Preservation
The purpose of the Game Preservation SIG is to serve as a meta-resource, hub and community for those interested in digital game preservation and history. The SIG aims to be a one-stop-shop for all game preservation related news and projects, and will work towards setting standards and guidelines for assisting industry/academia in establishing preservation efforts.
For more information then what is listed here, see our in depth IGDA wiki pages!
Objectives
The Game Preservation SIG focuses on:
- Preserving game history in a variety of ways
- Providing help, standards and guidelines to establish preservation efforts, and to existing efforts
- Being a hub of preservation work and keep record of news, events and history relating to game preservation
Contact and discussion
See the contact page for information on contacting us, and visit the IGDA forum or join the mailing list for discussions on game preservation.
Membership and Organisation
The Game Preservation SIG welcomes any help from industry, academia or IGDA membership. There is no formal membership structure or committee, but at least a free IGDA account is required to help with projects, and signing up to the mailing list is also necessary. Volunteers can help on numerous projects listed below, offer to help advocate the SIG and preservation or just help with discussions and comments we have, or contribute new discussions! Also feel free to contact the SIG about your personal history as a developer.
The current Preservation SIG Team who administrate various parts of the SIG is made up of:
- SIG Chairperson: Henry Lowood - Stanford University
- Mailing List Moderator: Melanie Swalwell - Victoria University of Wellington
- Wiki/Blog Editor: Andrew Armstrong
- Blog Editor: Julia Brasil
- Memorials Project Lead: Devin Monnens
News / updates
GDC Classic Game Postortems
Alan Au points out the GDC Classic Game Postmortems are online for free! Whoever put them up like this, I salute you 
Post to TwitterMore than A Craze Gallery Online
Our own Melanie Swalwell has curated an exhibit on early New Zeland gaming called More than A Craze. Here is the good official description:
Memorials added for Tomi Pierce and Heather Thompson
IGDA Memorials have been added for the late Tomi Pierce (d 2010-02-01) and Heather Thompson (d 2011-02-02). If you want to add any additional information or comments to any IGDA memorial, or you know of someone who does not have one, please contact: memorials -at - igda.org.
Memorial: Brigitte Burdine
An IGDA Memorial has been added for the late Brigitte Burdine (d 2010-12-29), who died from injuries sustained during a hit-and-run attack in Playa del Rey. If you want to add any additional information or comments to any IGDA memorial, or you know of someone who does not have one, please contact: memorials -at - igda.org.
Library of Congress and UM Computer & Video Game Archive Added to Contributions List
The Library of Congress Moving Image Section and University of Michigan Computer & Video Game Archive have been both added recently to the contributions page for any would-be donators of games or ephemera - please don't throw away anything that could be donated to one of the organisations on our list! If you want to be added please contact the SIG on our mailing list or from our contact page.
Memorial: Brian Wood
An IGDA Memorial has been added for the late Brian Wood (d 2010-09-03). If you want to add any additional information or comments to any IGDA memorial, or you know of someone who does not have one, please contact: memorials -at - igda.org.
Computerspiele Museum Opens Permanent Exhibition
The German Computer Game Museum (Computerspiele Museum) has opened a new permanent exhibition in Berlin! See the link for some great details about the announcement, which comes after several widely successful roaming/smaller exhibits. If you think you can also help provide any material (ie; you are a German developer), please contact the SIG to know who to talk to.
[Monthly Preservation SIG Roundup] February 2010
A very late posting of the newsletter, sorry! Quick bunch of things to go through.
Preservation SIG January 2010 Work
Nothing much to report here. Mainly, make note of the GDC roundtable coming up - it's on Thursday (March 11th), 9am, in Room 1.
[Monthly Preservation SIG Roundup] January 2010
A late posting of the newsletter. At least it is still January - I simply forgot about this after missing it the first week, but correcting that now!
[Monthly Preservation SIG Roundup] December 2009
The IGDA site is still being sorted. This means, yes, it is functional to join our group, but the speed of the forums and site is still a little wanting. We also don't have a functional blog RSS feed, since it appears to go to the (single) general IGDA one, so the blog posts (which need the old site's re-importing) are hard to get by themselves.
Memorials for Don Ivan Punchatz, Leland P. Cook Jr. and Robert Holdstock
IGDA Memorials have been created for Don Ivan Punchatz (d 2009-10-22), Leland P Cook Jr (d 2009-11-06) and Robert Holdstock (d 2009-11-29).
Memorials for Scott Heckenlively and Armin Gessert
IGDA Memorials have been added for the late Scott Heckenlively (d 2009-06-26) and Armin Gessert (d 2009-11-08).
Videogame Archive Exhibit Opens at the Austin Airport
The UT Videogame Archive at Texas University is running an event at Austin Bergstrom International Airport called Behind the Screens.
[Monthly Preservation SIG Roundup] November 2009
Halloween, and for those in he UK, Bonfire night! Well, going a bit off topic already...anyway, we have had the new IGDA website launch, but not honestly much else I'm afraid!
New IGDA Website
Well, just posting something to get this going before the old content is re-imported. The new IGDA website is slow at the moment, but join up to this SIG to keep up on news relating to the preservation of games, people's biographies, memorials, and other work the SIG will be partaking of. If you are interesteg in helping at all, please talk to us!
