[game_preservation] Article about proper SNES emulation

[István Fábián]

Hi Devin,

Actually there are quite good resources available on the net, but it is still possible to find (commercial) titles not listed anywhere.
The Amiga community has a very good database in the form of HOL and similar efforts for the Atari ST are also available.
http://hol.abime.net/

The Legacy is also a valuable multi-platform resource:
http://www.thelegacy.de/

Ideally, we'd have a central database though, just like you described that collates such information for all platforms in a consistent manner and concentrates on the media itself, and how to identify it.

You can see the list of games preserved here, changing "All Platforms" will give you the number:
http://www.softpres.org/games

Unfortunately the database hasn't been update for a while, so about 100 Atari ST games are not listed.

If we are talking about percentage, for Amiga it should fairly high, maybe around 70% including some prototypes or otherwise extremely rare titles.
For Atari ST and others (currently Spectrum+3, Amstrad CPC, IBM PC) it's likely to be around 10% or less, although we do have a considerable backlog due to time being spent on the development of KryoFlux and related technologies.

We are working on a hardware solution that enables the correct (!) imaging of the commercial flippy disks used by many 8 bit computers, including systems like Commode 64, Atari 8 bit, Apple 8 bit, BBC and maybe others. 
There are details in the below thread on our forums describing the problem:
http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25
Please note, the problem is a non-issue for anything that does not require an exact image, i.e. anything non-commercial, as you can just flip the disk and image the other side - although admittedly the solution for dumping commercial disks makes dumping the flippy disks a straightforward single-pass process for non-commercial material as well.

Once the hardware is finalised for that, we'll add support into our analyser tools to preserve the affected platforms as IPF files, i.e. practically as gold masters.
There was not much point until a solution was available.

Yes, we are mostly in Europe... so 7 digits is in Euros.
Realistically, you'd find that emulation itself requires similar investments - even if you may enjoy the results for free.

Ideally, KryoFlux would enable anyone to make low level images of disks for most platforms already, and with the additional hardware for systems using (commercial) flippy disks as well.

As for the imaging itself, you should consider the following:
Like with anything that is "collectible", someone who has a disk is not necessarily willing to make an image of it - having said that, other people go to extreme lengths to get hold of disks for imaging.
We may also get some disks not available anywhere else, such as access to private collection of masters etc - in some cases the only way to ever find an authentic copy of already very rare titles that modify their own disks, such as Giana Sisters.
So it's not a simple matter of whether a device is available or not.

We are certainly willing to loan devices, or dump a collection on loan to us, it really depends on the specific circumstances.

Cheers,
István

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Devin Monnens 
  To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG 
  Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 3:14 PM
  Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Article about proper SNES emulation


  Istvan,


  Thank you for clearing that up. To this list, I would also add something else: making a catalogue of what is available for that platform, including version numbers and variations.


  Approximately what percentage of the different platforms have already been archived? I also know there is a group in Japan working on disk-based games lead by Joseph Redon.


     it takes a lot of time of processing the disks afterwards to check the authenticity and integrity of the content.
    Hoping that every disk image made is correct is just wishful thinking considering the age of the media and how common it is to find modified content.


  What is the minimum number of disks to have to verify for authenticity and integrity? Do you need at least two copies to make sure there were no errors? I didn't see any mention of this on the knowledgebase of your site.


    So far we've spent 7 digit amounts to preserve about 3600 titles and to develop the necessary technology - and about 10 years.
    It is however not something that we can really afford to do far longer...


  7 digits in Euros? That would be more than twice the amount in USD! Is Kryoflux helping to solve this problem by distributing the work to collectors and libraries? Have you run into any cases where someone has the game but doesn't have access to a Kryoflux device? If that's the case, it might be possible to purchase one and then mail it from place to place.


  -- 
  Devin Monnens
  www.deserthat.com

  The sleep of Reason produces monsters.



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