KEEP going America

"COMPUTER GAME IS ALSO PART OF CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUST BE PRESERVED," argues Andreas Lange

by Gabriela Agustini on 20/04/2010

Representative of digital culture and one of the main causes for the initial contact of people with computer, digital games bring specifics in the process of hiring and preservation. Although free of the hassle of scanning, the software difficult to fit into existing laws and are not easily seen as a cultural product that requires care and protection.

This is the scenario faced by the Computer Game Museum, Germany-based virtual museum dedicated to keeping the games and their versions that future generations can understand the past and the technological developments. Its director, the consultant in the field of digital entertainment culture Andreas Lange comes to speak about the German experience in the International Symposium on Public Policies for Digital Collections, held 26-29 April in São Paulo.

Member of the Digital Game Archive, Andreas attributes to the popularity of games virtual experiences that open avenues for experimentation and new languages and has a little more about the work of the museum in the interview below:

1. How do games affect society today? The museum is able to offer this picture?

"Games are the first digital artifact. Historically, they are still the first medium that allows non-specialists to use computer technology, representing the initial contact with the language for many people. What alone would cause a big impact. The ability to motivate people to act in virtual environments has gained increasing attention from other sectors of society such as businesses, for example.

Using the full potential of the media on views within and outside the network, publications and lectures we hope (and feel) be able to inform about the rich culture of computer games. What is important is our approach to translate the culture of gaming in a serious way. Thus, we established the museum as a faithful partner for people with little experience with the markup language, or even none. "

2. What is the Computer Game Museum [Computer Game Museum], how it is organized and what are your goals?

"The Computer Game Museum was founded in 1997 in Berlin, Germany, and opened the same year the first permanent exhibition in the world about the history and culture of computer games. Now we are preparing a new show, also to be inaugurated in Berlin, between late 2010 and early 2011.

He owned and primarily funded by a nonprofit association called FJS eV, an organization also founded the German system of evaluation of the age of computer games (called USK) in 1994. The project became an important source of funding since the closure of our first permanent exhibition. Since then, we were involved in 32 large projects of exposure.

From the beginning we collect video game software, their hardware, magazines and other articles related to gaming culture. Most of the collection comes from private donations. Our goal is to allow access to our collection ideally the whole world and report on the culture of computer games through exhibitions, publications and lectures. "

3. How is the reception by the public of the Computer Game Museum? He is different from a traditional museum?

"From the beginning, our activities were received by a national and international audience. One reason for this is that probably never tried to be a special museum. To increase interest in something new and dismantle prejudices is good to look like something familiar.

That just is not much truth in some collections. In an attempt to create dialogues between ancient techniques and today's most complex, we experienced difficulties in preserving digital before other museums, working with more traditional themes. "

4. What is it and what are the objectives of the Project KEEP? What is the difficulty in ensuring universal access to this cultural heritage?

"KEEP means" Keeping Portable Emulation Environments "(Keeping Emulation Environments Portable) [emulator is software that reproduces the functions of a certain environment to enable the implementation of other software on it].
The project uses the great achievements of the "Community of emulation", formed mainly by qualified users with a personal relationship with the classic games from your computer. Since the beginning of the www, there are many projects on open source emulation nonprofit, which today allows us to run on modern computers old code made for obsolete hardware. KEEP want to use these programs and build a better and more stable base for the preservation and access of our digital heritage.

KEEP's approach is twofold: one part is implementation of a virtual machine, whose purpose is to make portable emulators existing systems without changing them for future computers. The other action is to develop a framework for emulation, in which the emulator can be connected and used in different contexts.

Both tasks will help meet the interests and needs of programmers, emulators and the growing demands of our society for a more systematic tools for effective conservation. In this regard, KEEP broaden the user base of emulators and make them more compatible to the institutional sector. To complete the picture, the project is also researching the technical and legal aspects of transferring digital artifacts from their original holders of media. A Tool Transfer Framework (TTF) will be designed and implemented as a prototype, which pretty much automate the transfer of digital artifacts.

It is important to keep in mind that KEEP is a research project. We hope to have a prototype in early 2012 and no systems ready. The difficulties are mainly technical and legal.

The difficulties are mainly technical and legal. Technically it is an ambitious plan for a particular virtual machine. Legally, most of the laws of copyright are not very adoptable for digital preservation. "

5. How come the Games in discussions about intellectual property? As in that respect, they differ from books, movies, music?

"One problem, especially in Germany, is that the law is not clear whether the games are treated as software or audio-visual products. Apparently they are the two things, but by law you have to decide between one or the other media, which are treated different legally.

Another difficulty is to save about 16 000 original titles legally. Bit Rot Due to the code have to Pour codes of the original media and we are not allowed to circumvent the mechanisms of copyright, which is usually part of the code. We need an exemption for digital preservation, to save what we legally.

Computer games are complex applications, and as such, require a combination of hardware and operating system originally programmed to do so. Hence the inability to migrate them to a large scale to newer systems. Another difficulty relates to its interactive nature, which explains the need to preserve the games in a way that access to real-time interaction possible. Last but not least, they are like works of art: the feelings aroused in people is an important aspect and must be documented for preservation. "

6. The games industry is more dynamic compared to other markets, leaving the technology, software obsolete soon. Thus, what is the importance of preservation for the collection of games?

"The gaming industry is a relatively young industry compared to other creative industries. We hope that awareness of the value and responsibility of preserving the past will grow in this market and we have some reason to believe that.

As the official prizes awarded by the German federal government "Computer Game Award" clearly shows the need to preserve the past. Another reason is the growing sector of educational games around the production and research, which also requires good access to historic title. "