[game_preservation] MSN interviews Joe Santulli

[Stuart Feldhamer]

My comments:

 

It is relatively easy (if you have the money) to buy everything you see and
have a warehouse full of assorted games and related artifacts. It's also not
that interesting to most people.

 

So for example, right now I don't collect NES games. I could go to a bunch
of flea markets and stores and buy every NES title I can find, and maybe
have 500 of them in a week. Is that a collection? Yes, in some sense of the
word, but it's a pretty poor one. In my mind it's more akin to a pile of
junk.

 

Most collectors that I have encountered focus on a particular niche and try
to collect everything related to that niche. The fun and excitement in
collecting comes from searching for and then ultimately finding that rare
item that adds to or completes some particular area of their collection.
That's also what gets the press and general interest btw. And speaking of
Joe Santulli and his video, did you notice that he pointed out the 3 rarest
and most expensive items, and then said that those were the 3 that were the
most meaningful to him personally? I doubt it was because they were the most
expensive, but rather because he had to go to some considerable trouble to
acquire them.

 

(BTW, most collectors that I know (myself included) treasure their rare
titles but also titles that hold sentimental value for them for other
reasons. For example, my copy of Seastalker folio edition for IBM that my
father bought for me when it first came out, and I managed to hang onto it
through several moves, etc. before I even started collecting officially.)

 

I have other comments about physical preservation of games and shrinkwrap
vs. non-shrinkwrap but I will save those for another time.

 

Stuart

 

 

From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Captain Commando
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 10:07 AM
To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG
Subject: Re: [game_preservation] MSN interviews Joe Santulli

 

Hey Andrew,

I have done a little dabbling into what might go into a white paper myself
on the side at work. I'm not sure exactly how we're going to go about
organizing this thing myself. I've got some good examples and I think some
good arguments and some that are just deadpan plain serious (who's to say
'because they're fun and we like to share what we enjoy with other people'
isn't a valid reason?).

I'm going to see if I can't contact Joe about this. Some of the things I'd
like to ask is about what he thinks about preservation and what we might
learn from looking at collectors - if warehouses and shoeboxes full of old
cartridges is really even a viable model. Just how durable is this stuff in
that condition? 

I suppose the 'why' of collecting would have to be in there as well, but I
think it's just something that snowballs from something you like, coupled
with opportunity for building the collection with minimal expenditure
(that's sort of how mine developed out of a simple love of the game).
Everybody's got a hobby, and if you think about it if you sink a few dozen
dollars here and a few there each month and are serious about checking
garage sales, flea markets, and goodwill's regularly, then you'd begin to
have a pretty serious collection. It's really no different than sinking a
couple hundred dollars each month on souping up your car or spending a few
hours reading books. I guess 'hobby' is just whatever occupies the mind!

-Devin

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 5:25 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>
wrote:

I'll need to get a list of questions together now, won't I? Typical ^_^

The problem is, I'm not adept at knowing what the finer points of collecting
is to start with (I'm not a collector in the slightest), and the websites on
the web I've browsed a bit usually say the how and what to collect, but not
the why, which would be much more interesting to record. I'll get around to
it, but I should start poking people about the whitepaper instead :) - I'll
try and get something together soon to post around, at the very least a good
list of websites is always nice.

Good idea, thanks for reminding me we should be looking within! First for me
will be a little whitepaper work however, but I'll get it added to the
monthly roundup to remind myself for September.

Andrew



Stuart Feldhamer wrote: 

That video is pretty cool (although those Keno brothers, whoever they are,
seem like losers).

 

I am impressed with that guy's collection to say the least. However, I want
to point out that there are several members of the software collectors'
mailing list (most of whom if not all primarily collect games) on the list
for this SIG. So if you're looking for information on collecting, look
within. : )

 

Stuart


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-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando

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