Video game preservation: Is the industry torching its own legacy?
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Each generation in the industry's more than 60-year history has an ecosystem that defined it. While many hold onto cherished memories of the Playstation 2 or the Nintendo Wii, for others it was the Commodore 64 that proved so era-defining.
Launched in 1982, this eight-bit computer was truly formative, with popular titles including Castle Wolfenstein, Ghostbusters, and Buggy Boy. According to Bitmap Books, studios created approximately 10,000 titles for the system during its 12-year lifespan. But how feasible is it to play these titles today? Not very.
That's because it's an abandoned ecosystem. Despite being "one of the most influential and historically important platforms of its era", the landmark research by the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) published in July noted that just 4.5% of Commodore 64 games are in commercial circulation today, with the vast majority of the library completely inaccessible.
The Commodore 64 is far from an exception, though, with just 13% of titles released between 1960 and 2009 in release. Accessing nine in ten classic games means having to build and maintain a personal collection, piracy, or travel to a specialised library. It paints a dire picture for efforts to preserve video gaming history – which carries ramifications for not just understanding history and culture, but for future games development.
"Classic games have a distinct point of view compared to their contemporaries, and it would be a huge shame to lose the perspective they offer"
"The problem is that video game history is more than just the bestsellers," wrote Phil Salvador, VGHF library director, and author of the study. "If we want to
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