Video Game Heritage Institute

Did you know?
Experts predict, due to hardware failures and data degradation, in as little as 10 years most video game titles from the 70's will be lost forever.

In 2014 Matt Steadman and Thayne Dickey, long time friends in the Salt Lake City area, combined their own video game collections and started collecting from their friends. Shortly afterwards they learned that as it currently stands there really isn't much being done to preserve games for future generations. Realizing that the emerging situation was not unlike the situation in the film industry that unfolded in the first half of the 20th century, which resulted in the loss of the vast majority of all films before 1950, the Video Game Heritage Institute was born! This is a situation that seriously needs to be addressed. 

After careful consideration of the importance and impact of video games, VGHI has set out on a three part mission.

1. Preserve - Archive
   The VGHI Archive will protect games from time itself. Our current approach is to seal 3 copies of every game, and the necessary hardware to play the games, away in a climate controlled environment. 
2. Play - Library
   The VGHI Library will allow people to borrow certain titles, and play the games using all of the original equipment that the games were originally designed to be played with.
3. Learn - Museum
   The VGHI Museum will focus on sharing the entire story of the games. Highlighting the impact that games have had on our culture at large, and the story of how they came to be.

Preserving electronic resources is a prevailing problem in the library/archive industry and video games present a unique challenge. Support VGHI today and save these games for future generations.