Mission.

SaveGaming.Org is a resource library intended to serve as a comprehensive, academically-oriented reference for the field of video game preservation. It is not a ROM site, an emulator repository, or a place to download games.

Video games could be lost forever. We are here to make sure that doesn't happen. 

A 2023 study by the Video Game History Foundation found that more than 87% of video games commercially released in the United States before 2010 are no longer available through any legitimate channel. They are out of print, off storefronts, locked behind defunct hardware, or simply lost. Their source code has been destroyed, their servers shut down or their physical media deteriorating on shelves in warehouses no one visits anymore.

This is not a niche problem... it is a cultural crisis.

Unlike film, literature, or recorded music, art forms that benefit from robust institutional preservation frameworks, legal protections, and decades of archival practice, video games exist in a uniquely precarious position. They require proprietary hardware to run. They depend on external servers, online authentication systems, and third-party "middleware" that publishers can abandon overnight. Their intellectual property passes through so many corporate hands during mergers and acquisitions that determining who even owns a given title can require a private investigator. Their physical media rots. Their digital storefronts close with little warning and no obligation to provide alternatives.

The result is a body of cultural and artistic work, one that spans more than fifty years of human creativity, technological ingenuity, and interactive storytelling, that is eroding faster than it is being saved.

Preservation is the act of pushing back against that loss. It means dumping cartridges before they fail. It means petitioning the Library of Congress for exemptions to copyright law. It means reverse engineering hardware that no longer exists in production. It means documenting legal cases, cataloging organizations, and maintaining institutional memory about who is doing this work, how they are doing it, and what still needs to be done.

SaveGaming.Org exists to support all of these efforts. 

This site is equally interested in providing reference for those already involved in the preservation effort as it is to educating those learning of it for the first time. We hope that researchers studying digital preservation, media history, or intellectual property law will find primary source documentation, legal case summaries, and annotated links to foundational scholarship. Collectors and hobbyists seeking to understand how their work fits into a wider movement will find technical guidance and community resources. Students encountering this field for the first time will find a clear on-ramp. Developers, archivists, librarians, and policy advocates will find information organized at the depth their work requires. We hope that you will find this resource valuable no matter your background or experience. 

Where possible, every claim on this site is traceable to a primary source. Organizations are described based on their own published materials and documented activities. Legal summaries reflect actual case records and regulatory filings. Articles and studies are presented with proper attribution, author context, and publication dates.

This is a living document. The field of video game preservation is active and rapidly evolving, with new legal rulings, preservation initiatives, technical methods, and new losses all occurring with regularity. This site will be updated to reflect that ongoing reality. 

If you have any suggestions for additions to this site, please reach out to us: 

savegamingorg@gmail.com