Keeping the classics alive: how archivists are preserving video game history – The Verge

Now you can check out this video game history museum online

2025-01-30T13:17:16-05:00

The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) has launched a digital library with more than 30,000 files of "industry ephemera" from the VGHF's physical collection. The library, which is launching in early access, includes things like "more than 1,500 full-text searchable out-of-print video game magazines, never-before-seen game development assets, artwork, promotional materials, and more gaming relics," according to a press release.

In a blog post, the VGHF highlights things like documents from retired video game producer Mark Flitman, production materials from Myst developers Cyan, digitized CDs of press assets received by GamePro, and a colle …

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Dino Crisis launches on PC as GOG adds new tool to bring back more classics

2025-01-30T13:11:23-05:00

A survival horror classic is getting a new life on PC - and it might be the first of many. PC games shop GOG announced the release of Dino Crisis and its sequel, which are both available starting today. Alongside the launch, the service also announced a new tool called "dreamlist," with the goal of letting players vote on which old games that want to see hit the service next.

For the uninitiated, Dino Crisis is essentially Resident Evil with dinosaurs. That's not an insult: the first game was directed by original Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami, so the two series have a lot in common. Dino Crisis features the same methodical, survival …

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GOG’s new preservation program intends to keep classic games playable ‘forever’

2024-11-13T15:21:36-05:00

PC game platform GOG has launched a new preservation program dedicated to keeping beloved older games playable, "now and in the future."

"If a game is part of the Preservation Program, it means that we commit our own resources to maintaining its compatibility with modern and future systems," the announcement blog reads.

The program is launching with 100 games including Diablo, System Shock 2, and Resident Evil 1-3, with GOG planning to add emore titles in the coming months. Games featured in the program will come with a number of perks. GOG says that when you buy a game from the program, you can:

"expect it to work on current and future po …

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Video game preservationists have lost a legal fight to study games remotely

2024-10-25T16:58:11-04:00

When video game scholars want to study games that are no longer on sale, they sometimes have to drive many hours to do it legally - and that won't be changing anytime soon. The US Copyright Office has just denied a request from video game preservationists to let libraries, archives and museums temporarily lend individuals some virtual, remotely accessible copies of those works.

Kendra Albert, who made the argument on behalf of the Software Preservation Network and the Library Copyright Alliance, says preservationists weren't asking for a lot: "It was the thing that basically exists for all kinds of special collections in libraries: the libr …

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One fan spent three years saving a Final Fantasy game before it shut down

2024-03-08T12:29:00-05:00

February 29th was the last day of service for Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, a mobile game based on Square Enix's Final Fantasy fighting game series. Since launching in the US in 2018, the game has amassed over 170 characters from across 30 years of Final Fantasy history, scattered throughout four acts composed of multiple chapters and side stories representing hundreds of hours of a game that can no longer be played. Though Opera Omnia is officially gone, one person has shouldered the task to ensure the game hasn't completely disappeared.

DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY OPERA OMNIA has ended service as of Feb. 29, 2024, at 04:00 UTC.

Thank you …

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PlayStation keeps reminding us why digital ownership sucks

2023-12-05T14:30:00-05:00

In less than a week, Sony has given us two timely reminders of the tenuousness of digital "ownership" - and both reminders involve things on PlayStation.

Last week, Sony said that, because of content licensing "arrangements," users wouldn't be able to watch Discovery content they've purchased and that the content would be removed from their libraries as of December 31st, 2023. The resulting list of shows that will suddenly disappear because of corporate agreements is very long. Shows disappearing from streaming services is commonplace, but in this case, people are losing access to shows they bought to watch on demand whenever they wanted.

…

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The fight to save old video games

2023-11-13T09:06:31-05:00

When I ask Frank Cifaldi, the founder and director of the Video Game History Foundation, to explain the importance of preserving and maintaining old video games, he answers with a movie analogy. Imagine, he said, "if movies were only released on, like, VHS, ever. You want to watch Back to the Future? All right, you have to go on eBay, and you have to find an antique VHS copy that's degraded a bit from use. You have to find a VCR that works, a TV that it plugs into - or the external scalers that make it look correct on your modern TV - and you might need a time-base corrector because the magnetic flux signal is out of sync."

For too many gam …

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Atari is buying the developer behind its excellent 50th anniversary retro compilation

2023-10-31T08:43:46-04:00

Atari is acquiring Digital Eclipse, a studio that specializes in preserving and rereleasing retro games on modern hardware. The releases are often rich in additional materials and historical content. Think the Criterion Collection but for video games. In a press release, Atari says it's paying up to $20 million for the studio, including an initial $6.5 million paid in a combination of cash and shares and a further $13.5 million, which is due to be paid in cash over the next decade subject to Digital Eclipse's performance. It expects to complete the deal in the coming days.

The two companies previously worked together on last year's excellen …

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The Portland Retro Gaming Expo helps keep the classics alive

2023-10-16T14:00:00-04:00

"Sega had their own console?"

That was a devastating comment I heard as I sat playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on a Sega Genesis Mini at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) this weekend. The Sonic games on Genesis were my favorites as a kid; one time, I played so much Sonic that I peed my pants. How could this person not know about Sega consoles?

Thankfully, the person's friend was more charitable than I would have been. He used it as a teaching opportunity and showed him the game he was playing. (And I realized later that the person may have been asking about mini consoles.)

The whole event was filled with that wonderful spirit about shari …

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The original Wizardry has been remastered — and you can play it right now

2023-09-15T09:00:00-04:00

Fresh off the launch of The Making of Karateka, retro game studio Digital Eclipse has announced a remaster of the original action RPG title Wizardry. Even better - it's out now in early access on both Steam and GOG.

First released in 1981 and developed by Sir-Tech Software, the first Wizardry - or Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, to give it its very long full title - was a first-person, party-based, D&D-inspired RPG that proved incredibly influential and kicked off a long-running franchise. Here's the official description for the uninitiated:

Craft your own party of adventurers and head into the labyrinth at the behest of the …

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