NAKI III – Complex care for cultural heritage in the field of gaming applications

The five-year research project titled “Complex care for cultural heritage in the field of gaming applications” and supported by the Ministry of Culture under the NAKI III grant programme is focused on the development of methods and technological tools for the protection of digital games as part of our national cultural heritage. Gaming applications have significant cultural and historical value, but they have not yet received enough attention in the context of care for Czech cultural heritage. This project responds to the need of memory institutions such as museums, libraries and archives to protect and provide access to digital games that were created in the Czech Republic and have an international impact.

Project content

The researchers are contemplating the practical aspects of creating a database for archived games and an emulation station to run the games on, as well as more general questions of which games should be included in memory institution collections and why; in other words, what are the criteria that formulate the concept of cultural heritage when it comes to the relatively young medium of computer games? This involves multiple other issues and problems: how does our society define the term ‘national computer games’ and what specific values are linked to them in our culture? How has this evolved in time? What makes the history of Czech games specific? Which of those specificities should the NFA collection (currently under preparation) represent, and how exactly? Digital games represent a great challenge for memory institution in terms of their preservation and archiving simply because they are software – that is, digital products inextricably linked to specific platforms and hardware, and as such they are under a constant threat of becoming dysfunctional and inoperable using current computers due to the rapid evolution of technologies. At the same time, games are a major challenge for archiving methods because they are by nature unstable interactive objects, co-created by players to a great extent: how can memory institutions capture this sheer multitude and variety that playing games embodies?

Aside from general theoretical and historical research, the project includes the development of technologies required to preserve the games, in particular in terms of emulation and ensuring sustained access to the games, which were originally created for specific devices (computers, gaming consoles etc.). The solution includes a proposal of the metadata standard for incorporating game applications into memory institutions’ collections.

Project team

The project is being implemented by a consortium of three institutions:

• Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU): Helena Bendová is the head of the FAMU research team and Jaroslav Švelch is the technical guarantor. The other team members are experts in various fields including game history and library science, in particular Tereza Fousek Krobová, Jan Švelch, Andrej Sýkora, Marek Grajciar, Eliška Mlynáriková and Radek Hylmar. The primary role of the FAMU research team is to explore the historical, theoretical and methodological issues associated with research into the history of Czech games and archiving them in memory institutions.
• National Film Archive (NFA): Jan Kremer is the main project researcher at NFA. The NFA team will play the key role in creating practically oriented methodologies, a database and a specialised game collection within NFA.
• Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU): Roman Berka is the head of the research team at CTU. In the project, CTU focuses primarily on technical aspects, including the development of tools for the emulation and storage of gaming applications.

Schedule

The project is being implemented over the period from 1 March 2023 to 31 December 2027.

Project output

The principal project output includes:

• Publications: Technical articles and a collective technical monograph (scheduled for release in 2027) focusing on the topic of digital games and their preservation in memory institutions such as national archives and libraries.
• Methodologies: Creation of methods for the management, protection, and database documentation of gaming applications to be used by memory institutions.
• Conference: Several workshops and conferences will be organised as part of the project. FAMU will organise a three-day international conference connected with its research team’s work in 2027.
• Emulation tools: Development of software tools facilitating the storage of and access to games, including the design of an emulation station.

FAMU contact

Helena Bendová, Department of Game Design - helena.bendova@famu.cz