internetarchive

🎮 From Pac-Man to Nosh Kosh—retro games shaped generations. But many are vanishing.

Only 13% of classic games from 1960–2009 are still available. Some, like Jewish educational games by Yaakov Kirschen, who died on April 14 at 87, were almost lost forever.

Journalist Josh Renaud @kirkman explains why preserving niche software matters in the latest essay from the Vanishing Culture report.

🔗 Read the full essay: https://blog.archive.org/2025/05/07/vanishing-culture-recovering-lost-software/

Vanishing Culture: Recovering Lost Software | Internet Archive Blogs

May 7, 2025 at 2:02pmWeb
Show threadpancakes🔜BedMay 7, 2025
@internetarchive @kirkman piracy is preservation 🏴‍☠️
Show threadMrs RavenMay 7, 2025

@internetarchive

And cancelled MMOs are dead forever.

#Faunasphere
#Wildstar

@kirkman

Show threadAntoliusMay 7, 2025

@internetarchive I feel we're too focused on the "commercially" part of that quote, at the detriment of the "available" part.

@kirkman

Show threadStrongholdLizMay 7, 2025
@internetarchive @kirkman
Of course they've been allowed to disappear. They don't advance the subtle training that will allow young people to normalize killing other humans as the sole solution to everything combative.
Show threadTimMay 8, 2025
@internetarchive @kirkman Yeah, they'd delete the source of my joy, apart from God.
Show threadScriptFanix💍May 8, 2025
@internetarchive @kirkman Reminds me I was looking for a really good PC enigma game from the 90's called "The 7th guest". Really enjoyed it, both gameplay and storytelling were great, from what I remember...
Edit: and also "The Pandora Directive". That game was huge: 7 CDROMs! Switching CDs over and over was quite cumbersome, but worth it. And I never managed to finish it: got stuck in a room with something chasing after me in an air-duct, never figured how to get out of said room.