[game_preservation] Selecting and preserving video games, both text and context

[István Fábián]

Hi Henry,

As someone who has worked in the industry for a very long time I can answer the question about graphics.
Yes, it used to be everyday practice to verify the graphics on the most likely TV/display types, even though (and especially when!) the graphics artists often used high-end monitors. At one company we used a tool that directly downloaded the graphic assets into the target console, which was connected to a TV, so the artist could instantly verify and see the difference between the image on their monitor vs. the visual appearance on a TV that was expected to be used by the player and change the graphics so it would look better on a TV.
With the new HDTV era quite often SDTV and HDTV output are both checked (including rendering in all possible HDTV resolutions), and displaying vital visual information that is say unreadable on SDTV or displaying information in the TV safe zone can be considered a QA failure.

Cheers,
István
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jan Baart 
  To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG 
  Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 3:37 PM
  Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Selecting and preserving video games, both text and context


  Hello Henry,

  can I quickly add a few thoughts that crossed my mind reading your request? I'm just a student and this isn't really what you were looking for, but there you go ;)

  I find the statement that both are integral to preservation far too simplified. I'll readily agree that the context is an important aspect that one has to take into consideration. But I'd differentiate between certain context aspects to analyse their importance. Here's a few questions that sprung to mind when faced with your request.

  - is is the actual console/computer hardware that is integral to preservation or is it enough to properly replicate the logic of said hardware?
  - is it really integral to preservation to preserve a specific controller if I could just use a modern one of the same type? E.g. do I need a real SNES pad or will any USB pad offering the at least the same amount of digital buttons, a d-pad and should buttons suffice?
  - can I assume that a sprite designer optimised his work for CRT screens or did he possibly just design it to look as good as possible on paper (or in his app) and not care about the display used. If both is possible, what use is there to prefer a CRT over whatever more modern technology is available (similar topic: aspect ratio optimization with CGA/EGA games)
  - is the context for a certain game a technical necessity (CRT for light gun games) or "just" an asthetic preference, and do we need to distinguish between this?
  - how integral is 100% accurate visual and audial preservation anyways? Do slight inaccuracies really hinder our appreciation and analysis of historic works? Especially considering systems that had no defined standard anyways. Different Genesis models used different sound chips resulting in better or worse sound. Is preserving one or the other more "accurate"? How can we define accuracy of preservation if there is no ONE original context. Think of PC systems, all running different hardware even in their day, how do you define accurate there?

  Maybe you already give some answers to these in your thesis? Would be a very interesting read then :)

  By the way, film buffs will argue with you that movies have similar problems. Are a 35mm projection, a dvd on a CRT and a Blu-ray on a Full-HD Plasma the same thing in terms of viewer perception? ;)

  Jan

  On 28.10.2011 03:52, Henry Borchers wrote: 
    Hello IGDA,



    It's been a while since there has been much activity on here and I hope people still follow this listserv. 



    I am in the last part of my overly delayed master's thesis and I need to add an additional case study. I hope someone on here can help me out.



    I am writing about the preservation of video games in terms of their textual and contextual components. One of the things that I am arguing is that because the text of video games (the games themselves) are so intertwined with their video game context (the consoles and computers), both are integral to proper preservation. 35mm movie film has had the same playback device for a century and old nitrate prints can run through modern projectors but the texts of video games are tied to the constantly changing video game console contexts. It is for this reason that traditional strategies of print, painting, and film conservation are ill-suited for video games. 



    If you are part of a video game collection, could you please help me out and comment on or be willing to talk to me about how you go about selecting and preserving video games, both text and context? Most websites of video game archives do not go into depth on these aspects.



    Thank you,



    Henry Borchers

    University of Amsterdam, 


     

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