<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16735" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For the Amiga platform:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?N_rarity=5">http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?N_rarity=5</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cheers,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Istvan</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=andrew@aarmstrong.org href="mailto:andrew@aarmstrong.org">Andrew
Armstrong</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=game_preservation@igda.org
href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org">IGDA Game Preservation SIG</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, November 28, 2008 1:26
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [game_preservation] White
Paper: Case Study Research!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Neat thoughts, there's a lot of areas for this section to go
actually and one is the entire loss of games, especially unreleased ones. I
bet a lot of developers must take in their stride cancellations - there's a
high percent which are cancelled at various stages, the worst being close to
going gold. Anyone know any more examples of them?<BR><BR>Hmm, I'm thinking it
might be better to make a fictional account up for the case study. I'm not
sure what'll work best myself, but lost games are certainly one major
thing.<BR><BR>Andrew<BR><BR>Stuart Feldhamer wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid:492f7bbc.e203be0a.2ef2.ffff9e0e@mx.google.com
type="cite">
<META content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)" name=Generator>
<STYLE>@font-face {
font-family: Calibri;
}
@font-face {
font-family: Tahoma;
}
@page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; }
P.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"
}
LI.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"
}
DIV.MsoNormal {
FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"
}
A:link {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlink {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
A:visited {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
SPAN.EmailStyle17 {
COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-style-type: personal-reply
}
.MsoChpDefault {
FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-style-type: export-only
}
DIV.Section1 {
page: Section1
}
</STYLE>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">To
me the greatest loss is when a game itself becomes lost. There have been
several cases in the past where a title was thought not to exist or not to
have been released despite the presence of ads for the title, until a copy
was eventually found. I believe the infamous Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash
fits into that category. Well what if the game had never been found and
verified? Only a few copies are known to exist. What if there are titles
that we think don’t exist but really do and have been
lost?<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Even
if we are 99.9% sure that a game hasn’t been officially released, does that
mean it shouldn’t be preserved? There are some games that although they were
never released (to the best of our collective knowledge), may have been
complete or very close to complete and were just killed at the end for
financial reasons. One example that came up in discussion not that long ago
was Ultima 8: The Lost Vale expansion, for which a box prototype turned up.
The code may turn up at some point - it may even be among the mass of
materials that the Wing Commander fans got from EA from the old Origin
collection. But EA didn’t really care too much about preserving that stuff,
and so for now, the code is lost. Another game that was killed close
to the finish line and which I personally mourned was Star Trek: The Secret
of Vulcan Fury. DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) even recorded voice acting for
that one before he died and it presumably has been thrown in the
garbage.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">I’m
not sure how this group feels about unreleased games, but I would think that
developers in particular would want to preserve them. I was reading
something on Gamasutra the other day where a developer was saying that he’s
been in the industry for 10 years (or something like that) and only had 2
released titles, because the other 3 were cancelled after the team had put
in a lot of work. Should that work be preserved, if it was at the point
where the game was playable and viable? Does the decision of a marketing
exec ultimately define whether or not we want to preserve a title? I realize
there are intellectual property laws in play here, but ultimately we have
these “guerilla preservationists” who will do what is needed despite the
law, such as finding an old Atari 2600 game prototype on cartridge and then
dumping it onto the net so it can be preserved.<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Anyway,
it’s late and I think I rambled a bit, but I hope I got some coherent
thought across. Happy Thanksgiving. : )<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'">Stuart<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: rgb(31,73,125); FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'"><O:P></O:P></SPAN></P>
<DIV
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; PADDING-LEFT: 4pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: 1.5pt solid; PADDING-TOP: 0in; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none">
<DIV>
<DIV
style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: rgb(181,196,223) 1pt solid; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 3pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none">
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">From:</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'">
<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="mailto:game_preservation-bounces@igda.org">game_preservation-bounces@igda.org</A>
[<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="mailto:game_preservation-bounces@igda.org">mailto:game_preservation-bounces@igda.org</A>]
<B>On Behalf Of </B>Andrew Armstrong<BR><B>Sent:</B> Friday, November 21,
2008 7:48 PM<BR><B>To:</B> IGDA Game Preservation SIG<BR><B>Subject:</B>
[game_preservation] White Paper: Case Study
Research!<O:P></O:P></SPAN></P></DIV></DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><O:P></O:P></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Hey all you people with knowledge about videogame
history. There's one part of the white paper we could do with major SIG work
on as a whole - we've decided the majority of the paper content, which you
can check out here (comment on it if you like):<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_Paper/Before_It%27s_Too_Late:_A_Digital_Game_Preservation_White_Paper"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_Paper/Before_It%27s_Too_Late:_A_Digital_Game_Preservation_White_Paper</A><BR><BR>The
main part that we need information on is the Case Study: "What If We Do
Nothing?"<BR><BR>This requires either a savvy fictional account of the
future where we don't preserve much of anything, or some good examples of
what we have already lost (a nice twist, we reveal this has already
happened...<I>dun dun dun!</I>).<BR><BR>There are a few examples <A
href="http://www.igda.org/wiki/Game_Preservation_SIG/White_paper_brainstorm/Compelling_Examples#Examples_of_Historical_Works_lost_in_Videogames"
moz-do-not-send="true">brought up</A> before, but nothing much detailed for
a real-life example. This means we might have to come up with a fictional
account anyway, or a hybrid.<BR><BR>So: ideas welcome! What's the worst
story you can think of, or the worst actual thing that's been lost so
far!<BR><BR>It's aimed at developers remember - not
historians/preservationists/archivists themselves (we already know how
important it all is) - so a relevant example for developers (crediting of
their works? people unable to play their games soon in the future? simply
them dropping off the face of the earth in historical terms?) would be
great.<BR><BR>Thanks if anyone can help on this!<BR><BR>Andrew<BR><BR>PS: we
still want logo ideas from an earlier thread, surely someone must have some
good ideas for them too ;) there's enough of you listening to these emails I
hope!<O:P></O:P></P></DIV></DIV><PRE wrap=""><HR width="90%" SIZE=4>
_______________________________________________
game_preservation mailing list
<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:game_preservation@igda.org">game_preservation@igda.org</A>
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation">http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation</A>
</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<HR>
<P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>game_preservation
mailing
list<BR>game_preservation@igda.org<BR>http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>