On the subject of archiving and preserving games...

[The_Frenzy]

Greetings HBGames!

I am The Frenzy and I've been playing around with RGPMakerXP for quite some time now. (Even installed bootcamp on my Mac so I could work on my game on the go!)

My Background:
I am 27 and just earned my M.A. in History. If i have any useful skill here in this life it would probably be writing. I grew up playing the classic RGPs such Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and the Final Fantasies. In fact, as a 9 year old, I often spent my Saturday mornings with my best friend and huge sheets of paper scribbling story arcs and weapon details for future RPGs we hoped to build. Now that I'm an adult with a wife and a decent job, I still find a sense of solace in sketching out similar story arcs and working to create them. HOWEVER, as a historian, I am acutely aware of all the data from the past that humanity has lost and I endeavor to preserve what we have now for future generations. In fact, I can tell you that the single largest problem facing archivists and historians today is what to do with all of the digital data we are rapidly accumulating.

My Question:
I have already sifted through the research and found the best formats for preserving text, audio, and video files, but I have yet to find a clear solution for preserving video games. I know that many of you have invested thousands of hours into your games and I enjoy doing the same. But how depressing would it be to find 10 years from now that no one could play your game because the software was outdated? That being said, is there anyone in this forum who knows if there is a game creation software out there or work being done to export RPGMaker games into more popular coding languages so that games can later be copied to newer codes and thus preserved in a playable state?

P.S. Hi everyone. My game is titled: Redemption Crux: Siege of Souls

 

[coyotecraft]

I think games will be lost long before they become obsolete and incompatible. When megaupload went down a few years ago it took a lot with it. Whenever I find an interesting project on youtube or somewhere else and I ask where I can download it, it's always that they don't have the files anymore. A video and a few screenshots are all that exist.

 

[Ellie]

I know we're talking longer timeframes here, but in the shorter term, perhaps one of us could set up a hard drive somewhere secure and offer to store everyone's games on it, not to download (so as to be inexpensive) but simply to have them saved. I wouldn't mind doing it. A kind of long term file retrieval system.

Actually, that could work as a unique selling point for the site.

 

[Perihelion]

I don't know about RPG Makers, but GOG.com's shtick is preserving old games and making them playable on modern computers. I don't know much about it, but I think one of the things they do is keep an updated version of DOSBox that runs on modern computers. You have two options, really: hand-port every game or maintain an emulator of the system the game runs on. It might be possible to export RPG Maker games to other formats, but someone would have to write a converter, which would take a lot of time and effort.

Digital preservation is an interesting topic, though, and video games certainly present a lot more challenges than text or audio files.

 

[The_Frenzy]

Digital preservation is an interesting topic, though, and video games certainly present a lot more challenges than text or audio files.

It's the number one thing that keeps archivists awake at night. With the rate that technology is advancing and changing, there is a very real possibility that billions and billions of gigs of important data being produced today could be inaccessible or lost within in the next fifty years.

I guess another way of asking my question would be: does anyone have any estimation of the odds that a game created with RPGMaker could be eventually be converted to a more standard or open-source format, thus helping to ensure that it could still be played in the future?

 

[Ellie]

Very possible and people are making alternative players all the time. We've seen attempts at editors etc which, while unfinished, leave a lot of hope for the near future. I doubt it will be a problem.

 

[Perihelion]

As someone who looked into the possibility of building a converter at one point, it's possible, but it's a nontrivial amount of work. There aren't a lot of people who are seriously interested in RM games that have the coding chops to do it. You also have to consider that the RTP license forbids its use outside of RPG Maker, so porting existing games would probably break the license.

 

[Ellie]

Nobody's taken me up on the offer so far, so I'm guessing nobody's interested. I think it's an important thing though. I might just go around saving as many games as possible.