With the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) has announcing that it has begun adding Australian-made videogames to its archival preservation initiatives. A very cool and necessary endeavour, as the overall lack of videogame preservation across the world has led to some games simply becoming lost to time.
In much the same way a large majority of films from the first few decades of the silent film era are now completely gone. Jan Müller, CEO of the NFSA, said: “Today we welcome videogames into our collection of more than 3 million items. The collection represents the cultural diversity and breadth of experience of all Australians, and it is constantly evolving just like our creative industries.”
Adding, “We aim to be the national leader in collecting multimedia and new media content, and it would be impossible to accurately represent modern life without games. It is essential that games be collected alongside other audiovisual media, to ensure their continued preservation and access.”
The first batch of titles to get the preservation treatment – which includes digital backups, and the collation of things like storyboards, documentation, publicity materials, and so forth – are listed below.
The Hobbit (Beam Software, 1982) Halloween Harry (Interactive Binary Illusions / Sub Zero Software, 1985/1993) Shadowrun (Beam Software, 1993) L.A. Noire (Team Bondi, 2011) Submerged (Uppercut Games, 2015) Hollow Knight (Team Cherry, 2017) Florence (Mountains, 2018) Espire 1: VR Operative (Digital Lode, 2019)
Ron Curry, CEO of IGEA, said: “It’s very exciting to see a national collecting institution acknowledging the increasingly important role of videogames in the life of all Australians. Games are a major part of contemporary popular culture; an artistic, storytelling and technological achievement, as well as an industry that contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian economy. We look forward to working with the NFSA as they start adding games to their vast collection.”
Great stuff.
