https://gamehistory.org/87percent/
"The Video Game History Foundation, in partnership with the Software
Preservation Network, has conducted the first ever study on the commercial
availability of classic video games, and the results are bleak. 87% of classic
video games released in the United States are critically endangered.
Imagine if the only way to watch
Titanic was to find a used VHS tape, and
maintain your own vintage equipment so that you could still watch it. And what
if no library, not even the Library of Congress, could do any better — they
could keep and digitize that VHS of
Titanic, but you’d have to go all the way
there to watch it. It sounds crazy, but that’s the reality we live in with
video games, a $180 billion industry, while the games and their history
disappear.
For accessing
nearly 9 in 10 classic games, there are few options: seek out
and maintain vintage collectible games and hardware, travel across the country
to visit a library, or… piracy. None of those options are desirable, which
means that most video games are inaccessible to all but the most diehard and
dedicated fans. That’s pretty grim!
This is where libraries and archives
should come in. Anyone
should be able
to easily explore, research and play classic video games, in the same way that
they can read classic novels, listen to classic albums, and watch classic
movies. But outdated copyright laws are preventing institutions like ours from
doing our jobs."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
