Status July 2011

The classic gaming library is currently being surveyed, for a general description of it as an archive, suitable for future more thorough documentation.

Submitted by Terra Brown July 2011:

Summary of the contents and condition of the Classic Gaming Library

The Classic Gaming Library (CGL) is a collection of hardware and software with a focus on console and computer games. The hardware collection includes console systems and peripherals dating from the late 1970s to the present that encompass stand-alone models, tv-based models and handheld devices along with a wide variety of controllers (e.g. joysticks, standard console controllers and game specific controllers). The software collection includes cartridges, floppy disks and cds containing games and other software for use on both console systems and personal computers. The software primarily dates from the 90’s to the mid-2000’s, but there are outliers from as far back as the oldest hardware and some from the last couple of years. In addition, there is a collection of packaging and manuals for both hardware and software.

The CGL space is located east of the Wine Cellar and is approx. 270 sq. ft. with shelves lining two and a half walls and occupying the center of the room. Game consoles occupy the east wall, made up of five shelves, 18 inches deep and 20 ft. long. PC games primarily occupy the north and west walls, made up of nine shelves, 18 inches deep and eight to ten linear ft each. The central shelving unit is 9 feet 3 inches by 3 feet and holds consoles, peripherals and software. Peripherals, manuals and other items that do not currently fit on the shelves are in boxes or stacks on the floor. The best estimate that we have for the total number of items in the library is near 20,000 based on the last count performed by volunteers. The south wall and half the west wall are dedicated to testing stations for both hardware and software.

The CGL contains hardware systems made by Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft and others. Both software and hardware in the collection generally match so that most software has a system that will run it and most hardware has software to run.

I estimate that it will take between 15 and 20 more hours for me to complete the work of surveying, labeling locations and counting the contents of the room.

Previous Status 2009

Our main tasks currently are testing of the game consoles, and removal of non-CGL and excessive items (stuff we have too much of). There is currently a station setup with 2 LCD TVs, and one computer for testing. The TV's both have switches attached to them ( the Console equivelent of a KVM), and older consoles using RF transmitters can be daisy chained.

Josytic testing has mostly been done for USB devices, but there are probably a few that we missed. Non USB devices will need to be tested using a converter (which we have many of). Controllers for consoles still need to be tested. Newer ones we have USB adapters for, so they can be tested on the computer (PS1,N64,XBOX). Older ones might be a bit harder to test quickly.

Play/testing area

All RF devices should be set to channel 3 unless otherwise noted

Big LCD

SNES (RF)
PS2 (switch)
PSX (switch)
Dreamcast (switch)
NES (RF)

To do

Sort consoles, cords and controllers by company/system. (mostly done)
Organize games (by era and one of each game for display, the rest will be boxed and stored)
Sweep/Dust
Sort Classic computers + cords.
Sort software/games and shelve with accompanying computers
Get rid of Non-Classic hardware and other random devices
Label all boxes

Stuff to save

4 of each controller type (working)
2 or 3 of each console/computer (working)
Stuff that looks pretty (working/non-operative)

Stuff to test

EVERYTHING
Computers
Game Controllers
Game Consoles

Misc

Create incoming area and sorting area
Decorate with the nerdiest oddball items we can find

Testing

Tested

Consoles
- NES
- SNES (all good)
- Playstations
- PS2 (most of them)
- Gameboy + Gameboy advance
Computers
- Atari ST (all working)

Not Tested

Game Cube
PSOne
Sega Genesis
Sega Master System
Turbo Graphix 16 (if we have one?)
Atari (except ST)
Radio Shack TRS-80
XBox
Texas Instruments
Media
- Floppy Disks
  - 5.25"
  - 3.5"
- Game/Software Cartages
  - Atari (any)
  - Texas Instruments
  - Sega
  - Sega Genesis
  - NES
  - SNES
  - N64
  - Gameboy
Game/Software CD/DVDs

All keeping in mind if anything is in box never been opened game/software wise, keep intact.

Proposal for CGL Membership 2009

So as to limit our membership to those individuals who are seriously interested in the cultural value to be found in this area of our history, we request that anyone seeking admission to have first played and beat Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters (one of the last great games to have been completely authored by only two individuals) and to then submit an essay to <cgl@freegeek.org> discussing the use of spoken dialog in gaming throughout the years, and how SC2 fits into that. Special consideration will also be given to published game designers or those with significant contributions to bring, but they should still play SC2, because it is lots of fun and truly deserves the name "classic".

Classic Gaming Library

Contents