Trash cans, landfills, and incinerators. Erasure, deletion, and obsolescence. These words could describe what has happened to the various building blocks of the video game industry in countries around the world. These building blocks consist of video game source code, the actual computer hardware used to create a particular video game, level layout diagrams, character designs, production documents, marketing material, and more.

These are just some elements of game creation that are gone -- never to be seen again. These elements make up the home console, handheld, PC and arcade games we've played. The only remnant of a particular game may be its name, or its final published version, since the possibility exists that no other physical copy of its creation remains.

As a community of video game developers, publishers, and players, we must begin asking ourselves some difficult but inevitable questions. Some believe there is no point in preserving a video game, arguing that games are short-term entertainment, while others disagree with this statement entirely, believing the industry is in a preservation crisis.

Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis [more inside]
posted by timshel on Feb 9, 2011 - 44 comments

Vimeo Video School is a fun place for anyone to learn how to make better videos. Start by browsing the Vimeo Lessons, or find specific video tutorials created by other members.
posted by netbros on Dec 20, 2010 - 4 comments

Software, and Instant Real-Time 1-Click Commissar Removal: In the old days, photographic purges were laborious and time-consuming. Modern software has of course made this process much faster, and now this important task can be applied to video, and in real-time. Of course, if you don't want to actually remove someone or something, but instead simply want to turn ordinary men into Heroes of the Revolution and vixens into forgettable faces in the crowd, well, that too is an option.
posted by darth_tedious on Oct 12, 2010 - 18 comments

Ubuntu Studio is a Linux distribution focused on creative audiovisual pursuits.
posted by phrontist on May 10, 2007 - 55 comments

Peanut Gallery: DIY MST3K for OS X. OMFG! Via DF.
posted by mcwetboy on Jun 14, 2006 - 12 comments

Segata Sanshiro! Why show people the graphics and gameplay of your video game, when you can simply beat them into playing it?
posted by qDot on Dec 13, 2002 - 5 comments

Search-indexing video footage? Dremedia's software can analyze video footage -- either raw or edited -- and not only identify nearly every word spoken but also differentiate between speakers and even understand when a scene changes.

And who said the gee-whiz startup was dead? Well, it is, but Futureboy still has rent to pay, I s'pose.
posted by scarabic on Jan 4, 2002 - 4 comments