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

[Frank Cifaldi]

Wow, this is great. Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen this.

Here's the first post from my "20 years ago" project, a gallery of
photographs from Winter CES 1990:

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9015752

The full gallery (linked near the end of that post) totals 82 photos sourced
from nine different magazines. This took a long time to put together, I'm
not looking forward to the next trade show...

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 8:39 PM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:


> 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

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>>>>> game_preservation at igda.org

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

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>> --

>>>>> 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

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>>> game_preservation mailing list

>>>>> game_preservation at igda.org

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

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>> _______________________________________________

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>>>>

>>>>

>>> _______________________________________________

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

>>>

>>

>>

>> _______________________________________________

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>> game_preservation at igda.org

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>>

>>

>

>

> --

> 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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