[game_preservation] Frank Cifaldi's preservation article on 1Up

[Devin Monnens]

20 years ago today, eh? Have you been here?

http://www.slightlydark.com/

<http://www.slightlydark.com/>They've been running a series of albums
release 20 years ago that day since last January.

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 7:51 PM, Frank Cifaldi <fcifaldi at gmail.com> wrote:


> Don't get me started on release dates. I'm starting a series for 1UP where

> I look back at what was happening 20 years ago every month, and game release

> dates (outside of the aforementioned Nintendo database) are extremely hard

> to come by. I've thought about contacting stores myself, I wonder if Toys R

> Us would be willing to provide that sort of information?

>

> Oh and thanks for the kind words on the article. Obviously it's only

> touching on one very specific aspect of game preservation, but I'd still

> argue it's the most important part to focus on right now due to a

> combination of being rare, volatile, and information-dense. Hopefully I got

> that point across in the text.

>

>

> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:

>

>> Cool, nice website, thanks for pointing it out :) that kind of information

>> (along with the dumps and so forth) as Frank has said needs mirroring.

>> Perhaps some nearby archive would be willing to help in that regard. Nice

>> work by Matt and Curt! :)

>>

>> Don't we just know companies don't have archives - but they also don't

>> have the working relationship to start archives or actually preserve any

>> material they have in the future. :( We should seek to change that whenever

>> possible, but it costs money of course...

>>

>> Release dates are basic information you'd hope they keep records of

>> (shipping accounts, store release dates, marketing posters would all have it

>> right?). I think we'd find more reliable information going to the shops and

>> stores and asking them sometimes, in fact it's something I'd not mind trying

>> on stores in the UK. I'm sure they keep release date information better then

>> manufacturers/producers of things do.

>>

>> Andrew

>>

>>

>> On 09/01/2010 22:05, Martin Goldberg wrote:

>>

>>> Well, I can say on the Atari related front there's a number of people

>>> making efforts to those route.  Matt Reichert is probably the most

>>> well known and active - http://atariprotos.com/.  He routinely dumps

>>> and archives protos, unreleased games, and such and is someone I'd

>>> consider an expert in those regards.

>>>

>>> There's also my partner Curt Vendel, who has the largest Atari related

>>> archive including mainframe backups, engineering schematics, internal

>>> documentation, protos, source code, artwork, etc.  In fact the current

>>> Atari has him on retainer for resources whenever they need it.  He

>>> just provided all the cabinet artwork and other related resources for

>>> the Atari games in Microsoft's just announced virtual game room.

>>>

>>> That brings to mind another issue with regards to preservation - when

>>> you're talking about older companies and brands, a lot of them simply

>>> don't have the proper archives or their own material either,

>>> regardless of 3rd party.

>>>

>>> A related historical example - I remember a recent research spat

>>> getting down the actual US release date of Super Mario Bros.  The

>>> current Nintendo (where almost nobody is left form the "old days" had

>>> it listed as 1985 and a US launch title.  This contradicted direct

>>> interviews with Minoru Arakawa, Howard Lincoln, and Howard Phillips

>>> were they stated it was not ready for the New York test market launch.

>>>  I worked my way through NOA (both through the PR dept. and tech.

>>> support) and nobody could give me an answer for the discrepancy other

>>> than "that's what's listed here in the databse".  Apparently they have

>>> a company wide database where they defer to for any historical

>>> information.

>>>

>>>

>>> Marty

>>>

>>> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 2:28 PM, Andrew Armstrong<andrew at aarmstrong.org>

>>>  wrote:

>>>

>>>

>>>> I think (and I don't want to second guess him, he's on this list I

>>>> think)

>>>> but it's the scope and size of the institution, and the rigor of

>>>> preserving

>>>> the materials, and the fact that almost no game company actively

>>>> preserves

>>>> anything they make with a 3rd party, whereas film places I bet have

>>>> agreements for providing a copy of their films when they are released

>>>> into

>>>> the archives properly, as well as the archives having copies of their

>>>> digital and non-digital film stocks as necessary.

>>>>

>>>> I also think the game archives are a lot smaller, just the way it is

>>>> really,

>>>> and without a large amount of money there's not much that could change

>>>> that.

>>>>

>>>> Andrew

>>>>

>>>> On 09/01/2010 20:09, Devin Monnens wrote:

>>>>

>>>> Well here's a question then: what exactly do we need to get to the level

>>>> of

>>>> a UCLA or ASIFA preservation and archive group? Stanford and UT Austin

>>>> are

>>>> getting there (as is the LoC), but what types of resources and

>>>> recognition

>>>> do we need? I also suppose, how does this compare with film archival

>>>> after

>>>> the first 30-40 of the medium (which is about where we're at in terms of

>>>> commercial games).

>>>> I mean, you look at commercial films (1890 is a good benchmark) and 25

>>>> years

>>>> into that there was Birth of a Nation (1914) and then you compare that

>>>> with

>>>> games, we have Super Mario 64 (1996) (and in terms of narrative,

>>>> say...Planescape and MGS? And hey, at least none of these are viewed as

>>>> racist today!). You know, I think that's a pretty good comparison, but I

>>>> think we could do a little better for making games that explore history

>>>> and

>>>> culture (kind of hard since games are made to entertain, part of the

>>>> reason

>>>> why I say Shigeru Miyamoto is more the Buster Keaton of videogames

>>>> rather

>>>> than the Spielberg).

>>>>

>>>> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Andrew Armstrong<andrew at aarmstrong.org

>>>> >

>>>> wrote:

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>> "As much as I wish this weren't true, widely distributing an unreleased

>>>>> game in pirated form over the Internet is the only method of

>>>>> preservation

>>>>> that I trust, at least for now. There is no equivalent of, say, a UCLA

>>>>> Film

>>>>> &  Television Archive or an ASIFA-Hollywood for videogames. Certainly

>>>>> we have

>>>>> the beginnings of equivalent institutions -- the archives at Stanford

>>>>> and UT

>>>>> Austin for example are off to tremendous starts -- but the resources

>>>>> and

>>>>> industry recognition just aren't there yet, at least to my

>>>>> satisfaction."

>>>>>

>>>>> A shame this is basically true still - there just isn't the resources

>>>>> around, and the standards and concentrated effort just sadly isn't

>>>>> present,

>>>>> at least as far as I know! (if it is present but hidden, that's just as

>>>>> bad!)

>>>>>

>>>>> Interesting reasons laid down to justify it, although I don't think

>>>>> anyone

>>>>> here would need convincing. :)

>>>>>

>>>>> Andrew

>>>>>

>>>>> On 09/01/2010 16:45, Devin Monnens wrote:

>>>>>

>>>>> Nobody's reported on this here, but there's an article on backing up

>>>>> beta

>>>>> and unreleased games.

>>>>> http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3177520

>>>>>

>>>>> --

>>>>> Devin Monnens

>>>>> www.deserthat.com

>>>>>

>>>>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>>>>

>>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>>>> game_preservation at igda.org

>>>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>> _______________________________________________

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>>>>> game_preservation at igda.org

>>>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> Devin Monnens

>>>> www.deserthat.com

>>>>

>>>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>>>

>>>> _______________________________________________

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>>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

>>>>

>>>>

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>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

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>>>

>>>

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>>

>

>

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>



-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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