Hours of unseen video game footage are being archived online

The video game industry is so focused on the future that it sometimes forgets the past. Clearly, retro gaming is an increasingly important part of our entertainment, but publishers and platform holders don’t always make it easy to archive the best releases of yesteryear. Recently, for example, Sony announced plans to shut down the PS3 and PS Vita’s storefront, and while it eventually reversed its decision, its original intent resulted in thousands of titles being lost forever. Nintendo actually followed through with a similar strategy, closing up shop on the 3DS and Wii U for good.

Now a documentary producer NoClip has rescued dozens of boxes of archival video game footage, all of which were headed for a local landfill. Although this has not been fully confirmed, we are assuming that much of it was previously owned Gamespot, where host Danny O’Dwyer worked. He has now begun the long and arduous process of capturing it and converting it to a digital format, where it is all being archived on one. New channel. You can check out some of the results below, such as an interview with Hideo Kojima regarding the trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:

Much of this footage was originally sent to pressing videotapes, at a time when it was not possible to send large video files over the Internet or to a hard drive. So, a lot of the footage doesn’t currently exist online, or – as Danny points out in the video – does so on a very much Low quality. Needless to say, it’s all interesting, then – and it’s important work. If you want to support the project, you can do so patreon – Otherwise, we’d recommend subscribing to the channel above and seeing what tasty morsels emerge as part of this project.