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When something like the Apple II disappeared, a ton of games that were developed for its operating system vanished from the world’s collective consciousness. The same can be said of MS-DOS titles, those developed on college campuses’ mainframe systems in the 1970s, and so much more. The problem of lost video games highlights the importance of preservation because, like books and movies, the history of the video game industry is human history, and it should not be lost if at all possible. To combat the problem, several organizations are actively working to preserve lost video games, and their work is significant.
We Many Never Know How Many Video Games Have Been Lost to Obsolescence
While some games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong are timeless classics preserved on various media long after their original PCBs gathered dust in a warehouse somewhere, most never see the light of day. Obsolete hardware is the primary culprit for lost video games, as the above image of Spacewar! on a PSP-1 demonstrates. The image is from the Video Game History Foundation’s collection. The foundation curtails a list it calls “game canon,” which includes games recommended for preservation. This is done in the style of the National Film Preservation Board’s National Film Registry, but with video games in mind.
Of course, while obsolescence is a key factor in the loss of video games around the world, it’s not the only issue. Konami developed Silent Hill for the PlayStation, and it’s one of the preeminent horror survival games of the late 1990s. When it came time to produce The Silent Hill HD Collection, Konami ran into a problem. It lost all of the source code from the original games. While the games still exist and you can throw a copy into your PS1, losing the source code made remastering them for modern hardware a significant challenge. As a result, the collection’s quality is lacking, indicating that preservation must be as in-depth as possible.
