Back in 2023, the Video Game History Foundation announced it was curating a digital library, which would allow users to access its vast collection of magazines, art books and more from the comfort of their homes. And while it didn’t pop a date on when it would be available to the public at that time, it now has.
Writing on social media, the Video Game History Foundation revealed its digital library will be launching next week, on 30th January.
This organization fared much better than the Software Preservation Network, which the US Copyright Office recently barred from lending out copies of retro games themselves. It’s a lot easier to access material about the games.
I just asked it to show me every video game magazine in our collection in chronological order that says “Metroidvania.”
That example is impressive. Sorta doubt I personally will use this much, but I am sure that content creators I already enjoy sure will!
I was gonna make a joke about Nintendo, but I’m pretty sure they actually sued someone for publicly hosting 30 year old copies of the Nintendo Power magazine.
I would love a physical library near me. Or better a way to check things out through the mail. Like the old Netflix except with cool old magazines and such. I have a kindle but digital not the same and hate having to stare at a screen to read magazines. Cool none the less.
While a physical mail in thing would be nice, it would likely add a ton of wear and tear to the objects with shipping and handling, assuming they even get sent back.
Yeah I know assholes would ruin it for the rest of us. Be nice if we could have these in more places. Even if it was only view in the facility and not take home, it still be awesome to have physical access.
Hopefully this is a free resource available for all and doesn’t just turn into the games journalism equivalent of JSTOR.
