[game_preservation] MoMA Game Collection

[Henry Lowood]

Alex,

Any question that puts more meat on the bones of "we will preserve the 
games" or "source code is important to have" would be valuable, from my 
point of view.  I just would like to know more about their thinking on 
these topics.  For example, source code is obviously important (and 
difficult) to get, but there are issues with using source code, matching 
it to versions of software, being sure it is the version of the game 
that you are showing, etc.  Just wondering if they could say more about 
why source is a priority in their minds.  Writing this I realize that 
some of the issues in my mind are museum issues, some are 
archival/documentation issues, some are historical.

As background, I should say that I am not aware of software preservation 
activity at MOMA.  I'm not saying they are not doing anything, just that 
it would be nice to know what they are doing or propose to do.

Henry


On 12/6/2012 9:50 AM, Alex Handy wrote:

>

> Hey guys, I am speaking to the MOMA about their exhibit and collection 

> next Friday dec 14. Anyone got any questions they want me to ask?

>

> On Dec 6, 2012 3:46 AM, "Devin Monnens" <dmonnens at gmail.com 

> <mailto:dmonnens at gmail.com>> wrote:

>

>     I'm sure many of you are aware of this, but I wanted to bring it

>     up here because I had a few observations/questions.

>

>     http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters

>

>     First, I like how they have selected a series of criteria for

>     which to evaluate the games (even though the casual dismissal of

>     'of course, games are art!' was a bit surprising, even for someone

>     who has taught a class on it).

>

>     What interests me though is the images they chose, the emphasis on

>     source code and original hardware, and technical data for the

>     games. Essentially, with Tetris, they show a picture of the

>     Electronika 60 version, which is really quite surprising. Does

>     this mean the MoMA acquired one? And with something like MYST and

>     Another World, are they looking at the original release or a

>     re-release? (Especially important with Another World since later

>     PC releases added new material.) Is anyone here involved with the

>     project who can clarify?

>

>     It's interesting they put a lot of focus on being able to get the

>     games to run in the future - hence source code and documentation,

>     as well as collection of original hardware. It looks like they are

>     taking both methods as possible approaches.

>

>     -- 

>     Devin Monnens

>     www.deserthat.com <http://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
HSSG, 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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