INDIANAPOLIS — What happens to old video games when they are forgotten? A project at IU-Indianapolis hopes to save them all before they become too far gone to archive.
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The Media Arts Research and Learning Arcade, or MARLA, was recently recognized by the Indiana University system as a full-fledged museum. The space has generations of consoles on display and has collected more than a thousand pieces so far.
“Right now, the video game community is scrambling to preserve as much as possible,” said Professor Mathew Powers, who is in charge of MARLA. “All the online games like Newgrounds and Neopets and Flash games, they’re all disappearing. There are so many he, she, and they hours that are just disappearing into the ether.”
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The museum collects games, consoles, magazines, and tabletop games, even if they are broken. It is open to the public on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Powers said the collection will both save video game history and inspire the students in IU-Indy’s video game program.
“There really is a miraculous moment when somebody can pick up a controller from 10 or 20 years ago and play a game as it was meant to be played,” Powers said.
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IU-Indy video game design student Haven Hamelin has taken on a second role as MARLA’s cataloger. He believes older games still have relevance with people his age.
“I appreciate what they did for me growing up, and I want to recreate that for a new generation, Hamelin said. “New mainstream games are often looked at as more slop, it’s a re-release of a re-release. Mostly, my generation is looking at indie games and retro games.”
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Powers worries the games will be lost to history if people do not take steps to protect them.
“We owe it to those creators and we owe it to future generations to really preserve this for the future,” Powers said.
The Media Arts Research and Learning Arcade is located in room 420 of the Informatics and Communications Technology Complex at IU-Indianapolis.
MARLA is still seeking donations of consoles, games, and magazines, even if they are broken. It is specifically looking for a Nintendo Virtual Boy and a Phillips CD-I. You can contact them by emailing marlalab@iu.edu.
