[game_preservation] Japanese Computer Game Preservation

[Andrew Armstrong]

Sounds like a good idea checking what the status is. I've pretty much no 
idea myself, same with China or Korea and other countries around that 
region.

Andrew

On 21/10/2010 15:18, Devin Monnens wrote:

> Recently, Hardcore Gaming 101 ran an article 

> <http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/JPNcomputers/Japanesecomputers.htm>on Japanese 

> computer systems such as the NEC. The article is in English and gives 

> a detailed look at the content from an American perspective. This made 

> me realize: most of these games were produced on floppy disks, which 

> means that the contents of the disks are extremely volatile and will 

> completely decay within the next two decades (even sooner for the 

> earliest software).

>

> There is a large project in Europe, the Software Preservation Society 

> <http://www.softpres.org/>, which has securely archived over 3600 

> titles from Europe and the United States across a variety of magnetic 

> disk-based platforms. SPS developed special hardware, Kryoflux 

> <http://www.kryoflu/>, that can detect the integrity and authenticity 

> of the data on certain formats of floppy disk - particularly whether 

> the disk has been written to in order to create an archival-quality 

> backup. I am curious if the SPS has any plans to expand their 

> preservation work to include Japanese (and Asian) computers, as this 

> seems to be an area that is in serious need of focus.

>

> I have also been conducting research into computer games produced 

> prior to 1973 - the pre-commercial era of the US. Most of the software 

> from this era has been lost or requires an incredible amount of 

> digital archaeology in order to get running again. Actually, right now 

> I am most interested in the hobbyist scene from countries outside the 

> US, particularly mainframe computing. If anyone knows about European 

> and Japanese computer games made in BASIC, that in itself would be 

> interesting.

>

> The Japanese hobbyist era (1985 and earlier) seems to have similar 

> problems of cataloging. However, there are several magazines such as 

> /Technopolis /that contain documentation of many of these games and 

> underground groups such as theTokugawa Forums 

> <http://fullmotionvideo.free.fr/> that have backed up some titles.

>

> Obviously, we would want a legal solution to this problem, so I wanted 

> to get a sense of the state of research into and preservation of early 

> Japanese computer software (particularly those on floppy disks and 

> magnetic tape, but also going back to mainframe computing and 

> BASIC/hobbyist computers). For this reason, I have forwarded a copy of 

> this e-mail to our colleagues in Japan, including Dr. Akinori Nakamura 

> from Ritsumeikan University, Dr. Naohiro Shichijo from the University 

> of Tokyo, Yoichiro Miyake of From Software who is conducting research 

> on independent games development in Japan, and Kiyoshi Shin from IGDA 

> Japan (sorry for the long English e-mail!). I hope we might be able to 

> shed more light on computer game research and preservation in Japan.

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

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

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

>

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