Many non-gamers might not understand the drive to preserve gaming history. What those individuals usually don’t understand is that not only are the games a snapshot of pop culture but the marketing materials, guides and magazines promoting them are too. Additionally, many of those physical items include beautiful artwork and important details that aren’t available anywhere else. The Video Game History Foundation aims to protect and preserve an oft-overlooked part of cultural history and now their digital library is live.
As shared by the folks over at Video Games Chronicle. The Video Game History Foundation has made its digital library available to the public. Which doesn’t mean you can access it right now. It seems the servers are not yet capable of catering to the demand and it is still only early access.
What’s included?
- Game development materials that include meeting notes, artwork, budgets, charts and source code.
- Game artwork, press kits and promotional materials.
- E3 Guide books with detailed directories from the first 12 years.
- Video Game Magazines and trade magazines.
- FromSoftware’s promotional materials.
- Rare educational game catalogs.
- 100 hours of film from the production of the Myst series by Cyan.
The Video Game History Foundation also developed custom text recognition software in-house. This will allow fans to actively search text documents, magazines and press releases accurately. As seen in their YouTube video showcasing the new digital library, the VGHF explained the limitations of existing text recognition software when attempting to scan and search old gaming magazines.
If you would like to see the library for yourself you can find it here. Alternatively, you can also access the VGHf’s blog page and read up on what else is included. Click here to find out more. Classic video game history is still in danger, despite the best efforts of the VGHF. To find out more, click here.
