[game_preservation] [Monthly SIG Roundup] November 2009

[Andrew Armstrong]

The archive collection could cover this if anyone wanted to help add to 
it. I however do not know of any real organised repository - filefront, 
fileshack covers some games. Some blogs have smaller ones uploaded. Most 
however just link to where they are downloaded from. I've listed a few 
of the repositories on the wiki resources page.

Mods are another area - although slightly better covered by Moddb and 
fansites, some I've tried to find downloads for and only luckily found 
the 43rd mirror linked to randomly to some site which might or might not 
have the file later :)

I also have in mind to get some kind of distributed mirrored cross-site 
University/museum hosted file space - which Dan Pinchbeck was interested 
in too - which would certainly aim at hosting files like these (more so 
because they are legally allowed to be on such servers). This is a bit 
of a way down the line though :)

I was thinking, with games, mods and also the additional digital media, 
if we did get some good hard drive space (backed up, hopefully, and 
mirrored across multiple sites) it'd be worth trying to do this a lot 
more if some enthusiast collectors or fans could help. Most have a lot 
of downloaded material which isn't available online, and is historically 
important. Would take some organising though :)

Andrew

Devin Monnens wrote:

> Good idea, Jan. I would be very interested in such an archive myself. 

> I know 1up lists the top 100 free indie games of the year, but that's 

> just for one year.

>

> Would this also include consoles and different platforms? (There are 

> free games on Steam as well as on XBLA and PSN).

>

> -Devin

>

> On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 4:57 AM, Jan Baart <jan_baart at yahoo.de 

> <mailto:jan_baart at yahoo.de>> wrote:

>

>     Speaking of free games, is there any kind of archive for the more

>     recent Indie/Freeware games out there? I know I struggled to find

>     certain titles online after reading about them way too late so the

>     likely answer seems no. Wouldn't be too surprising considering the

>     sheer amount of such games, not to mention all the different

>     versions of the same game. Still, I'd be a huge loss.

>

>     , Jan

>

>

>     Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>

>         Awesome Bill, didn't know about that site. I've added it to

>         the resources section and as a link in the project page for that.

>

>         Sometime in the future (farrrr fuuutrreee, when I have magical

>         unlimitteddd tiimmeee :) ) I planned on getting an Archive.org

>         collection for free games, as a pure repository. I'll

>         certainly keep your project and site in mind when it comes to

>         adding to this (but if you were interested, could work on it

>         sooner rather then later I guess, if you want some download

>         mirrors and a good backed up place for the files you do put up

>         ;) all it mainly needs is the insane amount of time it takes

>         to upload files).

>

>         Thanks for informing us!

>

>         Andrew

>

>         swizzle at dosmuseum.com <mailto:swizzle at dosmuseum.com> wrote:

>

>             Andrew,

>

>             Looking through the website I found the Game Preservation

>             SIG/Projects page, and would like to request my website be

>             included under Playing Videogames Projects: Freeware, Open

>             Games, Legal Digital Copies of Games

>

>             My website is DOS Museum (http://www.dosmuseum.com).  I

>             host primarily freeware, shareware, and playable demos of

>             DOS games.  The goal of the website is to track down

>             copyright holders and get as many full versions as

>             possible released as freeware.  I've been very successful

>             when I can track down a copyright holder (and they are not

>             a large company of course).

>

>             Thanks!

>             Bill

>

>             Quoting Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org

>             <mailto:andrew at aarmstrong.org>>:

>

>                 Halloween, and for those int he UK, Bonfire night!

>                 Well, going a bit

>                 off topic already...anyway, we have had the new IGDA

>                 website launch,

>                 but not honestly much else I'm afraid!

>

>

>                     Preservation SIG October 2009 Work

>

>                 There hasn't been much work this month. The IGDA

>                 website however has

>                 been revamped - well, replaced entirely in fact. There

>                 is an important

>                 thing the SIG might be able to do that is preserve the

>                 old site, as it

>                 can be, externally to the IGDA's own servers. I'm

>                 going to track down

>                 this properly this month.

>

>                 The new preservation SIG location is the same url as

>                 before:

>                 http://www.igda.org/preservation - and the wiki

>                 remains present (old

>                 links will redirect to it's new subdomain location).

>

>                 Join the SIG there - not for much to do, since we

>                 mainly post what

>                 little we do on the mailing list, but it will be the

>                 new location for

>                 monthly roundups and news. I've looked and couldn't

>                 find an RSS feed,

>                 which will be one of the things I've got to ask about.

>

>                 If you are interested in helping the SIG work you can

>                 handily volunteer

>                 for some projects

>                 <http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG>, or

>                 create your own if something is missing!

>

>

>                     Future Work for November 2009

>

>                 It's mid-November. It's nearly a new year in fact. We

>                 need to perhaps

>                 think about properly rounding up the projects, putting

>                 all of the ones

>                 which are basically dead to the depths of idea-realm,

>                 and knowing if

>                 anyone wants to actually work on anything. I'm happy

>                 with things just

>                 being a discussion group, but if people do sign up for

>                 projects we

>                 might need to think about having them report it

>                 monthly, me included! :)

>

>

>                     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 has

>                 some replacement for it, which won't be anytime soon.

>

>                 September

>                 <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-October/thread.html>

>

>                 had

>                 [hhttp://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-October/001433.html

>                 <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-October/001433.html>

>

>                 me ranting about glossaries mainly], redump mentioned

>                 which we didn't

>                 discuss before

>                 <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-October/001446.html>,

>                 and finally the white paper was briefly blogged by

>                 someone at Wired

>                 <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/game_preservation/2009-October/001457.html>.

>                 I know it's a bit after the start of November but I'll

>                 get to those posts in next months  roundup

>                 :)

>

>

>                     Preservation SIG Blog Updates / Links

>

>                 /Have I missed anything this month? Then email it in to

>                 preservation_news @ igda.org <http://igda.org> !/

>

>                   * /Site changeover - nothing to post./

>

>

>                     Final Thoughts

>

>                 We'll be using the wiki still to post pages - the new

>                 site is a bit

>                 anti-posting-pages, but have a look around what's up

>                 with the changes

>                 and make sure to report any bugs sooner rather then

>                 later :)

>

>                 Andrew Armstrong

>

>                 IGDA Game Preservation SIG Site/Blog editor

>

>

>

>         _______________________________________________

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>

>

>     _______________________________________________

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>

>

>

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

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

>

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>   

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