Video games began in 1958 with Tennis for Two, and since then, many games have followed. Nobody knows for sure how many video games have been developed over the decades since the industry began, as estimates range from the hundreds of thousands to 1 to 5 million. Whatever the true number, it’s clearly a lot, and more are created every month, largely by indie developers who churn out one new idea after another. This gives consumers many choices about what to play, but it also creates a problem when the tech those games are designed for becomes obsolete.
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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.
Another concern in video game preservation is the inability to play a game due to a server shutdown. This happens when a game’s popularity wanes and keeping servers up and running no longer makes economic sense. Darkspore, which was released in 2011, is now unplayable because of this, as its servers went dark in 2016. Various nonprofits work behind the scenes to try to keep video game history as complete as possible. These include the aforementioned, the Video Game History Foundation, the Video Game Preservation Museum, and many others. While they help preserve video games lost to time, the task is monumental, given the number that have been lost or forgotten.
No Matter What’s Done, Some Games Are Lost to Time
The work these organizations are doing is important, but no matter how hard they try and how many resources they utilize, there’s no doubt that some games are lost to history. This has already happened, as some are not recoverable. As a gamer, there’s not much that you can do directly, but if you have the means, you can support preservation projects in several ways, be it through monetary or game donations. There’s the Video Game Preservation Museum and the Video Game History Foundation. You can also check out the National Videogame Museum and the Videogame Heritage Society for more information.
What obscure games do you remember that have been seemingly lost to history? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image Courtesy of Netflix
