The Video Recreation Historical past Basis (VGHF), nonprofit group devoted to the preservation and celebration of the historical past of video video games, has formally launched the VGHF Digital Library.
The archive is presently in early entry and open to anybody within the research of video recreation historical past at no cost at library.gamehistory.org. You’ll be able to take a look at the launch video on YouTube.
Researchers, players and most of the people can have entry to greater than 30,000 curated recordsdata (with tons extra to return) of business ephemera straight from the VGHF’s bodily assortment, together with greater than 1500 full-text searchable out-of-print video recreation magazines, never-before-seen recreation improvement belongings, paintings, promotional supplies, and extra gaming relics.
The Video Recreation Historical past Basis has a bodily library.
That makes it one of many largest repositories of recreation business historical past on the planet. Anybody with a necessity or curiosity for studying extra about how gaming has advanced is inspired to bookmark and entry the wealth of data and distinctive bodily assertion items spanning greater than 50 years.
“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,” stated Frank Cifaldi, founding father of the Video Recreation Historical past Basis, in a press release. “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.”
A scan of field artwork for Rogue: The Journey Recreation.
The VGHF Library is designed as a singular vacation spot and analysis device, permitting customers to seek for particular video games, authors, publishers, and different metadata throughout public and beforehand inside supplies.
It looks like a really fascinating place the place recreation followers might spend hours going by way of the bodily and digital archives. You’ll be able to test it out:
Wish to discover a chronological listing of mentions of your favourite recreation?
See what designers used for reference when designing basic video games primarily based on properties like Batman, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Myst sequence, and extra?
Search by way of basic magazines equivalent to Recreation Informer, GamePro, Subsequent Technology, PSM and extra?
Or perhaps dig into video footage from the present ground of E3 2000?
The VGHF Library additionally hosts extra difficult digital supplies, like classic artwork belongings and data despatched to magazines to be used of their publications, or viewing web sites and shows as they had been initially seen.
Different highlights of the VGHF Library embrace:
Guidebooks and ephemera from recreation occasions, together with searchable directories and maps from the primary 12 years of the Digital Leisure Expo (E3).
An in depth worldwide assortment of From Software program promotional supplies, collected by citizen archivist Kris Urquhart, with a blessing from FromSoftware to donate them to the library.
100 CDs of artwork and press releases from GamePro’s journal archive.
Over 100 hours of footage from the manufacturing of the Myst sequence, together with never-before-seen interviews with the Cyan crew.
The Mark Flitman papers, a treasure trove of paperwork collected over the course of Flitman’s profession at video recreation publishers like Konami, Acclaim, Atari, and extra.
“At the Video Game History Foundation, we think the best way to study game history is to have access to the raw materials,” stated Phil Salvador, library director on the VGHF, in a press release. “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.”
Early Sonic the Hedgehog artwork.
The inspiration is a 501(c)3 non-profit group, based in 2017 by gaming veteran Frank Cifaldi. A former recreation journalist, Cifaldi began the VGHF with a bodily area in Emeryville, California and has continued to construct extra assets together with the Digital Library which launched in January 2025.
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