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Video game preservation is not just copying a ROM. Archivists preserve the software, its cartridge or disc, the hardware required to run it, manuals and packaging, development records, metadata, gameplay evidence, and the testimony of people who made and played it. The aim is twofold: keep a game technically accessible and document what it was, how it was created, and why it mattered.
That work is distributed among museums, libraries, foundations, academic projects, and collectors. Each contributes different pieces, while copyright, obsolete equipment, fragile media, and disappearing online services limit what can be made publicly available.
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What does video game preservation actually include?
A preserved game is best understood as a layered archival record rather than a single software file. The layers answer different historical questions:
- Software: a cartridge dump, floppy-disk image, optical-disc image, executable, source-code archive, or other representation of a particular build.
- Physical evidence: cartridges, discs, data cassettes, manuals, packaging, labels, promotional materials, and evidence of ownership or regional release.
- Access technology: original consoles, arcade cabinets, computers, controllers, peripherals, replacement parts, and operating environments.
- Documentation: design documents, correspondence, press kits, photographs, magazines, marketing records, and development builds.
- Experience and interpretation: gameplay recordings, screenshots, interface documentation, interviews, and oral histories.
- Metadata and policy: provenance, version and platform information, relationships among files, preservation actions, storage plans, and rules governing access.
The distinction matters because a file can survive while its context disappears. A disk image without its region, release, hardware requirements, or relationship to a manual is difficult to identify and harder to interpret. Conversely, a museum display that shows a console but lacks a preserved software image may document the object without securing the game itself.
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How do preservationists decide what to collect?
Preservation starts with acquisition and assessment. Institutions review donations, purchases, existing collections, and endangered formats, then decide which objects are rare, at risk, valuable, or especially engaging. The Strong National Museum of Play describes a workflow that counts digital objects, estimates storage requirements, applies those RAVE criteria, and plans storage and conservation costs before work begins.
What gets acquired?
A collection survey can identify cartridges, floppy disks, optical discs, data cassettes, manuals, packaging, source code, design documents, press kits, screenshots, videos, personal papers, and hardware. The Smithsonian’s Video Game Pioneers Archive initiative emphasizes historically significant artifacts and documents alongside source code and first-hand recollections. That approach can capture the production decisions and working practices that are invisible in a finished game.
Why provenance is part of the object
Where an item came from can be as important as the item itself. A regional release, a developer’s personal build, a promotional disc, or a prototype may differ from the retail version. Recording the donor, ownership history, acquisition date, condition, and related materials allows later researchers to understand which version they are examining.
How are cartridges, discs, tapes and hardware kept?
The physical carrier remains historical evidence even after its contents are copied. A cartridge or disc can reveal manufacturing differences, regional release practices, copy protection, labels, packaging choices, and the specific build that survived.
Physical conservation
Collections are inspected, cleaned or repaired when appropriate, rehoused in archival materials, and documented before storage. The Strong reports controlled environmental conditions for its collections and examines and documents acquisitions before placing them in storage. Temperature and relative humidity control slow deterioration, but they do not make obsolete formats readable forever.
Keeping the means of access
Reading a medium may require an original console, arcade machine, computer, drive, controller, or specialist laboratory. The Strong maintains hundreds of decades-old arcade and pinball machines, works with obsolete computer files, preserves current-console and smartphone content, and operates three digital-preservation labs. Its 2023 Digital Preservation Handbook described more than 5,500 endangered media components and more than 45,000 components in the International Center for the History of Electronic Games collection.
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The same handbook identified 25,000 imperiled video-game artifacts, including games created before 2005 on at-risk media. Those figures describe one institution’s holdings and risk assessment, not the total number of endangered games worldwide.
What happens when archivists dump a game?
A dump creates a digital representation of software on a cartridge, disk, or disc, but a responsible preservation package records much more than the resulting file. Archivists document the source object, the version it represents, the platform or hardware required, and the files and documents that belong with it.
- Identify the carrier and condition. Record the label, region, catalog information, visible damage, and acquisition history before attempting access.
- Read the medium with appropriate equipment. Cartridges, floppy disks, optical discs, and tapes require different drives, interfaces, and procedures; an ordinary computer drive is not universal.
- Retain the original and the captured representation. The physical object remains evidence of manufacturing and ownership, while the digital copy supports research and future access.
- Describe the result. Record title, release, platform, region, build or edition when known, source object, required hardware or operating environment, and relationships to manuals, images, footage, and interviews.
- Plan storage and continuity. Include redundant copies, documented preservation actions, and a migration plan rather than treating a single drive as a permanent archive.
The University of Washington Information School and EMP Museum project illustrates this layered method. For 30 independent games, the team archived DRM-free game files, recorded hours of gameplay footage, created catalog records with a custom metadata schema, and conducted oral-history interviews with developers when possible.
Why are metadata and content representation essential?
Metadata turns a pile of files into a usable historical collection. It tells researchers what an object is, which title, platform, region, creator, release, or build it relates to, what files belong together, and what environment is needed to access it.
The Library of Congress’s Preserving Virtual Worlds project made basic standards for metadata and content representation a central objective. Its case studies covered early video games, electronic literature, and Second Life, asking how complex interactive works could be represented for future access.
For games, content representation may need to describe more than a file name. It can connect a software image to a manual, screenshot set, gameplay recording, interview, development document, hardware configuration, or online environment. Without those relationships, a technically intact file may be impossible to interpret or compare with other versions.
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How do archives document gameplay and development?
Gameplay as evidence
Gameplay footage records menus, interfaces, timing, controls, audiovisual behavior, bugs, and the experience of using a game on a particular system. It does not replace preserving the software, but it can remain useful when original hardware becomes difficult to operate or when researchers need evidence of behavior at a specific point in time. The UW/EMP project’s recorded gameplay demonstrates why a preservation package can include both an executable representation and a record of play.
Development and marketing records
Design documents, source code, development builds, correspondence, photographs, press kits, and marketing materials show how a game changed and how it was presented to the public. The Video Game History Foundation’s collections and research include behind-the-scenes materials, source-code deep dives, lost-game recovery, archival photography, magazines, and E3 records. In 2026, the foundation reported that its digital archive had passed 5,000 magazines.
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How do oral histories preserve the human side of games?
Interviews preserve decisions and experiences that may never appear in code or paperwork. The National Videogame Museum uses interviews, oral histories, and documentation to capture creative processes, challenges, and triumphs. The Smithsonian’s Video Game Pioneers Archive likewise centers first-hand recollections and original records.
A testimony can explain why a feature was removed, how a technical limit shaped a design, which tools were available, how a studio operated, or how a regional game reached its audience. Oral histories should be kept with identifying information, dates, and links to the related artifacts so that a memory can be evaluated alongside the surviving record.
How are online games and virtual worlds preserved?
Saving a client program is not enough for a multiplayer game or persistent online world. The historical record can also depend on servers, network protocols, service changes, player communities, maps, user-created content, interface revisions, and the social practices around play.
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Preserving Virtual Worlds treated interactive fiction, multiplayer works, persistent worlds, and community-created environments as case studies in both content and environment. Depending on the project, preservation may combine software captures, screenshots, recorded sessions, technical documentation, maps, interviews, and descriptions of community activity. No single method recreates every aspect of a changing online service, so archivists document what was captured and what remains unavailable.
Which institutions preserve different parts of game history?
No single institution preserves all video-game history. Their scopes, access policies, equipment, legal positions, and collecting priorities differ.
| Institution or project | Primary contribution | Typical evidence and capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| The Strong National Museum of Play | Museum conservation plus digital preservation | Physical artifacts, obsolete systems, digital files, storage policies, collection procedures, and dedicated preservation labs |
| Video Game History Foundation | Research library and development history | Behind-the-scenes materials, source-code research, lost-game recovery, photographs, magazines, and E3 records |
| National Videogame Museum | Integrated museum, archive, and testimony program | Physical artifacts, software and document archives, interviews, oral histories, and dedicated storage |
| Preserving Virtual Worlds | Academic standards and case studies | Metadata and content-representation work involving games, electronic literature, and virtual worlds |
| Game Preservation Society | Policy and stewardship framework | Physical materials, digitized information, knowledge, testimony, records, and explicit separation of preservation from public distribution |
| Smithsonian Video Game Pioneers Archive | Industry-person legacy project | Oral histories, original records, and historically significant materials connected with early industry figures |
This distributed model is a strength because specialist organizations can preserve different formats and viewpoints. It also means researchers may need to consult several collections to reconstruct one game’s technical, commercial, and cultural history.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can preserved ROMs be shared legally?
Preservation and public distribution are separate questions. An institution may be able to acquire, copy, and preserve software while still being unable to transmit the resulting ROM or disk image publicly under copyright law.
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Copyright status varies by work, country, rights holder, and use. Do not assume that owning a cartridge makes uploading its image lawful, or that an archive’s preservation copy can be redistributed by a third party. Institutions publish their own access rules, and researchers should follow those rules and applicable law.
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How can you preserve your own game collection?
A home collection cannot reproduce an institutional laboratory, but you can preserve more than a shelf of cases by combining physical care, documented digital copies, and context.
- Inventory everything. Record title, platform, region, edition, serial or catalog information, condition, accessories, manuals, packaging, and where you acquired it.
- Stabilize the physical items. Keep cartridges, discs, tapes, manuals, and paper materials in archival sleeves or cases, away from damaging heat, moisture, light, dust, and uncontrolled storage conditions.
- Keep access hardware. Preserve compatible consoles, computers, drives, controllers, cables, and adapters when legally and practically possible. Label each item with the systems and formats it supports.
- Capture software through lawful means. If you create a personal preservation copy, document the source object, date, equipment, and version. Do not treat the copy as automatically legal to publish or share.
- Use planned storage. An external hard drive for video game backups can be useful, but one drive is not an archive. Maintain redundant copies, keep at least one copy separate from the collection, and plan how files will be checked and moved to future storage.
- Record the experience. Save photographs, screenshots, gameplay footage, manuals, magazine coverage, and your own notes about how the game was played and configured. A USB external optical drive may help access CD-ROM and DVD collections; a game capture card can record gameplay evidence; archival media sleeves can protect physical carriers.
- Preserve the story. Add interviews or written recollections from developers, players, modders, or owners when available, identifying who spoke, when, and what artifact the testimony concerns.
- Review the collection periodically. Drives fail, formats become unreadable, and operating systems change. Revisit storage, equipment, documentation, and access plans instead of assuming a one-time copy solves the problem.
What are the main limits of game preservation?
Preservation can reduce the risk of loss, but it cannot guarantee a perfect recreation of every historical condition. A replacement console may behave differently from an original revision; a recording captures one session rather than every possible interaction; and an online world may lose server behavior or community activity that no archive captured.
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Preservationists therefore document the conditions and limits of each object. Their goal is not merely to keep a file available, but to leave future researchers enough evidence to identify the version, understand its dependencies, study how it was made and played, and distinguish surviving facts from what has been lost.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the RAVE method mean in game collecting?
RAVE is an assessment shorthand for Rare, At-Risk, Valuable, and Engaging. It helps an institution explain why an object deserves scarce conservation time and storage capacity, rather than treating every acquisition as equally urgent.
Is emulation the same as preserving original hardware?
No. Emulation or a replacement environment can provide access when an original system is unavailable, while the original console, cabinet, or computer remains evidence of how the game operated in its historical setting. Strong archives often need both approaches.
Why do preservation projects save magazines and press kits?
Those records show how a game was announced, marketed, reviewed, and situated within its industry. They can also document release dates, regional differences, terminology, and contemporary expectations that are absent from the software itself.
What should a researcher ask before using an archived game image?
Check the institution’s access policy, the image’s provenance and version, any stated hardware or software requirements, and the copyright conditions attached to that copy. A catalog record may provide research access without granting permission to redistribute the file.
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