This is a fascinating two part article that discusses the trouble in preserving source code, roms, and other materials related to video games. It seems especially of interest to GOG users that are curious about some of the troubles the gog guys have to deal with to track down the source to the games they want to re-release and help keep alive.

Warning: if you are a game lover, some of the stories are horrendous, such as Atari Corporation selling filing cabinets for $2 to liquidate assets in the 80s around the time of the video game crash and not even caring that those cabinets contained source code to some of their most loved games.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6271/where_games_go_to_sleep_the_game_.php

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6283/where_games_go_to_sleep_the_game_.php

It's exactly the same situation as the BBC in years past.

There are loads of classic BBC TV shows with missing episodes (notably Doctor Who) because they were deemed a waste of space.

The perceived lack of value in such old games is shocking.

Yeah, businesses are evil, and it's up to us to hack into their equipment and retrieve source code and assets for preservation.

I hope that Phonix Wright is either joking or is 16 years old.

Its a shame we don't have some kind of charity or museum dedicated to this sort of thing.
(actually there could be, but I definately don't know about one. and thats kind of the point!
(maybe we should get uni's involved...))

I'd argue its going to be very important to preserve and readily make accessible the games of the past, as it will lead to the best future for the creative side to the industry as a whole.

Imaging how art and music would be like today, if it were not for those brilliant few individuals that used the knowledge of the past to renovate, and innovate, then would art, music, or literature be as diverse or creative as it is today?

Maybe some one in the future will play Portal, and come up with a game that pushes the concept even further. Maybe time, or interdimensional puzzles, would be involved and maybe even some kind of virtual, holographics, or augmented reality technology could be added to its gameplay.

yes....

It is not a new topic. All new media follows the same pattern. Many of the first films ever made is gone, the material where recycled or not stored properly - leading to decaying reels. (It is only in the last 30 years or so, almost 70 years after the film industry started, that there has been any real filme preservation efforts). Same thing has happen now with bitrot and there where also a lot of recycling - leading to games and source codes which are now lost for ever.

There are a few inititives, many is fan based like Video Games Musem, but there are also starting to appear more 'proper' museums dedicated to game preservation, like the game section at Bradford Media Museum. In a way - the MAME project could be called one of the largest video game preservation initiatives.

One of the main problems is that many of the games are either privately hold IP's or the owners of the IP has been disbanded and ownership is a legal muddle. The games are in most cases to new to go into some sort of public ownership license, not to go into international law as many of the companies are multinational... Also it is not only the games themselves that should be preserved, but also the game design processes - you can try to get EA to release their old game design documents...

Actually it wasn't a lack of space that prompted the destruction of Dr Who episodes. I have a friend whose really into the history of the media (gets employed as a cameraman, and knows his stuff), and apparently in the early days the BBC never kept aired shows for any length of time. Film was expensive, so instead they would wipe it and reuse it to film other shows, and most of the early Dr Who episodes were only salvaged because they had copies sent to other countries and the like. The BBC just never stored their shows untiil later, and the idea of doing repeats never hit them.

And home video wasn't invented yet so there was sod all chance of making any money out of them.

All in all it was quite an understandable decision

Doesn't mean I don't want to kill everyone involved but I'll be understanding whilst running the chainsaw

Pirates are the industry's heritage best friends.....