <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001154.html>

    * Emulator Information
      <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001155.html>

    * Legal Issues/Information
      <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001156.html>

    * SIG Collaboration
      <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001157.html>

    * Preservation Standards
      <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001158.html>

    * Videogame Museums, Archives, Displays and Collections
      (Information)
      <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001159.html>



      Mailing List Discussions

If you've not joined our mailing list 
<http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation>, please do 
so. We've never tried using our forums it seems :) we stick to 
old-fangled email. This will eventually change when the IGDA site 
changes over - although those wanting email can still get it.

April 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/thread.html> 
had discussions on online DRM 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001052.html>, 
Soviet Game Museum 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001125.html>, 
Geocities going under 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001116.html>, 
TV emulation 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001129.html> 
and a massive UK Ebay auction 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001136.html>. 


SIG stuff - GDC roundtable notes 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001067.html>, 
Bibliography Project 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001068.html>, 
Improving the News area 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001082.html>, 
Facebook / LinkedIn pages 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001102.html>, 
and finally a discussion on Our Membership 
<http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-April/001104.html> 
- importantly on who we want to join up in the future.


      Preservation SIG Blog Updates / Links

/Have I missed anything this month? Then email it in to 
preservation_news @ igda.org !/

With me working on the Bibliography project, intended to replace the 
"Linkblog" of old, and the fact this means that there can be 
automatically generated, cross-referenced and accurately sourced 
articles and stories means the current blog will only post 
preservation-related news.

I have, however, fallen behind on this, meaning not much added this 
month, including internal SIG news. I have no idea what the readership 
of the blog is like, but I want to improve this over the coming months - 
by posting SIG project news, and news about emulation, preservation 
projects and museums, and so forth. I'm going to be visiting the Urbis 
in Manchester tonight for the opening of a videogame history and play 
exhibit, which is one of the types of article I hope to link from the blog.

Once the bibliography is up, I'll code up some RSS feed for it, but also 
make a function to be able to linkdump a ton of interesting entries 
people enter that are flagged up as good to publish (being relatively new).

    * Saved Games: Preserving the New TV
      <http://www.igda.org/preservation/archives/2009/04/article_saved_g.html>

    * Frank Herman, Kentaro Haneda
      <http://www.igda.org/preservation/archives/2009/04/memorials_frank.html>



      Final Thoughts

With so many recent videogame companies closing their door, it appears 
history and game preservation isn't really near anyones minds at the 
moment. It's a tad shameful that the only bits of of 3dRealms own 
material is being released by people looking for new jobs rather then by 
the company itself (or letting it be preserved!) - showing they had been 
working, not just doing nothing on the infamously long Duke Nukem 
Forever project. This is one of the best reasons to preserve unfinished 
and incomplete projects, and document the closing of companies in more 
detail. Maybe in the future we'll be able to provide more direct 
assistance in doing this across the world!

Andrew Armstrong

IGDA Game Preservation SIG Site/Blog editor

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