[game_preservation] iPhone Game Preservation

[Devin Monnens]

This discussion is interesting when we start considering community standards
for archival. I understand there are standards for ROM cartridges, and it
would be interesting if there was documentation on why those standards were
accepted. Similarly, the Redump community is seeking to dump all game discs
into a 'standard' format, but as far as I know, there's nothing that the
entire community accepts (and zero information on their site as to why they
chose the method they did). Having a set of standards and a reason for why
those are accepted makes the unofficial archive more important and with the
addition of things like checksums also helps with authenticity. Not that I'm
condoning what they're doing, but in terms of research, dumping practices
can provide some valuable information. Right now, I think the only official
group is the SPS, and they have plenty of documentation on their hardware
and archival methods.

Regarding controller usage, the Ritsumeikan Famicom emulator was required by
Nintendo to use an official Nintendo-brand controller and nothing else
(which provides some interesting questions, considering other official
Nintendo peripherals and the importance of third-party ones for games - such
as the Arkanoid controller). Of course, we also have to question what kind
of display device should be used, as a 1980s-era TV produces a MUCH
different visual effect than a modern flatscreen - or HD TV. Ian Bogost's
article on emulating the Atari graphics is great information on that.

This goes back to being able to create original cartridges and comparing it
with emulators. The Universal Virtual Computer project is trying to
establish standards such as this for emulation. They essentially hope to
create a test device that will produce the same quantitative output on both
the original hardware and on the emulator (say how a jpg is displayed or how
a sound file is produced, this will create the same numerical output). With
such a device, we could run it through the original hardware and then run
the program through the emulator. If it produces the same output, then we
know it's operating the same, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Virtual_Computer

Development of a Universal Virtual Computer (UVC) for long-term preservation
of digital objects. J.R. van der Hoeven, R. J. van Diessen and K. van der
Meer. *Journal of Information Science *2005; 31; 196.
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