Episode 37 – Archiving Games

In this episode, Sian and Heather reflect on the complexities of archiving video games. We discuss the way that formal archiving is often difficult and tied up with ideas and judgements about cultural value. We also reflect on the importance of fan preservation, and the discussions around ownership, accessibility, licencing, backwards compatibility, remixing, and more. Finally, we describe our explorations of the LGBTQ Video Game Archive and Play It Again Memory Archive. Support the Internet Archive: https://blog.archive.org/2024/09/04/internet-archive-responds-to-appellate-opinion/. Check out the Internet Arcade: https://archive.org/details/internetarcade Ludography 7G06. (2013). Hypno’s Lullaby. ROM hack. Bioware. (2010). Dragon Age: Origins. Electronic Arts. Cobblemon (2022-2024). Cobblemon. https://cobblemon.com/en. Game Freak. (2018). Pokemon Quest. Nintendo. Pixelmon Mod. (2012-2024). Pixelmon. https://reforged.gg/. T. Takemoto. (2007). Kaizo Super Mario World. ROM hack. Team Folon. (2024). Fallout London. Team Folon. Two and a Half Studios. (2023). A Date with Death. Big Blue Box and Lionhead Studios. (2004-2010). Fable (series). Microsoft Game Studios. References De Kosnik, A. (2020). Piracy Is the Future of Culture: Speculating about Media Preservation after Collapse. Third Text, 34(1), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2019.1663687 Holm, P. (2014). Piracy on the simulated seas: The computer games industry’s non-legal approaches to fighting illegal downloads of games. Information & Communications Technology Law, 23(1), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600834.2014.899770 LGBTQ Video Game Archive. https://lgbtqgamearchive.com/ Newman, J. (2018). Kaizo Mario Maker: ROM hacking, abusive game design and Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 24(4), 339–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856516677540 Play It Again. https://ourdigitalheritage.org/hostedArchives/playitagain/index.html SirRonLionHeart. (2009). Let’s Play Kaizo Super Mario World – Episode I. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZxu0Xzz79E Stuckey, Helen, et al. “Remembrance of Games Past: The Popular Memory Archive.” ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, ACM, 2013, pp. 1–7, https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513570.