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Library of Congress to begin cataloging video games

kotaku.com — The Library of Congress is teaming up with major universities across the country to begin a 2-year initiative with the sole intent of figuring out just how institutions can preserve video games for years to come, while making the content accessible for use and study.

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  • Heroville, on 10/24/2007, -0/+53Eat that Jack Thompson!
  • badassninja, on 10/24/2007, -2/+42ROMS.
    Holy crap we have been saying it for years.
    But yeah, lets make a study about it to waste cash.
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/24/2007, -0/+13I am sure they want to preserve more than just the game data.

      They probably want to consider pakaging, manuals, etc.

      Not to mention the game expirence itself.

      I am not trying to sound like an elitist or puratin or anything, hell, I have thousands of console and arcade roms myself. But playing a rom of a lightgun game for example with a driver that lets you use your mouse, or a rom of a racing game that had an actual wheel that was motorized to resist movement, etc, you just cannot replicate that feeling with a rom. People who had no idea what a cabinet was like would not understand why a game was so popular if the cabinet/controls were a vital part.

      Q-Bert is another example, I had no idea about this until I stumbled apon it on a messageboard. Apparnetly the original sound of Q-Bert hitting the ground when you get hit wasnt generated by the speakers, but by a pinball part (I think that part that shoots the ball) that was actually built into the arcade cabinet hitting against the wall. It was designed to sound like an actual solid thunk coming from inside the cabinet, as if Q-Bert actually fell in there. He was trying to see if there was any code in Mame to send an external call to this so he could wire up his own replica.
    • aviazn, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Cyber Akuma's exactly right. The LoC isn't archiving the games so that people can play them in hundreds of years, they're archiving them to preserve and record their cultural impact and context. From the article:

      "One of the facets we want to document with videogames [as we did with film] is not only having the actual games themselves, but many of the associated material to have the real sense of the full gamut of what videogames and the industry meant in cultural terms," said Senior Cataloger Brian Taves. Yes, he means the sweatshirts, the posters and the shoes. They want all the cultural materials they can find.
  • thatbuncha, on 10/23/2007, -2/+6Angry Video Game Nerd will enjoy this bit of news.
  • ZenMojo, on 10/23/2007, -0/+18How much for a card...? I may have to do a little research.
    • Xabora, on 10/24/2007, -0/+3Pfft, how much does it cost to move in.
  • mark1599, on 10/24/2007, -0/+25Great! It's good that the government is giving video games the respect that they deserve.
  • Ashra, on 10/23/2007, -0/+33This archive will be one of the most important cultural achievements of some time. We lost 80% of silent films ever made before someone decided to archive them. Doing this now, while the creators are still alive and able to donate their perspective will facilitate scholarly learning on this subject for years to come. Kudos!
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/23/2007, -1/+1I can only hope this extends to most media and software as well. A lot of books, movies, and songs have been lost from decades long gone. There have been a lot more actions lately to preserve our current media. It helps that almost any media can now be stored in digital form, even printed works, but we need to find a standard way to agree apon with which to archive these and to preserve them for a long time so they will still be viewable/listenable/readable/playable decades from now.

      Hopefully those out of control 150+ year copyright laws don't get in the way of these and wind up making some media lost forever.
    • FluffyWolf, on 10/23/2007, -0/+3Then I am happy to tell you that the nerd-community is way ahead of the Library of Congress. Most consoles more than 10 years old, the most wide spread home computers and a large part of the older arcade games are emulated very well and can be run on any PC, and most released and several unreleased games are indexed and stored in databases accessible over the net in one way or the other.

      Completely illegal of course in most cases. But who cares, the content is preserved for the future (as opposed to the silent films you mentioned).
    • Thabor, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1I've been waiting for this for ages. It would be great to see government sponserd emulation projects to preserve older platforms. I think they need to be preserving things like the hardware and api documentation etc as well to ensure we can continue to support older platforms. I think for newer and highly complex system ones they might have to keep hardware for a while.

      I've been hoping for something like this for almost 10 years.
  • codered1322, on 10/23/2007, -0/+17The LIbrary of Congress is going to give us all cake after we hand in our games.
    • incubusnb, on 10/24/2007, -0/+9I thought the cake was a lie?
      • spawnfree, on 10/23/2007, -0/+8by cake he means fire
        • Derelict267, on 10/23/2007, -1/+3Anyway. this cake is great.
          It's so delicious and moist.
          Look at me still talking
          When Theres Science to do.
          When I look out there,
          it makes me GLAD I'm not you.
      • MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -0/+2*****
  • adeptusliberus, on 10/24/2007, -2/+10Jack Thompson and Roger Ebert must be fit to be tied. I, for one, will say its about damned time that society as a whole recognizes video games as works of art.
  • centran, on 10/23/2007, -0/+8They are going to have to stay on top of it. They have two options and I think they should use both.
    Keep a collection of old machines.
    Make emulators to play old games on new machines.
    It will be an ongoing problem to keep emulators up with new technologies. This is something that they have to deal with as new technologies emerge.(tapes-->CD, VHS--->DVD)
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 10/22/2007, -0/+1Problem with that is tapes, cartridges and ESPECIALLY optical media might not even outlast you and me, much less long enough for generations from now. Current analog and digital media does not last very long...
      • centran, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2Thankfully we are beyond analog tapes but tapes can be archived a long time if done properly.

        Hopefully with digital media it is backed up onto massive server farms and not just the original media. Pressed CDs and DVDs are not a problem because it is like etched glass but it still might break. I am not sure how they backed these things up but I am sure it is taken care of.
  • woohhaa, on 10/23/2007, -0/+5Sweet then we can go to the library of congress and play all those classic games of yesteryear.
  • DemonCold9, on 10/24/2007, -0/+14Don't know about you but I'd love to stop at the national library during a family trip and show my grandchildren some Custer's Revenge.
  • trer, on 10/23/2007, -0/+9Glad to see that video games are treated like a part of human culture as it should be. Imagine a day when we can go to the library and check out a video game like we check out a book or DVD.
    • McInternet, on 10/23/2007, -0/+3By "the library" you mean "bittorrent". And by "a day" you mean "today".
    • bergur1, on 10/23/2007, -0/+3They have for years, the selection is just very scarce.
    • metalwolf, on 10/23/2007, -0/+0Umm. yeah... there is only one problem with that idea. SERIAL CODES. other then the annoying money baggers i wouldn't mind it if your idea happened. I wouldn't mind that at all.
  • marcomc2, on 10/23/2007, -3/+1ELITE.
  • SAHChandler, on 10/23/2007, -0/+5OH DEAR GOD. Why would anyone want a copy of E.T. for the Atari 2600?!
  • charlesray, on 10/23/2007, -9/+2This is a bad idea. It's just going to contribute to people thinking Halo is great for years and years. The LoC even has some Jane Austen in it, their judgment is obviously awful.
  • FluffyWolf, on 10/23/2007, -0/+4That's easy, just zip the games and add them to a torrent-tracker.
    Oh, wait...I think someone has already done that. =)
  • solid12345, on 10/23/2007, -5/+2LOC will ***** it up. Master Chief will get his own exhibition before Mario, Pac-Man, or Donkey Kong and all the 14 year-old fanboys will spread the story on digg.
    • Dweed, on 10/23/2007, -0/+0No, it won't. Since the people in charge of the cataloging will probably be old fogeys, they'll sure as hell start off with Tennis for Two and work their way forward.
  • ubergeek09, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1That's awesome! It's about time they started doing this!
  • BandarBush, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2Don't most copyright owner's register their works anyway???.....
    • koweja, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1That doesn't mean the LOC catalogs them. The copyright office =/= the library of congress.
  • joegibes, on 10/23/2007, -1/+4Considering it's the library of CONGRESS, Superman 64 will probably get preserved, while Ocarina of Time will not.
    • Dweed, on 10/23/2007, -0/+0The Library of Congress is not THAT stupid. The people in charge will choose the most impacting of games and thus, the chances of Superman 64 being recognized are a million to one. On the other hand, Ocarina of Time has a guaranteed place in the Library (unless the Library project involves America-only games).
  • sappari, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1The guy cataloging EA Sports games will have an easy time....Madden NFL 2004, Madden NFL 2005...
  • psients, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1UG wannabes. It's about time.
  • Vash3001, on 10/23/2007, -1/+0America F**K YEAH!
  • Dweed, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Yes, archiving video games is groovy and all that, but I have some concerns:

    1.) Is the Library archiving only games made in the United States and snubbing games made in other countries (including Japan and Russia, land of Tetris)?

    2.) Despite the inclusion of violent movies and literature in the Library, the inclusion of violent video games will open a can of worms. The size remains in question.

    3.) It's difficult to archive MMO games like World of Warcraft, with problems in archiving PC deathmatch games such as DOOM.

    4.) How are they going to fit all the games and allow room for people to play them? If the library sets up an expensive skyscraper or two allowing people to play every video game that matters, at least five senators will complain about taxpayer dollars going to the preservation of video games.

    5.) If a Smithsonian Institution of Video Games were ever built, there'll probably be more tourists waiting in an hourly line to play video games than there will be tourists spending time visiting the other Smithsonian museums or even the National Archives containing the Constitution and Declaration. Not only that, but the amount of visitors might even exceed those of the White House, Lincoln Memorial, etc. And then politicians will complain about the decline of American values for your votes.
  • vamos, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Very cool! Make sure they add Oregon Trail and the entire NES collection to the list.
  • blatantninja, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Awesome!
  • Seannaz453, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1I wonder if they'll keep videos of speed-runs....
  • trollick, on 10/24/2007, -0/+2And the point is??? It is not like one can go to the library of congress and play games there. One cannot even get to where the books are in there.
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