jerome mcdonough university of illinois at urbana-champaign jmcdonou@illinois

‘KNEE-DEEP IN THE DATA’: PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN APPLYING THE OAIS

REFERENCE MODEL TO THE PRESERVATION OF COMPUTER GAMES

Jerome McDonoughUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

jmcdonou@illinois.edu

Preserving Virtual Worlds Multiyear initiative investigating the preservation of computer

games & interactive fiction Goal: To help develop mechanisms and methods for preserving digital

games and interactive fiction Methods: Case studies of individual games, experimental testing

Partners Graduate School of Library & Information Science

University of Illinois Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities University of

Maryland College of Computing & Information Sciences Rochester

Institute of Technology Stanford University Libraries Stanford

University

You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.

Preserving Virtual Worlds

Game Preservation Problems Complexity & Boundaries Versioning Meaning & Context

Game Preservation:A Data Model

Archival Information Package – Open Archival Information System Reference Model

Game Preservation:A Data Model

Game Preservation:A Data Model

Game Preservation:A Data Model

AdventureManifestation

AdventureItem

AdventureExpression

AdventureWork

AdventureSub-ItemData File

AdventureSub-Item

FORTRAN IVFile

<mets:div TYPE=“pvw:Work”>

<mets:div TYPE=“pvw:Expression”>

<mets:div TYPE=“pvw:Manifestation”>

<mets:div TYPE=“pvw:Item”>

<mets:div TYPE=“pvw:Item”>

<rdf:Description rdf:about=”URI forWork Aggregation"> <rdf:type=”pvw:Work" /> <ore:aggregates rdf:resource=“URI for Expression Aggregation />…</rdf:Description>

Game Preservation:A Data Model

AdventureWork

AdventureSub-Item

FORTRAN IVFile

xlink:arcrole="pvw:has_context_information"

Adventure Family Tree Website

Work

DEC System 10 FORTRAN Language

ManualExpression

<pvw:has_representation_information … />

A few remaining problems

A few remaining problems

A few remaining problems

A few possible solutions Collaboration

Among libraries, archives and museums on:○ On data storage○ On identification of representation information

Between LAMs and the gaming community on:○ Selection and acquisition of context

information○ Intellectual description

Thanks!

Questions?