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F.A.Q.
Version: 1.0
What does DiGA stand for?
The Digital Game Archive is an archive to grant free access on a global plane to people who want legal downloads of computer and video games regardless of their original platform or their age. What distinguishes our approach from traditional Abandonwaresites is that all games provided by us for download have been explicitly released by their legal owners for private and scientific use. Our archive neither stores Share- nor Freeware games but only programs once sold commercially in shops as complete versions.
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What is our aim?
We want to both heighten the level of public awareness concerning the cultural significance of entertainment software and guarantee its long term preservation. To achieve we see our task in working towards establishing a broad and reliable consensus accepted and supported by all parties involved. Thus DiGA boldly attempts to combine commercial, social and scientific interests.
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What is the cultural significance of entertainment software?
With hindsight we can discern digital games to have been pioneering tools in the realm of cyberspace. Ever since the times when computers still had the size of cupboards and television was only considered to be a means of one way communication, these games -- although interpreted as mere playtoys -- played a major role in paving the way for what we nowadays call information society. Computer games evolved as the first applications, where instead of the individuals adjusting themselves to the requirements of the machine (having to learn a program language), the computer was designed to fit the human being. This holds for the level of operating the machines and likewise for the contents and themes of the games. Such games were the driving force for popularizing the very technology which is the backbone of social communciation in our age. And by continuing to form this base they are making these virtual worlds accessible to all and filling them with exciting contents.
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What technical problems are we faced with when it comes to preserving computer games?
Firstly we have to take into account the finite life span of the storage media. Only a single faulty bit is prone -- and this contrasts remarkably with traditional ways of storing culture goods e. g. books -- to invalidate the whole program. This could only be countered by the time-consuming and costly task of regularly copying the data onto fresh physical media for storage. What complicates things further is that each game is made to work only on that specific combination of hardware and operating system it was initially designed for. Once these system requirements are no longer available even a medium optimally stored does contain but a meaningless sequence of digits. And experience reveals that no hardware component even if preserved under immaculate conditions maintains its ability to function for more than a few decades. Its demise is caused by chemical reactions between the different layers of microchips.
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What is the strategy we propose?
Our central purpose is to create a legal and dependable base for the preservation of the games. We therefore insist on strictly observing the principle of voluntariness. In this we follow what has been established in the field of Culture with a capital 'C'. Without donations from private collectors as well as foundations provided by individuals a substantial part of our cultural heritage would be closed to the public. It follows that one of our main tasks consists in approaching the legal owners for donations. A couple of games are available for private use already. This goes to show that the industry is beginning to accept its share in keeping alive this part of our cultural heritage.
In order to preserve as many games as possible we are addressing the license holders in their roles as businessmen. An entry in our "Hall of Fame" - where every donator is registered and honoured in an appropriate form - will improve the image. Thus it becomes interesting to donate programs in terms of marketing, too.
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How is DiGA going to guarantee that the games donated can still be played in two hundred years' time?
To be honest no one facing this issue in a serious manner can promise that. The risks and eventualities are too great as is the financial expense. However, DiGA is offering a solution that increases the probability of a long term preservation at much lower costs than any other approach dealing with this question. Firstly we can rely on the existence of emulators. Thus the problem of the games' availability is disentangled from presupposing the existence of the original hardware. And secondly we are employing -- in this we differ from centrally organized archives -- the Internet as our storage medium: it is globally accessible and part of it is represented by those millions of its users that are craving to play games: If you increase the number of copies of a program, you simultaneously heighten the probability of the game being preserved for a longer stretch of time. Not only in the realm of game preservation ours is a completely new approach that ties in both the Internet and its users as resources for the purpose of preserving data.
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Are there further reasons promising DiGA to be successful?
Considering the amount of different hardware platforms games are ranging amongst those forms of our digital culture most difficult to preserve. Given this it is all the more surprising that emulators have been developed for nearly all game platforms and most home computers without either central coordination or significant financial resources. The majority of these are based on open source. This proves the vast potential within the gaming community. With the aid of these resources DiGA wants to spread a public awareness regarding the importance of this work.
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Do we have to face legal wrangling with the lincences for the emulators?
With the exception of a few contested instances all emulators are legally available. Since most of them have been declared as Freeware by their developers they can be used by everybody. However, the question of legality looks different when it comes to the game programs themselves (excluding those of course from Free- or Shareware provenance): Firstly you have to crack a game in order to run it via the necessary emulator. Secondly you must not offer it for downloading in the Internet even if you are not charging any money. For no one but the legal owner has the right to distribute a game. And only after the copyright has expired -- generally after seventy years -- games can be made legally available to everybody. However since neither the license holders nor a legal buyer of any game is obliged to preserve the games the present situation resembles that of a lottery: After seven decades have elapsed who can predict which game will be still in working condition to be preserved by others than the license holders? And which of the games will have passed the threshold of them virtual pearly gates by then?
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Are the firms developing and selling entertainment software themselves not concerned about the question of preserving their games?back to top
Can games donated to DiGA still be distributed on a commercial basis?
Well, why not? The donators remain the owners of the legal title. It is his turn to determine the conditions of making his program available. And this allows for a wide range of possibilities spanning from use restricted to private and scientific purposes to the publication of the source codes. Depending on the owner's decision he can carry on to use his game commercially even if it can be expected that the value of the license is decreasing after he made the game available. This loss however is outweighed by the simultaneous gains: a place in our venerable "Hall of Fame" and to be relieved from the burden to be the only one bothered with the question of preservation.
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Am I entitled to offer on my personal homepage a game donated to the archive to be downloaded for further private use?
Yes. According to our strategy of preservation every copy of a game increases the probability of its permanent preservation. An attempt to aim for exclusivity would seriously undermine the very standards of DiGA's existence. We consider ourselves to serve as an interface and an area of competence that strives to further the idea of preservation.
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Who then can benefit from DiGA's interventions?
-- the industry, for we are significantly increasing the chances for the games to be preserved.
-- the developers of the games, for cultural production and creativity has to be embedded in its historical context.
-- the scientists, for the games are substantially contributing to maintain the interest of the public in the relatively young genre of entertainment software.
-- journalists and authors, who are thus given more material to put the history of digital media and its present into a wider perspective
-- fans, whose passion for the games and whose money provided the dynamics of the developments. DiGA gives them the opportunity to refresh recollections from their younger days.
-- society as a whole, for only by securing this tradition we are heightening the awareness for the value of the new media as well as for the many facets in which this tradition showed itself as desirable games.
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Why do we not present Freeware or Shareware games?
Simply because they are available from other sources. That is not to say they are in any way games inferior to those presented in the context of DiGA. But since they have been available legally and continue to do so one need not worry about their preservation. We can safely assume there is a sufficient number of copies to guarantee their being passed on.
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Does this mean that museums and archives devoted to the preservation of computer games are made redundant by our initiative?
No. Although games are playing an integral role in the realm of entertainment based on personal computers they are by no means the only aspect deserving preservation. The old consoles even if not in working order any longer, the packaging, instruction manuals and handbooks, the artwork on the coin operated machines, billboards, videos, films are yet further aspects centred around the phenomenon how computer games became a significant factor within the realms of material and popular culture in recent decades. They were not developed in a void but their origins have to be put in social and historical contexts. Some of us can still recall the penny arcades and original consoles that were state-of-the-art during our youth. In a couple of decades there will be no one alive to have spent his/her pocket money on the the thrill of playing Space Invaders or his/her precious time glued to a C64 monitor with what counts today as a stone age level of resolution. Without the original physical objects these experiences will be even more difficult to be understood by coming generations. Therefore DiGA is but one brick in the huge edifice ğdigital entertainment cultureĞ.
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How is DiGA going to be financed?
DiGA is a nonprofit organization. We do neither charge our users nor do we rely upon money from advertising. Our aim is to be based upon support from public sources and private donations.
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How can I support DiGA e.V.?
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Donations are welcome :)
DiGA e.V.
bank: Postbank (BLZ 100 100 00)
account: 15927106
You can also become a supporting member. This means you pay a membership fee
of your choice and receive all the benefits of a regular member (subscription of mailing lists etc.), except the right to vote. Supporting members help us maintain an overview of our funds, and contribute to our public image by demonstrating their interest in our project.
How can I contact you?
DiGA e. V.
www.digitalgamearchive.org
Hauffstrasse 4
10317 Berlin, Germany
phone +49-30-22504139
fax +49-30-55155772
e-mail: info@digitalgamearchive.org
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