The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF), as its name suggests, is dedicated to the history of games, or ludology, as it is known.

The gaming industry and archiving its history are not exactly compatible concepts, but independent organizations are trying to change that. One of them is the VGHF, which announced on Bluesky that its digital library will be available from January 30th. They did not give any additional details, only that we should be patient and that they will tell us everything. However, in a statement to the VGC, the foundation did provide more information.

Artwork from iconic games, press kits and promotional material, as well as never-before-seen game development material will now be made available to the public. The package will also include 1500 out-of-print game magazines dating back to the early 1980s. Game Informer is a good example: it was the longest-running print video game publication in the United States before owner Gamestop suddenly pulled the plug on it last year.

Frank Cifaldi, founder of VGHF, presented some of the library’s features at Bluesky. The text will be fully searchable, and you can sort everything in chronological order. The magazines can also be filtered by region, platform and publisher. Following Cifaldi’s example, you can search for all magazines in the collection in chronological order if the term Metroidvania appears in the collection.

Founded in 2017, the VGHF has launched several projects focused on preserving the past. In 2023, the VGHF conducted a survey that found only 13% of gaming history is represented on modern marketplaces, with the remaining 87% either pirated or available from an archive. (If it’s a game that never made it to Steam and is no longer available, you CAN download it as abandonware!) Last year, it was proposed that the DMCA rules be amended to allow libraries and collections to remotely share “no longer available” video games, but this was rejected by the US Copyright Office.

Preserving the history of the gaming industry is something that needs to be supported.

Source: PCGamer, VGC, Bsky,