Keeping the classics alive: how archivists are preserving video game history

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By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

There’s no shortage of ways to play classic games. There are subscription services, robust retro collections, and modern hardware designed to play old titles. But even still, large swaths of video game history are disappearing. Researchers say that almost 90 percent of games made before 2010 are “critically endangered.” But archivists around the world are finding ways to preserve that history, whether it’s museums releasing translations of classic adventure games or developers racing to release their games on new platforms after others shut down. Collected here is a selection of stories that explore different ways fans, researchers, and archivists are ensuring classic games are kept alive for future generations.

TODAY, An hour ago

Andrew Webster

The first game you play in The Making of Karateka, a release about the making of the cinematic action game Karateka, is an Asteroids clone. It may seem strange, but the attempt at recreating Asteroids was a seminal moment for Karateka creator Jordan Mechner, a humble beginning for a designer who would go on to create some of the most influential action games ever made, including Prince of Persia. The clone appears early on during a long, winding, and interactive timeline, which takes you through Mechner’s early days of experimentation before getting into how Karateka was developed and released.

For studio Digital Eclipse, the team behind the interactive documentary, it’s another attempt at telling the story of classic games in a way that’s completely native to the medium. As classic games