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 BMX Simulator - A new Game in our Archive
Sab, Thursday, October 7, 2004, 12:49
We are pleased to announce that we are allowed to include a new game in our archive. It is BMX Simulator and it was programmed in 1986 for the C64. Our great thanks goes to Codemasters, who allowed the free use of BMX Simulator for non-commercial and educational purposes. Making BMX Simulator, their first game, available Codemasters celebrates its 18th birthday.
DiGA at the ICHIM04 Conference
Sab, Wednesday, August 25, 2004, 13:33
The ICHIM conference 2004 (International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums) will be held from Aug., 30th until Sept., 2nd in Berlin. Our Paper named “The Development of new Strategies for the Preservation and Archiving of Digital Artefacts” will be presented from our member Karsten Huth at Thursday, 2nd.
The ICHIM Conference is a regular major conference initiated from the Archives and Museum Informatics Organisation. This years conference will be focusing on digitisation of cultural heritage and on the emergence of new digital art and culture forms.
DiGA cooperates with the University of Tampere (Finland)
al, Monday, June 28, 2004, 14:57
The Hypermedia Lab of the University of Tampere will start a new master's course in the field of game studies at the winter semester this year. As we all know, it is very important to teach and analyse not only recent games but the classic games as well. DiGA is commissioned to help the University in clearing the rights for this educational use of historically relevant games.
DiGA cooperates with "Wizards of Os" Conference
Sab, Wednesday, May 26, 2004, 11:09
The WOS Conference is one of the biggest events about "The Future of the Digital Commons" in Germany. We are very happy to be responsible for two panels about the preservation of complex digital artifacts exemplified by computer games. We invited highly regarded specialists from the library sector up to the emulator community.
Henry Lowood (Curator for History of Science & Technology, Stanford University Libraries, USA), István Fábián (Classic Amiga Preservation Society C.A.P.S., Hungary), Jürgen Buchmüller (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME), Germany), Simon Carless (Software Curator at the Internet Archive, USA), Karsten Huth (Librarian, Humboldt University, Germany).
The event will take place in Berlin on the 10th and 11th of June 2004. The panel will be held in English, and it is planned to stream all sessions via the 'Net (at least in audio).
Major Work about Preservation of Video Games
al, Tuesday, April 20, 2004, 11:58
Recently one of the first major works on the preservation of computer games from inside the librarian sector was finished. In his thesis, the Berlin-based librarian Karsten Huth develops a strategy (including a complete metadata scheme) of how this task could be handled. You can download the (German) work "Problems and solutions of software preservation using video games for the Atari 2600 and the C64 as an example" from our site (2.3 MB, 144 pages). In addition, we are very happy to welcome Karsten Huth as the latest Diga member.
DiGA on the air
Sab, Wednesday, April 14, 2004, 14:15
DiGA will be featured in the radio show “Games Talk” on the Berlin-based radio station reboot.fm on Sunday, April 18, at 3 pm (CEST). Studio guests will be Andreas Lange and the librarian Karsten Huth, who lately finished his thesis about the preservation of computer games. The 90 min. lasting programme is in German language and will be broadcast in Berlin via 104.1. There is also a live stream on the net at http://reboot.fm
The show can be downloaded in an .ogg format (e.g. Winamp) here.
New Permanent Game Exhibition in Germany
al, Friday, February 13, 2004, 15:15
According to the German Association of Leisure Software Publishers (VUD) its members opted for a new “Concept of Communication” at the last general meeting in January. One of the key elements will be a permanent exhibition about the history of digital entertainment culture. The Berlin Computer Game Museum was appointed to design and manage the show which is planned to open this year.
This development shows that the game industry becomes more and more aware of their responsibility in keeping and promoting traditional offerings. It also proves the increasing consciousness of the companies about the values of such a strategy in respect of shaping the general image of games as an cultural artefact.
Read the news here
Games and Creative Commons
Sab, Friday, January 23, 2004, 17:05
The online game Second Life™ from the San Francisco based studio Linden Lab™ will be most likely the first computer game connected with a Creative Commons licence. In a press announcement the company has committed to exploring technologies to make it easy for creators (the players) to license their content under Creative Commons licenses. According to Robin Harper from Linden Lab ™ this is planed for summer 2004.
Even though not the whole game but only some parts will be licensed under CC we appraise that as an important step forward. In our opinion the CC licenses are a practicable and realistic way to enable the legal preservation of games. We hope that this will work well as an example for other licence holders to follow.
Games have been exempted from the prohibition against circumvention of copyright protection measures
al, Thursday, October 30, 2003, 12:38
On October 28, 2003, the Copyright Office granted exemptions among other digital works for:
“Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.”
This exemption is directed at improving the availability of works for non-profit archival and preservation purposes. It was requested from the Internet Archive together with Lawrence Lessig from creative commons. In their request they stated:
“Without access to replicas, no archive can be created in order to preserve literary and audiovisual works embodied in software. These works will not be preserved absent this exemption.”
Although we are working under the German law we expect that this ruling will have a major impact on the work of every archive dealing with digital artefacts in form of programs. Furthermore we hope that it will work as a positive example for the ongoing process of the European copyright law development.
Read more under: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/
Sarcophaser - A new Game in our Archive
al, Wednesday, October 22, 2003, 15:58
We are pleased to announce that we are allowed to include a new game in our archive. The name of the game is Sarcophaser and it was programmed in 1988 for the Amiga. Our great thanks goes to THQ Entertainment GmbH, who allowed the free use of Sarcophaser for non-commercial and educational purposes. The Initiator was the developer of the game Andreas von Lepel. Read his request here (only in German).
Article about game preservation on wired news
al, Monday, August 11, 2003, 12:26
Suneel Ratan wrote the article on the occasion of the Classic Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. Read the story at http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59948,00.html
DiGA becomes a member of DINI (German Initiative for Network Information)
al, Thursday, July 17, 2003, 12:43
DiGA was accepted as a member of DINI - the German Initiative for Network Information. Other members of DINI are the media and computer centers and the research libraries of the German universities. Aim of DINI is to provide information about the archiving of digital works and to promote the implementation of the OAI standard. For further information about DINI please have a look at www.dini.de (unfortunately only in German).
One of our first tasks within the network will be the participation in the DINI-workgroup which is related to metadata for multi media objects.
Games Technologies get attention from the Cultural and Scientific Heritage Sector
Sab, Monday, June 23, 2003, 18:20
The Digital Games Archive was choosen as a case study for the recently published Technology Watch Report 1 of the European Research Initiative DigiCult "New Technologies for the Cultural and Scientific Heritage Sector"
Download the report here and have a look at page 160.
C1 - a brand-new retro-hardware can be ordered soon
al, Monday, May 5, 2003, 13:04
Although software based emulation satisfies the majority of users who need a quick fix for a classic game or program, others out there want a slightly more authentic experience. Enter the C-One, a re-configurable computer that goes a step beyond emulating a classic computer, but actually becomes one. By using FPGA’s, or Field Programmable Gate Arrays, the C-One can physically be reprogrammed to become a Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Apple II or a variety of other systems. Users simply need to plug in a corresponding CPU card, load the appropriate FPGA program and, whoa dude, you got yourself machine that runs your favorite classic software.
Production has recently been started and users who are interested should be able to purchase the board sometime in May 2003. The estimated price is about 249 Euro, and includes only the board -- users will need to provide the ATX case, power supply, drives, keyboard, mouse and monitor.
For more information please visit the project’s website at http://c64upgra.de/c-one/ or email cm_easy@yahoo.com.
Extensive Study about Entertainment Software as an Exhibit
Sab, Thursday, April 3, 2003, 17:50
Jeremy Gieske from the Salford University recently finished one of the first major works about computer games in the field of museum studies. Titled, “A study categorizing issues facing current and future videogame museums and exhibitions in today’s heritage marketplace“, his analysis is based on two case studies: The Computer Game Museum in Berlin and the Game On Exhibition in London. Predicting an increasing public interest on games related shows, Gieske demonstrates that archives like DiGA have a growing significance. With kind permission of Jeremy his work can be downloaded here
GDC talks about Preservation
al, Friday, January 10, 2003, 17:45
The new year starts with good news. For the first time the game industry adopt officially the preservation subject. The Games Developers Conference (San Jose, CA. March 4-8,2003) set up a roundtable and a panel discussion on the preservation of games. Participiants are the industry veterans Greg Costikyan and Steve Meretzky, the lawyer Jim Charne and our partner in Stanford Henry Lowood.
"Fair use" re-established in the USA
Sab, Thursday, November 21, 2002, 16:52
On November 2nd, 2002, the "Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act" (the TEACH Act) was signed into law by President Bush. TEACH redefines the terms and conditions on which accredited, nonprofit educational institutions throughout the U.S. may use copyright protected materials in distance education-including on websites and by other digital means-without permission from the copyright owner and without payment of royalties. Inspite this do not match exactly our needs the law could have consequences for the preservation of games as well. Because it also re-establishes this particular "fair use" of a copyrighted work -- still preserved for non-digital copyrights -- that was made illegal under 1998's Digial Millennium Copyright Act. Read more at the site of the American Library Association.
Nevertheless we will continue only making games available with the permission of the licence holder.
DiGA goes online on November the 15th 2002
al, Thursday, November 14, 2002, 11:34
Friday the 15th of Nov. 2002 the first version of our site goes online offically. It provides our ideas and a small example collection of games as well. Read the press release.
DiGA in Stanford
al, Wednesday, October 2, 2002, 15:28
On the 7th of October 2002 there will be a symposium at the University of Stanford (USA) about the subject of preservation of digital cultural assets. Diga has initiated this symposium among others.
The symposium is interdisciplinary and shows therefore even better the approach of Diga: The preservation of computer games is not an isolated phenomenon.
The aim of this symposium is to establish an internaional initiative for the preservation of digital cultural assets.
Computer Game Museum exhibition
al, Monday, September 30, 2002, 10:40
A computer and video games fair of international relevance – the Games Convention - takes place for the first time in Germany.
Supporting program is the exhibition " History of Games". This exhibition was realised by the Berlin Computerspiele Museum on behalf of VUD. Over 60 historic and current paddles and computers can be seen on 300 square metres.
games in two big european exhibitions
al, Monday, September 30, 2002, 10:37
This year two established European galleries consecrate themselves to computer games with two great exhibitions either in the London Barbican and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.
Congratulations to the successful shows. We are glad that computer games approached the sector of museums as a thrilling and popular exhibition subject.
PLAY - Il mondo dei videogiochi
April 24. - July 10. 2002, Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma
GAME ON
May 16. - September 16. 2002, Barbican Art Gallery London
first two big european game summits
al, Monday, September 30, 2002, 10:36
This year the first major European conferences will take place at the University of Manchester ( UK) and Tampere ( Fi). They deal solely with the topic of the research of entertainment software. They point out that nowadays computer games are taken seriously as cultural assets, even on scientific top levels.
Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference
June 6-8, 2002 - Tampere, Finland
Playing with the Future: Developments and Directions in Computer Gaming
APRIL 5-7, 2002 - University of Manchester
DiGA e.V. founded formally
al, Monday, September 30, 2002, 10:35
On the 3.4.2002 Diga e.V. enroles in the Berlin Register of associations. Number 21545 Nz. Diga is the first association with the purpose of the preservation of entertainment software in Germany.
Board of Directors: Andreas Lange, Paul David Doherty, Stefan Zeilner
first public appearence
al, Monday, September 30, 2002, 10:32
On the 9th of February 2002 DIGA appears in public for the first time within the scope of TRANSMEDIALE.
The interdisciplinary panel "Digital Cultural Heritage" is sort of a nonofficial test run. We want to examine our strategy of placing the preservation of games in a bigger interdisciplinary context. The experiment worked. Since then various strategic partnerships have evolved with for example Hans Dieter Huber ( University Stuttgart) and Oliver Grau ( Humbold University Berlin).
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