Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: Video Game History Foundation

Video Game History Foundation Launches New Digital Library

The Video Game History Foundation has launched a brand new digital library interface with tons of archives for you to check out for free

The Video Game History Foundation has officially launched an Early Access version of its new Digital Library, totally free for people to check out right now. If you're not familiar with them, the VGHF is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the history of video games across multiple sources of information and media resources. This new library has given the public access to tons of content spanning from the early days of Atari all the way to recent titles that have hit the market. But a good chunk of their collection focuses on the '80s and '90s during the heyday of the medium's explosion on the world. We have more info from today's announcement for you here, along with a new video from the team going over what you can find as they work to make their library bigger.

Video Game History Foundation – Digital Library

Researchers, gamers and the general public will have access to more than 30,000 curated files (with lots more to come) of industry ephemera straight from the VGHF's physical collection, including more than 1,500 full-text searchable out-of-print video game magazines, never-before-seen game development assets, artwork, promotional materials, and more gaming relics, making it one of the largest repositories of game industry history in the world. Anyone with a need or curiosity for learning more about how gaming has evolved is encouraged to bookmark and access the wealth of information and unique physical statement pieces spanning more than 50 years. The VGHF Library is designed as a unique destination and research tool, allowing users to search for specific games, authors, publishers, and other metadata across public and previously internal materials:

• Want to find a chronological list of mentions of your favorite game?
• See what designers used for reference when designing classic games based on properties like Batman, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Myst series, and more?
• Search through classic magazines such as Game Informer, GamePro, Next Generation, PSM and more?
• Or maybe dig into video footage from the show floor of E3 2000?

The VGHF Library also hosts more complicated digital materials, like vintage art assets and information sent to magazines for use in their publications, or viewing websites and presentations as they were originally seen.

• Guidebooks and ephemera from game events, including searchable directories and maps from the first 12 years of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
• An extensive international collection of FromSoftware promotional materials, collected by citizen archivist Kris Urquhart, with a blessing from FromSoftware to donate them to the library.
• 100 CDs of art and press releases from GamePro's magazine archive.
• Over 100 hours of footage from the production of the Myst series, including never-before-seen interviews with the Cyan team.
• The Mark Flitman papers, a treasure trove of documents collected over the course of Flitman's career at video game publishers like Konami, Acclaim, Atari, and more.

"We've been working on this project since we founded the Video Game History Foundation in 2017, so we're extremely proud to start providing access to our digital library and continue our mission to make video game history accessible to anyone," said Frank Cifaldi, founder of the Video Game History Foundation. "We believe that with the right tools, anyone can be a video game historian, and we can't wait to see what new stories our archive inspires. We also hope this inspires those in the video game industry to consider the importance of preserving their work and contributing to initiatives like ours."

"At the Video Game History Foundation, we think the best way to study game history is to have access to the raw materials," said Phil Salvador, Library Director at the VGHF. "Our vision has always been to open our collections to everyone, whoever and wherever you are, and after years of work, today we're taking the first step towards that open digital future. We sincerely think this tool is going to change how people study video game history. We cannot wait to see what historians, researchers, authors, YouTubers, fans, and everyone in between will discover."

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