National Videogame Archive - Game Preservation & Public Access Solutions

Title
National Videogame Archive - Game Preservation & Public Access Solutions

Detailed description

Data Extraction

It is extremely important that this is done as soon as possible. Media degrades over time (bit rot, etc.), so the longer the wait, the higher the chances of failure when reading the original data.
Note: this is one way to prove old software is 'near death'; getting the data off the media may be difficult due to the unavailability of drives, or the inability to connect these to current systems.

Possible solutions:

• Kryoflux: A highly precise (using "magnetic flux transition timing") USB-compatible device to read data from 3.5" / 5.25" disks. Ideal for creating images that contain copyright protections schemes (e.g. relying on bad sectors, etc.) for use by researches. Listed at €109.95 for the hardware, but for commercial institutes the price of the image reading software, not listed on website, may be quite high (the Dutch Library was quoted in the thousands of euros), although a special price may be negotiated for "research" purposes (e.g. several hundred euros). YMMV
• FC5025: a simpler USB device to read 5.25" disks. May not read as low level as Kryoflux or be able to read copyrighted disks, but should provide images for repay/emulation value. Listed at US$55.25.

For large collections, creating disk images can be labor-intensive, e.g. up to 15 minutes per disk. Not aware of any reliable multi-disk reading stations.

Preservation

TBD: What additional metadata is required? Operating instructions, controller inputs, unique variables etc.

TBD: Archive relevant software components required to run e.g. DOS, Windows, Macintosh, ... based games. Operating systems and platforms might be of interest by themselves.

TBD: Set up networked, backed up digital storage drive - similar to BR-RPS. Produce audit of digital files. Work with ICT and procure storage - £2000 for 1tb, can grow over time. How will this be funded?

TBD: Link data to MIMSY - work with ICT/CCI staff to add new fields within the cataloguing software to hyperlink/reference digital files and supporting materials.

Access

At the time of writing (20-09-2012), the following emulators where known to provide reliable rendering of images. Note that this list only contains open source emulators (unless noted); there may also be good proprietary emulators available.

Platform	Emulator	Further infomation
x86	Qemu	The de facto x86 emulator. Can also emulate other platforms, but is used mainly for x86. Configurable via command line. No shared folders. Comes with useful converter tool for system images (qemu-img).
Atari-ST	Hatari	Offers shared folders to host system
Commodore 64	VICE
Commodore Amiga	WinUAE / E-UAE	The Windows version (WinUAE, v. 2.4.1) is far more stable/advanced than the Linux version (E-UAE, v. 0.8.29), although they seem to come from the same code base
Amstrad CPC	JavaCPC
BBC Micro	BeebEm	Very responsive developer, who was quick to bugfix/implement requests
Sega Megadrive	Gens/GS	Quickly tested with Sonic, and seems a good emulator, multiple platforms available.
Atari 2600	Stella	Tested with Combat (which works), but unable to run Pong! (but this may be an issue with the image)
Thomson T07	bnftowin (proprietary)	Popular computer in France from the 1980s, similar to the BBC Micro

Non-hardware emulators (these require an operating system, such as Windows/Linux to run):

Guest	Emulator	Further infomation
MS-DOS / Windows 3.11	DOSBOX	Built-in DOS with relevant drivers. Uses the host filesystem to run out of. Makes it easy to pre-configure the target software
SCUMM / other games	SCUMMvm	Multi-platform, application level emulator for Lucas Arts and similar games

The Emulation Framework, part of the EU-funded KEEP project, provides a platform-independent front-end to several of these emulators (Dioscuri, Qemu, VICE, UAE, BeebEm, JavaCPC, Thomson), including file identification, automated configuration of emulators and setting up of the emulation environment. It is freely available, open-source.

TBD: Develop dedicated visitor friendly emulation archives with individual control mechanisms for different platforms/games

Solution Champion

Bram Lohman, Dirk von Suchodoletz

Corresponding Issue(s)

National Videogame Archive Dataset
National Videogame Archive - issues with preserving games for public display

Evaluation
Any notes or links on how the solution performed.