Game Preservation SIG/Contributions
International Game Developers Association
You can find here a short directory of archives and museums who are willing to accept developer materials, game source code and physical materials (such as consoles, game copies, marketing materials and documents).
Please contact the organisation you want to send the material to before sending it! Certain material might not be accepted by certain places, and unsolicited sending of material might not be allowed.
If you are able to provide another location for this page, please contact the SIG. The aim of the project is to become a hub of contact information so developers know who they can send material to, which is currently a major unsolved problem.
Contents |
North America
| Computer History Museum | |
| Address:
Computer History Museum Website: http://www.computerhistory.org/ | Collection Info
The museum hosts a set of collections, including the machine that SpaceWar! was developed for, up-and-running from Russell’s original tapes, Arnie & Joyce Katz’s games and a large selection of slides and screenshots they acquired when they did the zine Electronic Games, a bunch of materials recently donated by Mo Starkey and many other things.
Use the donations page on the site to see if they can accept proposed material. At the moment, the museum is actively seeking Japanese and European gaming systems, games to complete their Infocom collection, LucasArts games, and especially print-outs or paper tape versions of games for Mainframes/Mini-computers. |
| DigiBarn | |
| Address:
Northern California near Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz Website: http://www.digibarn.com/ | Collection Info
The museum is open to visits on demand, and is still running active events. It collects a large amount of general computing material and is generally run by volunteers, although mainly Bruce Damer.
You can contact the museum though the contact page on their website, please do so for any correspondence. Digibarn also has a help page listing high priority material, although videogame material is not listed they are happy to be contacted about any possible donations. |
| Learning Games Initiative Research Archive | |
| Address:
Learning Games Initiative Website: http://lgi.mesmernet.org | Collection Info
The LGI Research Archive is an open research archive that welcomes game scholars of all ages to use the collection in order to better understand computer games, game culture, and the game industry. Though the entire collection is housed in multiple North American locations, the largest part is located in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona's Center for Advanced Research in the Digital Humanities. At last count, the LGI Archive contained more than 10,000 games, over 100 distinct and operational consoles and game machines, and many thousands of peripherals, videos, soundtracks, documents, scholarly and popular works related to computer games, and sundry other memorabilia. The LGI Archive has a decidedly research and public outreach/education mission, and routinely circulates to scholars around the world artifacts from its collection. Archive users draw on the vast collection to enhance k-12 and university curricula, spotlight socio-cultural trends for community organizations, facilitate background and historical research efforts by game companies, and of course to provide ready access for game scholars to rare, obsolete, and/or prohibitively expensive primary source materials.
Contact one of the Co-Directors for information on how best to submit your materials to the LGI Archive. In many cases LGI will help to defray the cost of shipping and will also officially recognize your contribution to the Archive on their Contributors Plaque in the Archive. |
| Library of Congress Moving Image Section - Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation | |
| Address:
19053 Mount Pony Road Phone: Brian Taves: (202) 707-9930, David Gibson: (202) 707-6349 | Collection Info
With the move to the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation in 2006, the Motion Picture/Broadcasting/Recorded Sound Division began to include video games as a vital part of its mission, along with movies, television, and other moving image work. The Library of Congress already had a collection of 2000 video games going back to the 1980s, which has increased exponentially with new copyright deposits, the primary source of our collection. Recently, some 350 strategy guides going back to the 1970s have also become relocated to the Packard Campus, to assist both with the better understanding of the games by future generations, as well as video game preservation now on the horizon. We collect all types of video games, for different ages, from entertainment to educational, and on all platforms, along with information about them, such as playing guides, periodicals, and advertising.
The Library is particularly eager to be in contact with collectors who may be able to help us fill in many of the video games and playback equipment that we lack in our collection. We are also interested in books and periodicals of all types about video games, and advertisements, promotional materials, tie-ins, and ephemera related to them. For more information regarding our collection policy, please contact Brian Taves or David Gibson. |
| Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection in the History of Microcomputing, Stanford University Libraries | |
| Address:
Department of Special Collections Phone: 650-723-4602 (Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections) | Collection Info
The Cabrinety Collection includes a historical collection of c. 25,000 digital games from the early 1970s through roughly 1993, plus over 70 hardware platforms, books, periodicals, and ancillary materials. More information about the project is available on the project blog for the How They Got Game project, http://howtheygotgame.stanford.edu. The Library actively collects historical digital games and virtual worlds from all periods, which are housed in the Media Collection, as well as archival materials and documentation. The Stanford Libraries are also a partner in the Preserving Virtual Worlds project, funded by the U.S. Library of Congress.
Contact Henry Lowood. |
| Strong National Museum of Play | |
| Address:
Strong National Museum of Play Phone: 585-410-6341 | Collection Info
Strong National Museum of Play has the world’s most comprehensive collection of toys, games, and dolls including a collection of more than 10,000 electronic games and electronic-games related artifacts. Strong’s rapidly-growing video game collection is particularly strong in consoles and console games from the 1970s through the present, but it includes all electronic-game types as well as related materials such as trade catalogs, game-related publications, prototypes, and papers from developers such as Ralph Baer. Strong actively collects electronic games and related materials both for their collection and their archives. Strong National Museum of Play, the owner of the National Toy Hall of Fame, is the only museum in the world devoted exclusively to the study of play and is visited by more than half-a-million visitors a year.
Contact Jon-Paul Dyson for information. |
| UM Computer & Video Game Archive | |
| Address:
Computer & Video Game Archive Phone: 734-763-6533 | Collection Info
The Computer and Video Game Archive collects materials relating to games for the purpose of academic inquiry, including but not limited to:
Visitors to the archive can use and play a wide variety of games from the 1970s to the present.
Contact video.games@umich.edu before sending anything in and for any queries on what is accepted. See the donations page for more information. Postal deliveries are accepted. |
| UT Videogame Archive | |
| Address:
UT Videogame Archive Website: http://www.utvideogamearchive.org | Collection Info
The collection centres on videogame preservation, creating a archive of the material with information made available online about the contents of the archive. Academic and historian accesses will likely be allowed at a later date, since as of 2008 it had only just started as a project at the University of Texas. More information about the project is being regularly posted on their website.
Contact Zach Vowell before sending anything in and for any queries on what is accepted. Postal deliveries are accepted. |
South America
Do you know anywhere that might accept material? If so, please contact us!'
Europe
| Association MO5.com | |
| Address:
Association MO5.COM / David Guez Phone: +33 6 09 56 07 38 | Collection Info
Association MO5.com is the main French resource for collectors, specialists and historians about computer and videogame history. Their knowledge and ability to preserve and display this cultural heritage to the public are very well known in Europe. They're focusing on:
The main goal of their non-profit-making organization is to found what could be the first French or European national museum of the digital era.
To help them achieve this goal, they communicate on our websites and in the community as a whole to collect the largest number of related items, which includes systems (computers, videogames, digital devices), software, source codes, development kits, peripherals, books, magazines, and so on. Everything that is old enough (before 2002) or rare (such as press kits) is interesting to them. They're currently completing the purchase of a spacious place near Paris where we will try to store all of their collections so that they can work on them and perform what they do best, i.e. preserving them. Before donating any material, any email should be redirected to association@mo5.com or to Philippe Dubois, dubois@mo5.com. Note: The website will have English translations of static pages in the future, and English donations are accepted. |
| The Centre For Computing History | |
| Address:
The Counting House Phone: 01440 709794 | Collection Info
The museum website hosts information about additions and the collections available. Hardware, software and documents are all being collected. One of the aims of the centre is to archive on their website all documents, magazines, software as well as the hardware that they have. See their Project Aims for more information.
Material is accepted when contacting the Centre staff, Jason or David, beforehand, since it needs to be arranged correctly. Unsolicited material is unwelcome. More information can be found on their website. |
| Archivio Videoludico � Cineteca di Bologna | |
| Address:
Archivio Videoludico Phone: +39 051 2195328 | Collection Info
Cineteca di Bologna is the second largest film archive in Italy and hosts one of the two existing italian festivals on silent cinema, "Il Cinema Ritrovato", where archivists, professors, students, researchers and amateurs from all over the world gather each summer. The project has originated from Cineteca di Bologna, but found the prompt support of the Communication Sciences Department and the Drama and Music Studies Department, University of Bologna, and AESVI (Italian Videogame Software Publishers Association). The publishers themselves decided to join the project. The archive is first of all an area of preservation and free fruition, focused on PC and console software and hardware, but also on books, magazines and movies. Ten different stations are available to the users to explore the fund.
The Archivio Videoludico aims also at supporting research, exploring the cross-references among different media, arts and disciplines, promoting meetings and events, and encouraging the involvement of young people and school staff for educational purposes.
Donations of old materials (hardware and games) are really appreciated. Contact Andrea Dresseno for information. Note: Currently, the website is Italian only |
{{infobox collectionsite |name=Computer Game Museum |address1=Computerspiele Museum im fjs e.V. |address2=Marchlewskistr. 27 |address3=D-10243 Berlin |address4= |address5= |country=Germany |phonenumber=+49 (0)30 29049215 |website=http://www.computerspielemuseum.de/ |contactname=Andreas Lange, Curator |contactemail=lange@computerspielemuseum.de |collectioninfo=In 1997, the Computer Game Museum Berlin opened the first permanent exhibition of digital interactive entertainment culture in the world. Since that date, it has been responsible for 30 national and international exhibition projects, both autonomously and in co-operations. The Museum has received the German children's culture award 2002 (Deutscher Kinderkulturpreis, special award of the Bundesministerium für Familie) and hosts Europe's largest collection of entertainment software and hardware. On that basis it plans to reopen its permanent exhibition, which was closed near the end of 2000, seeking partnerships with anyone who would like to act for this cultural concern.
|acceptinginfo=Every artefakt at every media regarding the digital interactive entertainment culture is accepted, including English material. Please contact Andreas Lange before sending in material.
| Oldenburger Computer-Museum, short: OCM | |
| Address:
Oldenburger Computer-Museum Phone: Mr. Thiemo Eddiks, +49 172 4528368 | Collection Info
We have lots of home computers and game consoles of the 70s and 80s, a smaller collection of well-known workstations and single items of mainframe technology, arcade, mechanical computation machines and other related technology. We also have periphery and software for the devices.
rare Apple devices, Acorn hardware, east european computers, 50s and 60s technology, and generally speaking, uncommon home computers and game consoles. |
| The National Museum of Computing | |
| Address:
Block H Phone: 01908 374708 | Collection Info
The National Museum of Computing houses a lot of old equipment ranging from PDP machines, servers and mainframes, to air traffic control items, home and office computers and some other electronic items such as calculators. Software and documents are stored in a archive filing system on site. There is also a catalogue system used to index all items held in the museum, although no specific database of historical information. The museum is run by volunteers opening on Thursday and Saturday afternoons, with academic and school availability being available on more days if arranged and additional tours on other weekdays.
To get material to the museum Lin Jones must be contacted beforehand, since in some cases material might duplicate what is already available or space might not be available. Generally any historical physical devices, documents or software are accepted, but unsolicited items are unwelcome since there are some steps to be taken beforehand. |
| National Videogame Archive (NVA) | |
| Address:
National Media Museum Phone: 0870 70 10 200 | Collection Info
Formed by academics at Nottingham Trent University and working in partnership with the National Media Museum in Bradford, the archive recognises the significant contributions made by videogames to the diversity of popular culture across the globe - from the humble beginnings of 1970’s ‘Pong’, to the blockbusters of the 21st Century. The archive is housed at the National Media Museum and will be managed, steered and researched in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Contemporary Play. The Centre draws on academic strengths across a range of disciplines, including psychology, cultural studies, art and design and computer science. In return, the Museum will provide the best levels of care and stewardship for the archive. In addition to a treasure trove of consoles and cartridges, the archive collects and gathers a broad range of items from across the industry. It encompasses the wider cultural phenomenon of videogames by documenting advertising campaigns, magazine reviews, artwork and the communities that sustain them - the overall aim being to collect, celebrate and preserve this vital cultural form for future generations.
Please contact the National Media Museum regarding donations to the NVA. More information can be found at: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/Collections/Donation_Policy.asp |
| Retro Computer Museum | |
| Address:
Retro Computer Museum Phone: 07739 607943 | Collection Info
The Retro Computer Museum collects anything retro - computer / console / arcade wise, whether it be hardware, software or printed material. It started off as a personal collection of mine but through donations and further buying by Andrew Spencer, has now turned into over 100 different systems. Our recent donations have been portable colour tvs, a boxed atari 2600 console and quite a few games for various systems. Eventually we do want to open it fully to the public but are looking for premises, this is proving to be more difficult than we originally thought.
Accepted are the retro materials above, but please contact Andrew Spencer via. email or on the site's contact form to verify. |
| Silicium | |
| Address:
Silicium Phone: +33(0)561859033 | Collection Info
Founded in 1994, Silicium has became the home of many artifact given by hundred of donators that have confidence in their structure. After these many years, they managed to build a strong support, their 200m2 of storage helps them greatly. They also organize regular exhibitions, conferences and consulting. Their important funding is also a good basis for the books they publish.
Donators can contact via. email or phone. They speak English. |
Asia
Do you know anywhere that might accept material? If so, please contact us!'
Oceania (Australia etc.)
Do you know anywhere that might accept material? If so, please contact us!'
Africa
Do you know anywhere that might accept material? If so, please contact us!'
