[game_preservation] "Selecting Save on the Games We Make" on Gamasutra & at PAX East

[John Andersen]

Hi Chris, 
 
It's so true in regards to companies coming and going (or even relocating or shuffling office space) that things are lost or tossed.  I know there is an archivist at Blizzard, but as for other companies, it's not very clear if there are full-time archivists employed.  The IT departments of many (not all) developers are ultimately responsible for making sure things are backed up onsite and offsite.  The IT guy at Gearbox was the one who responded to my questions the last article, and he went into a little detail about the challenges of retrieving code from older media.
 
It's frustrating, because like everyone I've also heard so many different stories.  It's just getting other people to be concerned and help out, that is the ultimate challenge.
 
If I ever do come across a situation if a designer has code that needs rescused I'll deffinitly get in contact with you.  Your services are seriously needed as time moves forward.
 
Take care, 
John
 


From: cb at softpres.org
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:32:07 +0100
To: game_preservation at igda.org
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] "Selecting Save on the Games We Make" on Gamasutra & at PAX East


Hi John,



great stuff. Unfortunately I can back what's been said below…I have seen companies come and go. In many cases assets were simply tossed, I even know of a case where the last Amiga machine that had the source code to many games was accidentally given to recycling before the company moved. I have done some (not very well known or high quality) games myself and I can back the fact that even I do care more about other people's work because it fascinated me. Because of this I can say that a dedicated person or company is required to fulfill such a task. Otherwise daytime business gets into the way and is more important.


Sadly for some companies even spending some money for preservation is an issue. They would take help if it was free, but paying your expenses for proper storage or cataloging is out of the question.


It's a bit… problematic. Thanks for making people aware of their own heritage. Should you ever run across someone needing help… we already have 4,500 titles fully preserved, can't hurt to save some more. ;)


Best,
Chris



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


On 27 Feb 2012, at 07:06, John Andersen wrote:


Hi Devin, 
 
Glad you liked the article, I also really liked Yosuke Hayashi's comments, that level of detail was what I was looking for in answers and statements.  You'll really like the answers from the indie developers coming up in the last part.  
 
You're right about the various statements that were written by PR reps. In the case of Square Enix, two separate PR reps did their very best to circulate the questions around the Tokyo office of Square-Enix, I was fortunate enough to get any kind of response, but nothing as insightful as Hayashi's detailed answers unfortunately.  I've also heard the stories about Square not holding on to various material as well.  I wonder how the Enix side of the business did in preserving its development material? 
 
What I hoped to have also accomplished with these articles is to at least get high-level executives and management at developers and publishers to look into their archive/preservation situation.  If just one developer or publisher begins to look into the status of their own archives, and take steps to do something with any material from the past or present,  then I feel like I've accomplished something.  This actually happened with indie developer I was in contact with for the article.  He emailed me after he sent along his answers to say that my questions for the article prompted the company to go out and purchase a couple of back-up drives.  I was really floored by that admission, but I also felt like "Mission Accomplished".  To get companies thinking about preserving, archiving and even searching for older material is what i hope will happen "behind the scenes" as well.  
 
- John Andersen  
 




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