[game_preservation] Kotaku: Videogame History Museum Kickstarter short on funds

[Pugh, Richard]

We've been looking into various means of preserving our game collection at the 1 and 0 level, but as with many other places, cost -  materials, time and labor - prevent us from doing anything major at this time.

Most of the materials housed at NAVCC are in climate-controlled storage vaults.  The bulk of our materials are film and recorded sound, including highly volatile nitrate.  It gets pretty cold back there.  Our game collection is in one of these climate-controlled areas.  Disks can be preserved in such conditions, but it could be argued that doing so simply postpones the inevitable.

I prefer to think of it as buying some time.  :)

Retaining the outdated computer hardware for things like 5.25" floppy drives isn't something we can do with any consistency.  Our IT people are spread thin as it is.  We have been looking into using disc "images" in conjunction with emulation software to keep the old games as least partially useable.  We haven't been able to do much research into this option, but initial findings were very encouraging.

Still, I don't think there is an easy answer for this one.  The magnetic film on floppy disks deteriorates over time, and nothing can stop that.  The process can be slowed down by using cold storage (q.v.), but it can't be stopped.

And that is a puzzlement.


Richard J. Pugh
Motion Picture, Broadcast, & Recorded Sound Division
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Library of Congress
(202) 707-6636 / rpugh at loc.gov
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