The nonprofit Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) has announced the outline of its digital collection of video game content, which will allow users to access all video game-related content from around the world through a web browser, including game-related magazines, as well as game-related discs or original encoded content.
The Video Game History Foundation stated that the content currently announced only includes what kind of operating interface users can use to access it and what types of game data can be preserved. The entire digital collection is expected to take two years to complete, and more specific details are expected to be announced to the public sometime in 2.
In fact, the Video Game History Foundation has long been collecting a large amount of video game information through its headquarters in Oakland, California, and has made it available to the public for free, allowing video game enthusiasts or researchers to access the relevant information.
As for the reason of preserving various game data in the past, the Video Game History Foundation said that many games can no longer be used due to operating platform compatibility and game console hardware replacement, so many impressive games in the past have gradually "disappeared".
According to recently published research statistics, classic video games currently released in the United StatesAbout 87% are classified as being at high risk of disappearingOnly 2010% of video games released before 13 are still available through commercial channels or specific methods, but more game content is slowly disappearing from the market. Even the PlayStation 2, which currently has the highest sales in the global market, has only 12% of its corresponding games retained. When Nintendo recently closed the online digital stores for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, 1000 unique game content was no longer available.
The Video Game History Foundation believes that outdated copyright laws not only make it difficult for current libraries and corporate organizations to properly preserve relevant content, but also, when content is preserved in digital form and made publicly available to the public, it is inevitable that it will be seen as assisting in the spread of pirated content. Therefore, it is difficult to preserve such content in digital form. At the same time, it is more likely to face problems such as being accused of infringement by specific industries due to commercial interests.
In addition, the reason why such content must be preserved in a systematic digital form is not only to allow the data to be stored more efficiently and securely through digitization, but also to simplify the operability of the public in accessing such content through digitalization. For example, it can be used through a web browser and searched through a systematic classification method. Therefore, the relevant content is not just in digital form, but also includes the integration and classification of data to facilitate users to search through keywords, dates, types, etc.
The Video Game History Foundation announced that digital video game content can now be searched using keywords, time, and other criteria. It also includes over 7000 game-related magazines from around the world, covering various categories. It can even obtain material from cooperating companies during game development. It also includes game-related art concept designs, music content, design documents, or related news reports.
