[game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study Research!

[Andrew Armstrong]

If someone comes forwards and adds to an archive, it's preservable, but 
since the entire point of them being labelled "unreleased" is that they 
usually can't be preserved for that very reason - no one has a copy!

With the current very incomplete state of archives at the moment, I'd 
say efforts are better put towards preserving more obtainable items, 
especially "lost" items which have been released but are of a limited 
amount or hard to find.

Andrew

Stuart Feldhamer wrote:

>

> I agree, it is a question of scope. That's why I was curious to hear 

> others' thoughts on this. Should be not be preserving unreleased 

> games? If a game was unreleased, do  we want to "officially" pretend 

> that it doesn't exist?

>

>  

>

> Stuart

>

>  

>

> *From:* game_preservation-bounces at igda.org 

> [mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] *On Behalf Of *Devin Monnens

> *Sent:* Friday, November 28, 2008 9:59 AM

> *To:* IGDA Game Preservation SIG

> *Subject:* Re: [game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study Research!

>

>  

>

> Unreleased games sounds like a question of scope as well. This isn't 

> something we normally think of when we think 'videogame preservation' 

> and unfortunately, it's incredibly difficult to ensure preservation of 

> these (I remember an IGN interview that stated Rare has a VERY 

> uncensored version of Conker in their vault that NOBODY will ever 

> see). This all came back to a database of known released and 

> unreleased games (though some companies don't want ANYBODY knowing 

> about this stuff).

>

>  

>

> Unreleased games also find their way to the underground collecting 

> market (there was a big article in the Escapist on this). Resident 

> Evil 1.5 is one good example, but I haven't heard any reports of 

> leaked copies of Castlevania Resurrection... One of the most famous 

> cases of unreleased games later found was 'EarthBound 0' which was 

> mentioned at one of the GDC roundtables. I don't think anyone's found 

> a fabled beta cartridge of EarthBound for the 64DD though. And then 

> another good example was Military Battlezone, which was thought lost 

> and perhaps not to even exist (?) until some guy found in his barn. 

> That was chronicled in From Sun Tzu to XBox I believe.

>

>  

>

> Maybe we want to illustrate that the case for 'lost games' isn't to a 

> point where many things are actually being lost wholesale, but is one 

> where we're dangling over the edge like How The Grinch Stole 

> Christmas. Only a few things have fallen into the abyss like the red 

> ornament, but it's on such unstable ground that a whole lot more could 

> fall in. We could equate the Grinch to many characters in the drama, 

> and given the overbearing weight of bit rot, DRMA, etc, it may very 

> well take the strength of ten Grinches (plus two) to keep the rest 

> from falling in.

>

> -- 

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

> "Until next time..."

> Captain Commando

>

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