[game_preservation] Kotaku: Videogame History MuseumKickstarter short on funds

[István Fábián]

Sounds like a very good reason to open those boxes - and once they are open 
the contents might as well be imaged :)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Henry Lowood
To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Kotaku: Videogame History MuseumKickstarter 
short on funds


Interestingly, there is apparently some evidence (I've been told this) that 
leaving magnetic media in a plastic-sealed (shrinkwrap) container might 
accelerate the rate of data loss.  I was told this by conservation 
librarians, and the main reason appears to be that outgasing of materials 
inside the box is not vented through the shrinkwrap.  Also, in some cases, 
e.g., the packaging of audiocassettes in a plastic baggie, there is 
apparently a possibility of some static effects that might affect the 
magnetic media.  Again, so I've been told ...  I'm a little skeptical about 
the static issue, but the outgasing makes sense to me; that's an issue with 
other media as well, and indeed with any plastic materials.

Henry

On 8/23/2011 6:18 AM, Devin Monnens wrote:
No, you're absolutely right, and this was something that came up in the 
conversation awhile back (how a lot of museums don't feel operability is 
necessary). The trouble with collectors is the value that is placed on the 
object is dictated by its condition, and that often includes the object 
being factory sealed. Whether or not that factory-sealed object will still 
have worth another 10 years from now when the contents become inoperable 
doesn't seem to be part of the equation. As a researcher, I find the 
contents of the work to be more valuable than the condition of the object, 
but I am also a collector, so I have a significant number of factory sealed 
objects (nothing that's one-of-a-kind, however, unless Softpres wants a 
sealed copy of Barney Bear Goes to Space, which I think has already been 
preserved). Digital Press are collectors. I would be interested in knowing 
what their philosophy is.


On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 6:08 AM, Christian Bartsch <cb at softpres.org> wrote:

I don't know if I should say something because everyone will call my opinion 
biased... But what sense does it make to put game boxes on the shelves when 
the content (bits & bytes) is rotting away? I actually have seen so many 
"museums" all over the world (mainly judging by websites), but only very few 
actually care about the contents of their assets. Some of them actually look 
like huge collections that grew beyond something that can be handled 
privately, but I often miss the professional approach to preserve what was 
meant to be seen by the user (=the program).


We have developed preservation technology for about a decade now and I am 
really curious how the actual contents are being processed and analysed. I 
am not trying to upset anyone here, but if there's another tech available 
for e.g. floppy disk preservation, I'd really like to see and learn from it.


This is not meant to undermine efforts or discourage anyone. But I wonder if 
the majority actually knows how digital preservation works. Again, apologies 
for being so direct...


--
Christian Bartsch
The Software Preservation Society
http://www.softpres.org


On 22 Aug 2011, at 21:50, Martin Goldberg wrote:


I'm just going by the link Alan posted.  Not the sort of content
quality I would expect from a place championing preservation.


On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 2:48 PM, Alex Handy <alex at themade.org> wrote:

I think that's a different museum. There's rather a lot here in the SF

Bay Area these days. There's the MADE (my group), the Digital Games

Museum, founded by Judith formerly of the Computer History Museum, and

now there's the DigitPress guys, who are on Kickstarter right now.



Just to keep everyone clear on who's who.




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-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.



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-- 
Henry Lowood
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
  Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood




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