Arcade-Junkies.com

UK-based Portsmouth University in co-operation with the European-based KEEP (Keeping Emulation Environments Portable) have an ambitious plan that aims to save old video games from the ‘digital black hole’ by developing the world’s first general purpose emulator and archival system. And yes, even though it sounds like the famous arcade emulator MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) with newsgroups, it’s not. It’s much bigger than that.

The project aims to safeguard old game files in the same way that aging literary works are now being digitally archived online, including Google’s large database of books. And once all those gaming files are securely stored away, the project aims to go one step further by developing emulation software that can play all those files.  The project’s ultimate aim is to design an emulator that will play all of ‘em,  from 1970s Space Invaders games to three-inch floppy discs.

An interesting quote from Doc Anderson says “Early hardware like games consoles and computers are already found in museums but if you can’t show visitors what they did, by playing the software on them, it would be much the same as putting musical instruments on display but throwing away all the music. For future generations it would be a cultural catastrophe.” Maybe someone should tell him the famous phrase ‘what goes on the internet, stays on the internet’.

But there’s still more to it than that. They go on to say in the press release that “Currently, there are lots of emulators out there, but they are all self-enclosed and can become obsolete just like the media they are emulating.” So what happens if the MAME devs all die off and MAME no longer works on the next big O/S? “The difference with [KEEP] emulation is that you are freed from these problems. Every time hardware, software, operating systems or anything else upgrade, the KEEP machine just emulates on this new platform. It means it is as future-proof as these things get.”

So somehow this can magically work on future un-made operating systems? Color us skeptical.

Read the Full Press Release Details