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[liormann]

Hello fellow Abandonians!

Today it's academia calling for the help of those-in-the-know (yep, Wisdom of Crowds rocks), which means all of YOU

I am doing research in preservation of video games - any kind, any genre, any developer. I'm working for a project called Planets (more here if you wish: http://www.planets-project.eu/) and part of our effort is to investigate how video games can survive obsolescence and provide a record of culture for future generations.

I have been running a number of experiments for this purpose - some using our beloved DOSBox - including binary translators, emulators and virtual machines (don't want to bore you with technicalities, but pls ask me if you would like further info).

However, a constant problem is how to measure the appropriateness of the different preservation techniques for preservation - or in other words how to find the significant properties of video games that should be preserved. This is where your help is needed (pleease...)! I would ne grateful it if you could come up with a few ideas on characteristics of video games that must be preserved, so that the content and the context of the original game is kept.

These can include issues such as graphics (eg support for ega, vga...), sound, speed, dependency on peripheral devices (eg mouse or certain types of keyboard arrangment) etc. There are some academic papers on the subject, but as it often happens people in academia are more interested in themselves and their precious views rather than the needs and expertise of the actual users!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need any further info

Keep those ideas coming :thumbs:

Many thanks!