[game_preservation] Game preservation videos?

[Andrew Armstrong]

Jim,

I didn't know why the restrictions were there (I didn't check) but still 
a shame its just DVD standards - I can see why for normal media (which 
commonly is 4:3 or 16:9) but games are much more varied, certainly many 
arcade games, and almost all new games are widescreen. Would be 
something worth looking at (along with Henry's point on metadata).

And while you might say it is barely moving (yeah, compared to a light 
gun or DDR game, most things are standing still) but seeing how someone 
plays - the ergonomics and interfacing between the player and the game 
controller (and how to win, and how to play - even if it is twitch 
based, or shallow button bashing) would be important to record, simply 
because no console commonly is the same, and several old games have 
special controllers which can't be easily mimicked :)

Thanks for the information, will be useful regarding why formats are 
like that.

Andrew

Jim Leonard wrote:

> Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>> archive.org (along with some machinima and a few other things). I 

>> didn't know of their MPEG-2 restrictions, which means for some games 

>> like that one, a square doesn't fit very well. I don't think trivia 

>> is needed on the video itself, it kinda suited it here, but if you 

>> read it you missed some of the action (thus you changed it during the 

>> breaks, nice touch!).

>

> Thanks :-)  BTW, they're not "restrictions" per se -- they just want 

> normal, valid Full D1 or Half D1 MPEG-2.  It's a standard, it can be 

> burned directly to a DVD and watched on any set-top player, and it 

> eliminates guesswork out of the automated conversions.

>

>> Recording it off the actual arcade machines would be ultra-difficult 

>> with little payback, but I'd have loved to see someone playing the 

>> arcade version - looks like a difficult game to master.

>

> You barely move when playing it.  It's a pattern-recognition + reflex 

> game :-)