[game_preservation] Digital Press kickstarting a videogame history museum

[Jim Leonard]

On 7/8/2011 12:02 AM, Devin Monnens wrote:

> The heart of the matter is that the data stored in digital media is

> cultural and informative and therefore should be preserved - I don't

> think this could be argued against. Whether that media is preserved by a

> museum, archive, or library to me has little importance - if a museum

> contains a historical science book, isn't the information contained

> within that book as important as the structural integrity of the book?


Yes, but this doesn't completely apply to something like 
copy-protection.  Using personal computer games as an example, many 
copy-protection schemes are part of the digital work -- they were 
written by the same author(s) and are integrated into the work -- but 
there is a nearly universal attitude amongst digital archivists that the 
copy-protection is just a cumbersome wrapper to be discarded.  This 
upsets me, because there is definitely historical relevance in 
protection schemes.

For example, if you grab an archive of Dunzhin for the IBM PC, you can 
play the game, disassemble it, document it, and so on.  But what you 
have is an archive with parts of the program removed or changed from the 
original (the protection).  Would it be interesting to learn that the 
copy-protection for Dunzhin was not only highly unconventional and 
sophisticated for its time (it directly bit-banged the disk controller, 
whereas most PC games in 1982 used BIOS routines), which illustrates the 
skill and thought processes of Randall Don Masteller, who ported the 
game to PC?  And that, despite running on an 8088/8086 processor, had to 
operate within the confines of Z80 assembly because the game itself was 
running in a quasi-Z80 emulator?  I think that's *highly* interesting 
and relevant.

That's just one example.  Paraphrasing badly, I would argue that the 
medium is definitely part of the message, so I worry when people start 
to say that whether the original diskette is still functional isn't a 
concern.  If the box is historically relevant -- as any owner of a 
Starcross saucer will certainly argue -- then the rest of the 
distribution surely must be.


> Two years ago, I went to the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum in Kyoto.

> Umekoji maintains several steam engines in working order. The engines

> are run daily and are well-maintained, though there are some engines

> that are not in working order. Having engines running as demonstration

> models helps visitors understand the power of steam locomotives and get

> a taste of what the experience of riding in one was like. This would

> simply not be possible if the machines were static. There is a certain

> power to having hardware that is operational because it provides

> cultural context.


This is an excellent comparison, and a good complement to what I was 
trying to convey in my previous paragraphs.


> With the content of digital media as both a vehicle of culture and its

> operation a cultural context, and the same ideas as applicable to other

> museum objects as well, the argument for museums concerning themselves

> with functionality becomes stronger and remains relevant.


Well said.
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)            http://www.oldskool.org/
Check out some trippy MindCandy at        http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars:  http://trixter.oldskool.org/