If you’re looking to lose a few hours (or more) of your day to old video game ephemera, the Video Game History Foundation just launched its own free digital library. The archive of materials from throughout the history of video games is currently in early access, and you can start perusing right here as it continues to expand. The folks at VGHF started rolling out digital early access around the globe, opening the doors for everyone to sift through an immense selection of material. In it you’ll find game development documents, press kits, team photos, player-made ephemera, memorabilia, magazines and more, all primed and ready for research or the pure entertainment of a good deep-dive. Watch as Phil Salvador introduces the library below.
In addition to all the development material, the library has, thus far, scanned and digitized over 1,500 out-of-print video game magazines—some of which were also provided through earlier online scan communities—and made them all full-text searchable. To pull this off, they had to develop an entirely new program for searching text, which makes sense once you remember how buckwild the layouts tended to be in old video game magazines.They also digitized a large collection of CDs that game companies sent to GamePro for promotional purposes, making them viewable in-browser.As for what’s next, VGHF plans to keep adding material in the coming years as they pull from all the content piled up in their storage facility. Those interested in supporting the endeavor can donate directly or join the foundation’s Patreon. Keep an eye on the library, and happy digging! Source: Video Game History Foundation
