[game_preservation] Game preservation videos?

[Henry Lowood]

Andrew,

I think the reason there is no explicit bucket for recordings of this 
sort at the Internet Archive is that there were no collections of 
videos quite like that.  The collection titles match up with the 
formats we are currently receiving.  I think we could either add a 
category or revise the description of an existing category -- for 
example, the "previews" category could be extended.  There is an 
explicit preservation bucket, known as CLASP, but that is aimed at 
software per se, and it is in the software category of the Archive 
here: http://www.archive.org/details/clasp.  I don't think, however, 
that movies should go there.

RTS and FPS replays can be included; back when we set this up under 
the leadership of Simon Carless, the thinking was that since the 
Archive could not play replay files, it would be best to have a video 
to play.  The replay file is only auxiliary in the sense that it is 
an additional file; but it is entirely possible to save replay and 
demo files and associated metadata, nonetheless.  As Simon will 
remember, that was something I have always wanted to do.  I have 
thousands of replays that I have collected or made myself, and I know 
of other collections (e.g., for DOOM). I think probably I'll test out 
the issues with uploading replay files as part of our project 
(probably starting with DOOM or Quake and Warcraft III).  Oh, last 
point, until around 2000 most machinima were issued as demo files, as well.

The idea of a viewer is meant to deal with the probability that fewer 
and fewer people will own copies of the games for the replays.  Or, 
they have the game, but don't feel like patching down to see an 
earlier replay.  The problem would be solved if game developers would 
allow all obsolete versions of a game to be made available, of course 
-- wouldn't need a viewer.   It's so easy to "break" old replays due 
to even slight incompatibilities in game versions that we would also 
need to take a careful look at metadata wrappers that enable matching 
replays and emulated game versions, which is a good problem for us to work on.

BTW, I'm a competitive or online player myself -- mostly RTS -- and 
this is a particularly important topic for my own research and 
writing on game-based performance and competitive play.  I use 
replays an awful lot and have written about demos, replays, game 
movies, so anything we can do about this problem is fair game, as far 
as I am concerned.

Henry

At 11:09 AM 8/6/2007, Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>Historically recorded videos (or other media; including save games 

>and replays) would be certainly important to improve the metadata 

>of, indeed, citations are nearly impossible (although citing by URL 

>and time point is possible to a degree, it can be hard to find some 

>other data involved). This is one area that, if the Internet Archive 

>can improve its services with some help from us, be worth discussing 

>or sorting (whether here, or in the Congress project, anywhere would do :) ).

>

>Videos really have a few mediums for marking points - some formats 

>include the concept of chapters, some do . There are some up and 

>coming open source video formats (Theora for instance) which may 

>allow inclusion of more metadata then the standard ones (OGG for 

>instance can have any amount added in the container, with some 

>standard ones being usually readable by players).

>

>Possibly subtitles allow extra metadata (copyright data, time of 

>recording, author, etc.) and chapter points to be marked visually.

>

>On the technical aspects of demo viewers; I think emulation has a 

>shot at this, some games are pretty simple and might be worth 

>recording inputs and simply replaying them back into the game - 

>however, some do not work like this - such as the earlier video by 

>Jim on Punch Out Arcade - which in fact, could not be saved at any 

>point and had to be played from start to finish, due to how the game worked.

>

>Newer games, certainly a select few genre's with multiplayer involve 

>replay saves - RTS games have this commonly (although it is 

>dependant, obviously, on the correct patch) but for multiplayer 

>only. FPS games may have demo recording for multiplayer and 

>singleplayer (usually the same commands, as in Half Life, and 

>Quake). Not many other games do this, for whatever reason 

>(singleplayer only games, why'd you need to record them?)

>

>Without the games source code for non-emulated games, it'd be pretty 

>hard to reproduce replays, nevermind replay them - a viewer would be 

>nigh on impossible on most games themselves, even to get them just 

>working in a modern OS.

>

>They would be by far the smallest and most compact way of losslessly 

>recording a game's events however, they'd be a good resource to 

>collect - is the Internet Archive up for the task? You said that 

>it'd be more auxiliary, but some games do support it fully (even if 

>you need the full game to replay them).

>

>On the other sections; it is a big shame there isn't any named 

>"historical" or "preservation" section, you didn't mention any a 

>documentary might go readily into, or a critical study of a game, or 

>a simple recording of playing it with thoughts. I came to this 

>conclusion when I looked at the archive a bit, the only real section 

>is "Videogame Previews", but that's not exactly a good place for 

>historical content made today.

>

>I'd be interested in hearing more about the project mentioned too, 

>but I doubt am not really a candidate to help much with it.

>

>Andrew

>

>Henry Lowood wrote:

>>Hi all,

>>

>>I just caught up on this interesting discussion.  This is a hugely 

>>important topic for preservation activities.

>>

>>First, let me just say up front that I think we can try to figure 

>>out how to use the moving image collections at the Internet 

>>Archive's Moving Image Collections (Internet Archive = archive.org) 

>>as a repository for videos.  Just as a review, these collections are available:

>>

>>Under Video Games:

>>

>>Videogame Previews.  (Could perhaps be supplemented by describing 

>>the collection as including a third source -- namely, a project we 

>>might define or encourage.)

>>Speed Runs.  Definitely a possibility as we have already seen in 

>>the discussion.

>>Software/Game EPKs.  Probably not applicable to this topic, but btw 

>>if you have footage in this genre, please upload it.

>>Videogame Replays.  This rubric is especially close to my 

>>interests, and I have been hoping for years that someone would 

>>develop replay or demo viewers for various titles (which is really 

>>tricky, given patches and expansions).  I much prefer the 

>>interactive viewing of demo/replay files to video captures, and the 

>>resolution is usually so much better.  However, note that the 

>>archive right now is better set up for video presentation, so we 

>>might have to consider the replay files as auxiliary files to video 

>>captures.  The good news, of course, is that replay files are tiny 

>>compared to video.

>>

>>Under Animation & Cartoons

>>

>>Machinima.  I curate this collection and have a little more 

>>editorial say in things like metadata and such.  Heavily commented 

>>videos could go here -- we have a few from Second Life that have 

>>something of an explanatory function.  This might be a possibility 

>>if the videos are documentary in nature, but which I mean that 

>>there is commentary on what happens. Videos like stunt movies are 

>>included, as well, so there are some possibilities here.

>>

>>Another interesting topic besides those already mentioned is that 

>>of "citation."  How does one write about a section of a game and 

>>cite it?  What is the equivalent of a page number?  Commented 

>>videos or a speedrun format with tagging or some of the other 

>>possibilities might help in this regard, if there were a common 

>>format.  Maybe this is something we can work on in the Library of 

>>Congress project?  We will be looking at video capture and tagging.

>>

>>As a quick heads-up, I'll compose another note later today 

>>describing the events that will launch the project in February of 

>>next year, just before GDC.   If enough people are interested, 

>>perhaps we could make this a workshop topic at one of the events, 

>>or try to make this a focus of a GDC roundtable?   Would anyone be 

>>interested in that?

>>

>>Henry

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Henry Lowood, Ph.D.
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections
Curator for Germanic Collections; Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood 
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