rewrite this title Video Game History Foundation releases trove of game dev documents, magazines, and more

Why it matters: Researching video game history often requires sifting through analog materials that can be difficult or even impossible to access. The Video Game History Foundation recently took a significant step toward easing this challenge by making old development and promotional materials publicly available.

The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) digital archive is now in early access and available for free. The nonprofit’s website hosts a vast collection of scanned game magazines, development documents, promotional materials, and other historical content spanning several decades.

More than 1,500 issues and press documents from publications such as Electronic Gaming Monthly, Next Generation, GamePro, and others are now available with searchable text.

The database also includes artwork, research papers, video, audio, source code, and various notes from companies like Myst developer Cyan, Origin Systems, and Necrosoft Games – much of which has never been made public before.

The VGHF hopes the library will aid academic researchers, bloggers, YouTubers, and other content creators in uncovering primary sources when covering the industry’s history. While much of the material comes from retro gaming communities, the organization is also contributing high-quality original scans from its physical library in California. Additionally, it has developed a custom OCR method designed to read low-contrast magazine pages.

For example, the database includes all 367 issues of Game Informer, a magazine that was abruptly shut down last August, leading to the deletion of its official archive. The VGHF’s digital archive aims to prevent such losses from happening again.

However, the library does not host playable games. The VGHF has spent years trying to provide remote access to archived titles, but both the U.S. Copyright Office and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have stood in the way and blocked these efforts.

The Copyright Office has repeatedly denied libraries an exemption under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), while the ESA argues that remote archival access could impact sales of classic game re-releases. The most recent ruling came last fall, and the next opportunity for reconsideration won’t come until 2027.

According to a VGHF study, 87% of games released before 2010 are no longer commercially available. As a result, researchers, archivists, and retro gaming enthusiasts are often left with no choice but to pay exorbitant prices for used copies or turn to piracy. Relying solely on the titles that publishers choose to re-release will inevitably leave significant gaps in gaming history.

In the meantime, the VGHF will continue expanding its digital database. As a nonprofit, it relies in part on donations, and those interested in supporting its work can contribute via its website.