Every year, more of gaming history is lost.
Basements flood, papers dissolve, and the video games industry titans sadly pass away.
The Video Game History Foundation is offering what is now themost comprehensive and searchable libraryof video game documentation.
The VGHF archive includes scans of magazines ranging from the official Xbox mag to Game Informer, along with trade publications few regular customers have had access to before now.© Image: VGHF
Magazines were my everything.
I would push one shopping cart, and my mother would push another.
I needed an escape.
© Image: VGHF
I would push my nose into the magazines as if I could fall into them.
I didnt comprehend it until years later, but those publications helped keep me sane.
I would not be a writer if it werent for those magazines.
The Video Game History Foundation’s physical archive includes a hoard of magazines and memorabilia. © Image: VGHF
you could find theoriginal publicity bookletforMetal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriotsand FromSoftwares beloved PS4 titleBloodborne.
In effect, anybody can become an amateur video game historian.
Salvador pointed to landmark titles like the seminal 1994 game Earthbound.
The archive includes hand-drawn level design inspiration for Sonic the Hedgehog. © Image: VGHF
Nintendos press releases showed that the company tried to market it from a personal finance angle.
Those documents arent yet available in the archive, but the VGHF is working on them.
The nonprofit invested in a quality debinder and scanner, but collecting the thousands of documents took years.
The group highlighted a collection they dubbed the Mark Flitman papers.
Flitman was an executive and producer at companies such as Konami, Acclaim, Midway, and Mindscape.
His family invited the VGHF to digitize a hoard of old documents kept in his basement.
This ghostly Lincoln is described as the slightly spiritualized head of Lincoln put on top of sour ghost body.
Sounds incredible, right?
Not enough people are good video game historians, and its not because theres not interest, Salvador said.
Its not because theres a lack of skill; its because theres often a lack of access to materials.
So much of video game history gets lost simply because of storage.
Just because a file is digital doesnt make it any more available for preservation.
The group also suffered a blow when the U.S.
Copyright Officesided with game publishersand restricted historians access to non-accessible titles under fair use.
The archive wont have access to actual games, at least not for the time being.
Much to publishers chagrin, that lack of availability will only helppush gamers toward emulation.
Still, the nonprofit plans to update the archive with more material over time.
Salvador said the team hopes more developers note the benefit of having such a resource available to everyone.
We really want to preserve it and respect it.
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