Library of Congress Enters Partnership to Preserve Video Games

The Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has entered into a partnership with the Library of Congress to preserve many different types of creative digital works, including video games. The three-year deal ties in with the Library’s “Preserving Creative America” program by collecting, managing, and preserving digital content. The Council, along with the rest of the film industry, began to realize in recent years that preserving digital motion pictures had become just as important as maintaining movie classics. While old film technologies may last for a century, digital technologies become obsolete within three to five years.

The Library’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) will provide funding to the Academy towards researching better means and standards for preserving digital works. Any new advancements they make can then be used to help preserve a wide range of digital creations, including photographs, cartoons, sound recordings, and even video games. In other words, this is one more step in allowing future generations to see what gamers played way back when. Although, if I had any choice in the matter, I’d leave Superman 64 out of any archives. There’s no need to expose anyone to that sort of pain ever again.

Via Rush PR News