Stanford Recieves Huge Gift of 25,000 Games From Deceased Collector

[Shodan2020]

Stanford's Silicon Valley Archives is currently undertaking a major project to archive over 25,000 video games that was given to them by the family of deceased collector Stephen Cabernetti. About 80% of the games given are still in their original shrink wrap!

Check out the video of the curator of the archive talking about the gift. (http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6174194.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news)

As an old school gamer this is really flabbergasting to me. All these great old games in mint condition which are now being archived for future generations to see! Amazing!

[Tyrant]

Wow, that's a pretty serious collection. I can't say I understand why one would buy tens of thousands of games, keep them in their original shrinkwrap, and store them in boxes, never to be seen by anyone by the owner and whoever they show it to though.

Edit: Maybe I understand now. For the sake of preserving games, which could then be donated to some institution that could archive them...

[Meusli]

Stanford's Silicon Valley Archives is currently undertaking a major project to archive over 25,000 video games that was given to them by the family of deceased collector Stephen Cabernetti. About 80% of the games given are still in their original shrink wrap!

Check out the video of the curator of the archive talking about the gift. (http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6174194.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&subj=news)

As an old school gamer this is really flabbergasting to me. All these great old games in mint condition which are now being archived for future generations to see! Amazing!

That is definatly impressive, I think he said the collection contained consoles which is cool aswell!!

[TheFlyingOrc]

Ummm....the GAME is what comes up on the screen when you put it in a console. This is a box/cartridge/disc art gallery.

[Incidence]

Ummm....the GAME is what comes up on the screen when you put it in a console. This is a box/cartridge/disc art gallery.
Yea, it would be far better to make the games themselves accessible some how for future generations to play, not just look at.

[galactic empire]

Yea, it would be far better to make the games themselves accessible some how for future generations to play, not just look at.I agree. Games are meant to be played, but opening all the packages would be criminal. Does a gaming museum of this scale exist? If so can you play the games?

[ZephidsEmbrace]

Not only is that incredible, but very cool that a university is holding onto video games to be archived for a collection. I'd say this is what of those things that shows how far video games have come.

[Klade]

As someone who collects video game boxes from every game I have ever bought I can completely understand the motivation behind this. I won't have the money to buy two versions of a game (the one I buy and the one I play) but if I did I totally would.

[Swick]

Yea, it would be far better to make the games themselves accessible some how for future generations to play, not just look at.
As much as they're maligned by some people, I think this is what emulators and roms are good for. The consoles will break and eventually become unworkable (look at how few NES consoles actually work these days), but the games will always live on via emulation.

[Codicier]

As much as they're maligned by some people, I think this is what emulators and roms are good for. The consoles will break and eventually become unworkable (look at how few NES consoles actually work these days), but the games will always live on via emulation.

With that in mind, they should get emulators, and roms of every game in that collection and make them available to play (somehow using controllers built to interface with the emulator so you can actually use the controller the game was designed to use.).

[DaXIthR]

While this seems good and promising, and a step forward for videogames, I really need to see what Stanford is going to do with the collection.

[Nimos]

O M G ! That was Ultima : Escape from Mt. Drash, it's so rare that some people claim it never existed, Sierra (the publisher) is among them !!! That game is an urban legend !

Links :

http://www.vintage-sierra.com/other/mtdrash.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima:_Escape_from_Mt._Drash

[TrackZero]

Ugh. I can't believe that they're taking all those games out of their sealed packaging. Nor that this is only for the box/manual/etc, they should be downloading the data and archiving it as well.

[Johan]

O M G ! That was Ultima : Escape from Mt. Drash, it's so rare that some people claim it never existed, Sierra (the publisher) is among them !!! That game is an urban legend !

Links :

http://www.vintage-sierra.com/other/mtdrash.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima:_Escape_from_Mt._Drash

That's a pretty cool catch right there!

Very impressive collection. Makes me wonder what the guy did for a living to afford 25,000 games like that! :)

[Ravana]

An archive of the best games ever made, each in a playable form. Now THAT is the kind of museum I want to go to.

[Trencher]

Good god I bet there are some amazing games there. Awesome catch on Escape from Mt. Dash!

[Rook34]

Does he have the Red Star? I can't find it anywhere. Hooray for science though. Lucky bastards.

[ldi222]

I was wondering what Ultima that was! It appears to be an awesome collection but I didn't get warm fuzzies from the guy who was setting up the display. Im still not clear on why they are going to unwrap them for "preservation." I wish the collection would have gone to the Smithsonian in DC and yes part of the reason why is so I could drive to it and check it out.

[Lunar Blue]

Fucking awesome. Yes, that is all i have to say.

[Cubfan]

If I die, I bequeath my Gamefly account to the University of Illinois.