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From their FAQ > Can I visit the archive? > The archive is for everyone, and we welcome all inquiries. However, we prioritize requests that support gaming cul

by mzajc 1y ago

From their FAQ > Can I visit the archive? > The archive is for everyone, and we welcome all inquiries. However, we prioritize requests that support gaming culture, gaming history, and the games industry. /../ While the archive is not open to the public, we hope /../ The archive is for everyone, but it's only for these groups of people, and it's also not open to the public... Yikes. I'd much rather support initiatives that actually make the games and software required to run them open to the public, like GOG.com and Internet Archive. This feels like a one-way transaction - society puts games in, society gets nothing back.

rasz 1y ago
>The archive is for everyone, but it's only for these groups of people, and it's also not open to the public... Its Lars Wingefors private collection.
- DonHopkins 1y ago
  Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors: "I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism": https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo_lars_wingefors_im_sure_i_deserve_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo... https://www.gamesindustry.biz/embracer-ceo-lars-wingefors-im-sure-i-deserve-a-lot-of-criticism https://www.gamesindustry.biz/embracer-ceo-lars-wingefors-im...
arp242 1y ago
This is how most archives work. You can't just have a stroll around for the craic. And there's no point really, because it's not a museum – most people would be bored quite fast, unless you have a specific reason.
- mzajc 1y ago
  Exactly, and you shouldn't have to visit the archive to play its games in the first place. That's why I mentioned IA and GOG.com in particular - both let you download games remotely.
  - arp242 1y ago
    That's like saying that a digital scan of the book of Kells is identical to the authentic object.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - johnnyjeans 1y ago
      It is. I have very little respect for artists with sentimentality over such trivial bullshit. Speaking as someone who makes games. The jewel case doesn't matter. It detracts from the thing-itself, like a showroom car that travels everywhere in a hermetically sealed container. That's not a car anymore, it's waste. Just because it gets driven 5 miles a year doesn't change shit. If someones spending money to preserve my games, I'd rather it'd just be a tarball in a well maintained magnetic tape vault available on-line than some aristocratic funko pop collection for a tiny amount of people to pog at in person.
      - EA-3167 1y ago
        The issue here is that a picture of a book is not a book, a copy of a game is the same game. Barring people with excellent and well-adjusted monitors looking at uncompressed images, the pics we see are (potentially excellent, but still) approximations of the original. With software the notion of an original is meaningless though.
        duskwuff 1y ago
        > The issue here is that a picture of a book is not a book, a copy of a game is the same game. That... depends. A lot of older games shipped with physical artifacts which were an important part of the game: manuals, code wheels, custom controllers, "feelies" in Infocom games, etc. You can't easily make a copy of those. (And preserving them isn't just a matter of throwing a copy on a hard disk.)
        1y ago
giancarlostoro 1y ago
Better off going to 'myabandonware' which provides games you simply cannot buy anywhere. No nonsense, just games.
Zardoz89 1y ago
Here is an actual video game archive worth donating to https://library.gamehistory.org https://library.gamehistory.org
- voidspark 1y ago
  Archive, library, and museum are three different things.
pathartl 1y ago
GoG makes games available for purchase, but on multiple occasions they've sold games where functionality has been stripped out, or they sell something that straight up doesn't work.
jasonlotito 1y ago
[flagged]
ixtli 1y ago
This isn’t how most serious archives work. Archiving media is sensitive, careful work which takes time and space. Providing tours is at very least expensive and at worst a serious risk to the collection.
- danparsonson 1y ago
  You think maybe someone might knock their copy of Captain Comic off its pedastal and break it?
  - DocTomoe 1y ago
    See, here's the thing: Archives do not have pedestals - they use archival storage. This may come in different forms, but to the uninitiated eye, it often looks a lot like narrow pathways between storage shelves, with labeled cardboard boxes, which may contain, in acid-free paper, sometimes with foam inlays - objects. Archives exist to preserve what is there, not to show it off. Sometimes, that's for future scientific research. And sometimes, they may participate in museal work as well, lending off objects.
    - danparsonson 1y ago
      My misunderstanding， sorry - I was imagining this as an online archive that was closed to the public, hence the apparent absurdity of it. The only thing wrong that day was my brain.
- tumsfestival 1y ago
  So what is the point of spending money and effort to preserve video games if nobody can play them? Seems like a waste of time and resources, especially for something so trivial as games.

by mzajc 1y ago

rasz 1y ago

>The archive is for everyone, but it's only for these groups of people, and it's also not open to the public... Its Lars Wingefors private collection.

DonHopkins 1y ago
Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors: "I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism": https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo_lars_wingefors_im_sure_i_deserve_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo... https://www.gamesindustry.biz/embracer-ceo-lars-wingefors-im-sure-i-deserve-a-lot-of-criticism https://www.gamesindustry.biz/embracer-ceo-lars-wingefors-im...

arp242 1y ago

This is how most archives work. You can't just have a stroll around for the craic. And there's no point really, because it's not a museum – most people would be bored quite fast, unless you have a specific reason.

mzajc 1y ago
Exactly, and you shouldn't have to visit the archive to play its games in the first place. That's why I mentioned IA and GOG.com in particular - both let you download games remotely.
- arp242 1y ago
  That's like saying that a digital scan of the book of Kells is identical to the authentic object.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - johnnyjeans 1y ago
    It is. I have very little respect for artists with sentimentality over such trivial bullshit. Speaking as someone who makes games. The jewel case doesn't matter. It detracts from the thing-itself, like a showroom car that travels everywhere in a hermetically sealed container. That's not a car anymore, it's waste. Just because it gets driven 5 miles a year doesn't change shit. If someones spending money to preserve my games, I'd rather it'd just be a tarball in a well maintained magnetic tape vault available on-line than some aristocratic funko pop collection for a tiny amount of people to pog at in person.
    - EA-3167 1y ago
      The issue here is that a picture of a book is not a book, a copy of a game is the same game. Barring people with excellent and well-adjusted monitors looking at uncompressed images, the pics we see are (potentially excellent, but still) approximations of the original. With software the notion of an original is meaningless though.
      - duskwuff 1y ago
        > The issue here is that a picture of a book is not a book, a copy of a game is the same game. That... depends. A lot of older games shipped with physical artifacts which were an important part of the game: manuals, code wheels, custom controllers, "feelies" in Infocom games, etc. You can't easily make a copy of those. (And preserving them isn't just a matter of throwing a copy on a hard disk.)
        1y ago

giancarlostoro 1y ago

Better off going to 'myabandonware' which provides games you simply cannot buy anywhere. No nonsense, just games.

Zardoz89 1y ago

Here is an actual video game archive worth donating to https://library.gamehistory.org https://library.gamehistory.org

voidspark 1y ago
Archive, library, and museum are three different things.

pathartl 1y ago

GoG makes games available for purchase, but on multiple occasions they've sold games where functionality has been stripped out, or they sell something that straight up doesn't work.

jasonlotito 1y ago

[flagged]

ixtli 1y ago

This isn’t how most serious archives work. Archiving media is sensitive, careful work which takes time and space. Providing tours is at very least expensive and at worst a serious risk to the collection.

danparsonson 1y ago
You think maybe someone might knock their copy of Captain Comic off its pedastal and break it?
- DocTomoe 1y ago
  See, here's the thing: Archives do not have pedestals - they use archival storage. This may come in different forms, but to the uninitiated eye, it often looks a lot like narrow pathways between storage shelves, with labeled cardboard boxes, which may contain, in acid-free paper, sometimes with foam inlays - objects. Archives exist to preserve what is there, not to show it off. Sometimes, that's for future scientific research. And sometimes, they may participate in museal work as well, lending off objects.
  - danparsonson 1y ago
    My misunderstanding， sorry - I was imagining this as an online archive that was closed to the public, hence the apparent absurdity of it. The only thing wrong that day was my brain.
tumsfestival 1y ago
So what is the point of spending money and effort to preserve video games if nobody can play them? Seems like a waste of time and resources, especially for something so trivial as games.