October 08, 2008

Contacting the Preservation SIG Newsdesk

Have you got something to add to our site news? I keep an eye on RSS feeds and news, but I miss an awful lot of videogame history material. How, however, you can contact our elite team of newsdesk people by emailing preservation_news - at - igda.org !

If and when the IGDA site gets updated, we should be all nice and shiny, making this a much nicer place to actually get news too. Yay!

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2008

[Monthly SIG Updates] October 2008

October has been a month of back-end work for me and others. Someone started the Whitepaper brainstorm, which I've yet to add mine and Devin's comments too. We'll hopefully see it updated more this month!

Preservation SIG Updates

In September the main update will have been the Contributions/Donations page (I might rename it shortly), encompassing a grand total of 6 (yes, six!) different organisations who might be willing to accept your old videogame material, especially developer items. I'm trying to search further afield (such as Asia, the rest of Europe, and so forth) - if you can translate any language into English and be a go-between, or know of any possible archive or museum outside of the USA and the UK, please please contact us since this is really something I'd like to complete this century!

Secondly, the Whitepaper has got off to a start - and yes, I've not had the time just yet to update it with my contributions or Devin's who have sent it to me, but I'll try and get that done this month. Henry said he'll have a look at it too, so hopefully we'll get going somewhere. If anyone has any off hand contributions to make, add them to our mailing list.

Thirdly, the Memorials project has an entry for Laura_Geneder.

On the Internet Archive front, I've uploaded some interesting bits and pieces, as has the Virtual Worlds project. See new interviews (such as pre-current generation console launch interviews with the big 3, and WillTV for some Will Wright philosophy) and videogame footage (the entire collection of Pure Pwnage, the Red Alert Cutscenes and other bits and pieces).

October Preservation SIG Work

The whitepaper still needs brainstorming. Anyone who has a thought to add, please do so. I'm still working out how best to update the information lists we have, and might resort to doing it on a proper database rather then the wiki. In addition, if I can get further museums added for the contributions page we'll try and get it launched at some point as a resource point for advocacy!

Mailing List Discussions

If you've not joined our mailing list, please do so. We've never tried using our forums it seems :) we stick to old-fangled email. September has been pretty dead, apart from Devin posting up a proposed entry for the new IGDA Journal which he requests comments for. It's a worthwhile project, so put your input in while you can.

Preservation SIG Blog Updates / Links

Note: Have I missed anything? Then email it in. I really should get a "Preservation newsdesk" email setup, there's a lot more I simply don't know about which I keep missing. If anyone wants to help with the blog, you can become a blog editor by contacting us! This is all the updates not included in the previous newsletter (most recent first):


Final Thoughts

A lot of work needs doing on the whitepaper, and possibly it'd be nice to get more members even just posting on our mailing list - someone did join this month, hooray! Perhaps we can double that figure next month.

Also; I will attempt to do some actual journalism regarding the various museums and archives I can visit in the UK, certainly to add the information to the wiki but also interview those involved if possible. We'll see if I can get around to that this month.

Thanks all,

Andrew Armstrong

IGDA Game Preservation SIG Site/Blog editor

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 10:50 AM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2008

[Monthly SIG Updates] September 2008

With September the 1st comes a new monthly roundup. There's been bits and pieces of activity, some interesting articles and other odds and ends.

Preservation SIG Updates

First off, the Whitepaper effort has been launched by Henry! This has had exactly no contributors yet, so make sure to get on the mailing list or wiki to add your thoughts. Anything, from basic information, ideas and resource links to paper titles, core concepts and examples of why videogame preservation is needed are all welcome. Please send this out to anyone who might be interested in editing or writing for the paper, or who can contribute some information to it. I'll be adding up some basic information this month, hopefully encouraging others :)

The memorial project has had a new entry for Dave Pridie who died in 2001, contributed by Christopher Bretz.

The Contributions page, where museums and archives will be listed who can accept material from game developers, has now been started. There are 3 listed locations, including our own member's Zach Vowell's UT archive and two UK computer museums. I am planning to email more, but if anyone knows some in person and can gather some information for this list in the form that already exists in these examples, it'd be very welcome! (And if anyone can speak Japanese, there is likely a few in Japan I'd love to add, so give me a shout if you can help translate!)

Finally I've been more organised in uploading a good amount of videos to the Internet Archive. Among the uploades are several years of E3 footage before it "changed" by Andrew Mehta, for 2004, 2005 and 2006, as well as the partially finished documentary on videogames - What's Next for Videogames?. As noted last month, I have uploaded half of Pure Pwnage. In addition, the "Meet The" Team Fortress 2 videos from Valve are uploaded. There are a few more interviews from Kikizo, and a few odd previews too bringing up the Previews collection to a nice round 2,200 videos.

September Preservation SIG Work

The contributions and whitepaper sections need attention and I need to finish templates to update the resources and projects listings - hopefully once more organised, should be more up to date. The Memorials project is ongoing.

Anyone who wants to lend a hand or has any ideas for further project work post on our mailing list.

Mailing List Discussions

If you've not joined our mailing list, please do so. We've never tried using our forums it seems :) we stick to old-fangled email. Recently there's been discussions on the Wing Commander IP preservation, the interview of Joe Santulli (collector, see link below), and on Recreating old development environments after a Megaman 9 interview came online. Read the past discussions for August here.

Preservation SIG Blog Updates / Links

Note: Have I missed anything? Then email it in. I really should get a "Preservation newsdesk" email setup, there's a lot more I simply don't know about which I keep missing. This is all the August updates not included in the previous newsletter:

Final Thoughts

The Whitepaper has officially started, so I hope we all can contribute a few words to its content, else you'll get another annoying note next month about it not having much done on it :) in any case, hope the end of Summer has been good!

Thanks all,

Andrew Armstrong

IGDA Game Preservation SIG Site/Blog editor

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2008

Call to Action: Game Preservation SIG White Paper brainstorming!

Henry has summarised the start of the White Paper effort we intend to get done this year. Read on for his words...

1) The discussion about methods for collaborating pretty much bogged down. (I will reserve comment on the odds of a successful conclusion on any topic to discussion of meta-issues.) We do have a group of volunteers to work as a kind of committee for the project, plus we have the entire group. So, let's just get started.

2) In that spirit, I have set up a "White paper brainstorm" page.

Have a look, and get busy! And if you do contribute, please consider adding yourself to the contributors page, which will then identify our de facto editorial committee.

3) IGDA has just opened up a fund for internal funding or projects. In the next weeks, I will submit a proposal for a modest level of funds to produce a print version of the white paper. If we are both good and lucky, we may have this to distribute at GDC 2009. If not, well, we'll find a way to get it out there.

4) Keep in mind: This first paper is a "call to arms" effort. It will focus on goals, benefits, reasons for worrying about this. We need passionate and compelling arguments, good examples of positive efforts and painful losses, etc. We can get into solutions with a second white paper on practices, which perhaps we could finish for GDC 2010. However, if somebody would like to get us started now on the second text, no reason not to -- just set up a page for brainstorming!

5) Feel free to muck around with the wiki pages I set up for us to get started. That's what a wiki is for!

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)

SIG Monthly Update: August 2008

So the month of August rolls around. This is late coming due to posting a ton of new blog links from me missing a week of content, but I wanted to try out the monthly progress reports/articles posted links. Helps me at least keep myself on track! :)

Preservation SIG Updates
If anyone remembers, the Memorials project was launched more officially in June. This has lead to a total of exactly no one emailing Devin about it as far as I'm aware (boo!) however, we're working on it ourselves (yay!). Contributions welcome, there's a lot of Biographies to do. People who died in July added to the project are Randy Pausch (Professor), and Melissa Batten (Xbox 360 Developer). Both are rather sad cases - Randy for his inevitable death from cancer, and Melissa because of it being a murder-suicide by her husband.


I have been working on plans to update the SIG's information lists - which are now outdated, and in fact were always incomplete. Starting afresh is the Contributions page, where museums and archives will be listed who can accept material. I personally am working on emailing who I can, and in am in contact in person with the UK National Museum of Computing (which I visited recently). Contributions to this section or knowledge of any computer museums welcome - I have only two USA museums to contact at the moment, there must be more! :)

Finally, as an aside project, I am gearing up my uploading efforts at the Internet Archive, despite my internet connection here being absolutely terrible for uploads. I'm uploading more Kikizo and Fileshack material in bits and pieces, and also the online gamer show Pure Pwnage, which is easier since Wikipedia provides a nice description of the content :) - Henry and his Standford groupies are doing some work in the Virtual Worlds section too!


I might also be onto getting some older E3 videos/documentary stuff up from someone who might be interested, we'll see - the E3 of yesteryear isn't going to come back so soon, so it'll be interesting to put that material up. There will also be some effort if I run out of everything else to start uploading trailers and promo material. I'll link to anything interesting, and try and root out some strange stuff for the collection.

August Preservation SIG Work

I have no idea how Henry is doing for workload - so I don't expect the whitepaper will get started yet. I personally will try and finish in as much as I can the contributions section before tackling the projects & resources pages. Not much else to note that's of any interest, maybe you guys are up to something good this month?

I'm also currently reading "The A-Zof Cool Computer Games" - giving me the thought to review it's contents for an updated "Resources" section. You might well be asked for book lists, reviews or anything else in the future once I get some templates up. I am sure many of you have shelves of the annuals of time, it might be time to dust them off for a little while if I can't find them online to index on our site! :)

Preservation SIG Blog Updates / Links

Note: Have I missed anything? Then email it in. I really should get a "Preservation newsdesk" email setup, there's a lot more I simply don't know about which I keep missing. This is everything from July (the August stuff is really from July or the very start of August).

10 things everyone should know about Space InvadersInterview with Benoît Sokal
Discworld Game Remakes
The First Video Game Sequel with modding?
Henry Lowood on Machinima and the History of Digital Games
The Importance Of History In The Excellence Of Video Games
Stanford Workshop: “Preserving Knowledge in Virtual Worlds”
GOG from CD-Projekt to Offer Classic Games
SomethingAwful Game Articles
Defender...in a Favicon
The Good and Bad of Sport Videogames
Making Tennis For Two On Modern Hardware
Journal Starting "Historical Studies of Digital Entertainment Media"
The World of Western RPGs
Word Play: The Evolution of Game Journalism
The History of Video Games: The First Video Game?...
A History of Gaming Platforms: Atari 8-Bit Computers
Simon Turns 30: The History of the Toy and Gaming's First Grudge
Game Mag Weaseling: Where to begin?
Introducing the Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection Blog
"Lost Server Connection": The Last Minutes of a Virtual World

Simon did suggest pictures - I must start doing this, despite the fact this version of Movable Type is rubbish for it (ie; there's no way to upload pictures ;) ). The new IGDA site is not going to be here quick - it's being redone, although I'm not sure I can divulge in what software, and there is no timeline.

Final Thoughts

The Vintage Game Club started up last month, with Grim Fandango. Mine keeps crashing, I'll have to tinker with it more, but the intro sure has me in the mood for more despite the agonising cries of "illogical puzzles". They're not doing a "Game a month" but instead seeing what works, and who knows what will be done in the future? Might be worth keeping an eye out on.


This is also a trial. I'll stick this on the wiki, and all comments are welcome on format/content.

Thanks all,

Andrew Armstrong
IGDA Game Preservation SIG Site/Blog editor

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2007

Digital Game Canon 2007 presentations and audio online

Thanks to Henry Lowood (SIG Head) and Simon Carless (CMP media) we've been able to get the slides and audio of the Digital Game Canon 2007 presentation online, along with a transcript and online versions of the slides. This was done at the Game Developers Conference 2007, and you can find more information on the project at the IGDA wiki.

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2007

SIG News now moved here

Quick item; I've put the news previously on the IGDA wiki onto this blog, and if anyone has any past news relevant to the SIG I am happy to add that too.

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 05:03 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2007

IGDA Game Perservation Blog now in operation!

While the Game Preservation SIG has been working over all the years it has operated, the site here has sadly been not updated with its progress and work (not good for recording history of its own happenings!)

I'm now working on this blog and the IGDA wiki, so feel free to email me (andrew at aarmstrong.org) or Henry Lowood (preservation_sig at igda.org) any news, editorials, information, history or anything else that IGDA members might appreciate.

I myself will be hopefully updating this with any news from members, about IGDA and other game preservation projects, and on items that are being sorted for the Internet Archive - which is expanding, so if you have any videogame industry related videos, now might be a good time to archive them for anyone to download (thanks to Simon Carless the head curator for his work in this area!)

Hopefully I'll also be able to sort interviews with those doing the preservation work itself, from game archive repositories to game history sites, and others.

Posted by AndrewArmstrong at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)