Hubz here! This article is a bit late – the actual opening of Gaming Alexandria was on October 23rd, 2015. Better late than never!
I’ve honestly been struggling with what to write for this and what kind of direction to express my thoughts on this moment. I decided wing it – I apologize for the rambling mess this will likely turn out to be.
The origin of Gaming Alexandria was a very simple site to host my scans; that was honestly it. I had hoped with time I would add more and maybe get others to submit their own as well – thankfully that’s what happened. I focused on scans because a huge amount of games at the time were not digitally preserved in what I’d regard as high quality.
When I tinkered with emulator frontends, some systems had decent artwork while many others did not – especially when it came to the Japanese side of things. The NES library was mostly scanned in good quality but there was hardly anything out there for the Famicom. I started scanning to start chipping away at this problem…
A little at a time is the big thing with Gaming Alexandria. I think game preservation seems like a large, “impossible” project that most people are afraid to take on because it’s just too much for one person to do. But if you don’t start, you never know who else might come along. It happens enough times and suddenly the impossible really isn’t impossible anymore – especially when you find a bunch of people passionate about the same thing.
Game preservation is very time consuming, expensive, and takes a lot of effort. I can personally attest to this in scanning, but there are many other aspects of game preservation you could say the same. One person may only be able to do one thing a week, or one thing a month, or one thing a year. That’s okay! Anything you do is one less thing for us to collectively worry about. One thousand people doing one thing a year adds up very quickly. Small victories are important; don’t be discouraged by mammoth tasks.
For example, Gaming Alexandria almost has 5,000 items posted on the site. That’s just in ten years and from a handful of contributors, including myself. That’s only Gaming Alexandria! Looking at VGSC and VGPC tags on Internet Archive which yield thousands more high quality scan results. Video Game Preservation Collective is a sister game preservation group that’s also done incredible work. We’ve also set up scanning.guide which has spread as the defacto digital scanning guide for would-be preservationists. There’s so many other preservation groups, individuals, and organizations fighting the good fight for accessibility of game history. We’re pulling this off by working together.
Sorry, I got sidetracked – being all preachy back there: Back to Gaming Alexandria’s origins.
For the first few years, it was mostly my own scans. In March of 2017 I joined the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) Discord that had just recently started. I befriended other game preservationists and showed some of them my work. Discord was still in its early days, but I could tell it was only going to get bigger – so on a whim in April of 2018 I started up a Discord of my own for Gaming Alexandria and some others from the VGHF Discord joined me. I also posted about the Discord on Twitter.
We now had a nice small group of international game preservationists and historians hanging out together – discussing our projects and helping out each other where we could. It was at this point that contributions from others picked up in the scanning department and Stefan Gancer/Gazimaluke offered to redo the website in WordPress so we could host not only scans but articles and prototype releases. This was really where the foundation of what Gaming Alexandria has become was laid; we also formed a formal staff and moderation team.
Gaming Alexandria was changing from a place where I posted my scans to an international game preservation powerhouse. Collectively, we have released hundreds of scans, several unreleased prototype games, and written in-depth historical articles about all sorts of things gaming. Our Discord boomed from just a group of twenty-ish people to currently over 1,600! Twitter followers are at 12,000 and Bluesky is over 6,000. So much of this is thanks to the fantastic staff and the community as a whole.
I cannot take credit for the vast majority of this, but I am extremely proud of what Gaming Alexandria has become. I feel when I decide to step back from using my free time on game preservation to actually playing and enjoying video games again, Gaming Alexandria will continue to grow and prosper. It’s not just scans, complete magazine sets, prototypes, game development documentation, type-in programs, preservation guides, translations, interviews, or historical articles: It’s all that and more thanks to the community. We all love video game preservation and we all want to help each other with our various expertises and skills. How can we go wrong if we keep that up?
If you haven’t joined our Discord already, please consider it. We invite anybody who wants to be involved with game preservation in some way. You may not know what direction to go or help out – I say, follow whatever interests you. Don’t take on something you don’t enjoy doing because you will slowly grow to hate it. There’s parts of game preservation I hate doing so I let others that enjoy doing it handle it. I recommend the same attitude for others. There’s so many ways you can contribute to game preservation. All it takes is a willingness to learn and having a good attitude. So join today if that sounds like something you are passionate about!
Thanks for reading this and giving my life some extra meaning. Every time I hear something I’ve scanned or done has been helpful in some way, it’s like a huge shot of dopamine. I guarantee the other staff and contributors to game preservation efforts feel the same way.
There are two more sections below. Firstly, my personal thanks to various people who helped make Gaming Alexandria what it is over the past decade. Then there’s a section where I asked for responses of what Gaming Alexandria has meant to people over the last ten years!
I’ll now leave you with a photo of my best Bill Gates sexy pose cosplay (with edits from Kao). You’re welcome.
Special Thanks
Ethan Johnson – A huge part of the success of Gaming Alexandria. Thank you for editing all the articles, contributing your own deep dives, and being a fantastic Discord moderator. Few can rival your passion for video game history and I’m so glad you decided to use those talents to contribute to GA. Thank you for also keeping the Discord so social with watch parties and hangouts etc. – they really make our community feel more like a family.
Stefan Gancer/Gazimaluke – Thank you for laying the foundation of what Gaming Alexandria has become with the website redesign. This was such a crucial part of our success. I know you’re not really active in game preservation anymore, but I hope you’re enjoying life and just know I greatly appreciate everything you’ve done for GA.
Wietse van Bruggen/Densy – Thanks for being a good friend and an excellent Discord moderator over the years and letting me make dumb Photoshop memes about you and I. Your articles about Dutch game history are good stuff; we greatly need more work like yours from all over the world.
Dylan Mansfield/DillyDylan – You’ve always been super impressive to me with your excellent articles and ability to discover lost prototype games despite being so young when you began. Without your efforts, the prototypes and documents we’ve released on the site likely would have never been found. Hope you’re enjoying your college years and thank you!
Jonas Rosland – You’re an incredible leader dude. Thank you for helping me and Sadikyo start Hit Save and being willing to take on the Director position for so many years. I know how much work all of that has been but you’re one of the greats in the game preservation in my eyes. Can’t wait to see what Hit Save accomplishes in the coming years – in large part due to your efforts.
Togemet2 – Thanks for contributing so many great prototypes to the site over the years and for arranging so many things behind the scenes for game preservation.
Joey Wawzonek (Detchibe) and Betony Meszaros (Rage_Beat06) – My fellow OCD magazine and game scanners! Thank you for your friendship and for helping take so much off my plate. You’ve made my life a lot easier and I can thank you enough for that.
Sadikyo – You might be one of the quietest major contributors to game preservation out there. You’re also one of the most level-headed, kind, and generous people I’ve met and I’m thankful for our friendship. Your contributions to Hit Save, VGPC, and Redump over the years are incredible and without you these projects wouldn’t be anywhere near what they currently are.
Ozidual – Thank you for your help with the type-in program initiative, plus all the scanning of games and magazines. I’m not sure the type-in programs thing would have ever really gotten off the ground without you. We now we have several contributors to the project and this important, untapped potential of game preservation grows thanks to your efforts!
Newyokohama – Thanks for being a good friend and helping me out with various tech things – while also listening to me rant and ramble on all sorts of topics. And let’s not forget your contributions of various rare Namco related scans!
Rockleevk – Few put as much time, money, and effort into game preservation as you – especially with your expertise and contacts. I’m glad we have you contributing so much; I can’t imagine how many rare things would still be unpreserved without your help.
I could go on and on honestly as I’ve met so many great people over the years in this space but this will drag on for a hundred more pages if I keep going. I apologize for keeping this short, but regardless just know I appreciate the efforts/friendships with several other people as well and hopefully you know who you are.
What Gaming Alexandria Has Meant to Others
“Gaming Alexandria has been instrumental for my own games history research and ongoing archival efforts. Without the work of Hubz and others, I would have never been able to investigate obtuse and misrepresented narratives on erotic games. Thanks to the generosity of the Gaming Alexandria community, I was able to not only source the first commercial erotic game, but get it preserved for anyone to access alongside its related materials. The kindness of the Gaming Alexandria community inspired me to start archiving games, multimedia, and amusement history myself.
Without the encouragement of the Gaming Alexandria community, it is possible that many of the publications I have now archived would remain largely lost to time. Without the support of others, I would not have meaningfully pursued an education in library science or a career in the heritage industry. Without Gaming Alexandria, I would not be assisting organisations like Hit Save! and other games preservation groups. Without Gaming Alexandria, my life would be in a very different place and games history would be an immeasurably more difficult field of historical inquiry to pursue. As I continue my own projects and assist others with theirs, it is all thanks to Hubz and Gaming Alexandria that I am where I am today.” –Joey Wawzonek (Detchibe)
“Hubz – the man of two beers – has enabled me to meet people and discover things which have made game history better. Gaming Alexandria’s tireless efforts in preservation has made the world and my life better as a result. The international community we’ve formed is not something that would have been possible without Alexandria shining the light to focus our efforts and stimulate discussion. I thank Hubz for his trust, friendship, and willingness to be our loving butt of the joke through these many years we’ve known each other. To Gazi, Densy, Dilly, Jonas, Senn, and all the members of the GA community: Let’s keep it going.” –Ethan Johnson, Gaming Alexandria Editor
“Gaming Alexandria is full of wonderful people, serious students of history, who day after day continue to push forward the frontier of game history preservation.” –Kao (Keshi Corner)
“I dig into Famicom research rabbit holes and post my findings to a website I co-founded (famiwiki.net) and I couldn’t have done it without the help of everyone including Hubz with their amazing scans of material. I hope to continue to grow the resource and further contribute to the community.” –Brenden (Bro3256)
“Just before getting into GA and its goals for ‘new’ standards/guides intended for game and related media/mags preservation, came from the PC-9800 Series Discord Channel. At the time, was in between discussing and deciding where to bring, or what to do next within the preservation scene, given that many things were done so far, and felt maybe to have a break or just let it go, to be honest. Once met new people who were getting into scanning old magazines including some favourites like the PC-Engine Fan and others which have been always great sources of info and previews of even cancelled games or other mysteries around like Dino Force(which was lost at the time).
So can say that GA made me think once again what gaps were still remaining within the scene, meet people with other projects in mind & understand what others were into aside from just ‘dumping’ games, GA grew and developed to have a much wider scope of what gaming meant to people who feel nostalgic about it, and who wants to research what was like in niche areas that could not be accessed easily back then unless you had access to western magazines that were a little bit into ‘imports’ from Japan (for example) and make all that niche media and other gaps within the scene as whole. To say what it means to me, it’s about sharing and spending time getting to know that there’s lots of room to research or just getting to know more about your hobby in a single place, or share any experiences you had with videogames, work on a project on your own or with others at same time.
But you know what’s better? To come over and keep discovering daily what’s going on, and experience yourself, if you can. Plus, open 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year! (Just kidding). Before checking out, I want to say my huge thanks to all members over the years at GA, and for all their support they have given to individuals into preservation. Without that kind of support(including myself on that end), and people who helped out from other channels(VGPC, and alternative places that work with specific dumping methods, many to mention), would not have been possible to have a larger place where for ‘networking’ or making those targets/goals possible in any way. If it’s any kind of media, no matter how niche it can be or that maybe no one might be into, give it a shot over here and could be surprised that some were looking for that specific idea or project to come up and offer their help, too!” –Rockleevk
“Heya! Congrats on 10 years! I just wanted to say that your magazine archive has been invaluable to my work, both books and Sega-16. The sheer amount of magazine and trade journals you’ve scanned comprise one of the most important collections online.” –Ken Horowitz (Owner, Sega-16)
“I also just want to extend a huge huge thank you to Hubz for all of the amazing work you’ve done and the awesome community you have maintained and improved over the many years I’ve known about you and Gaming Alexandria. You’ve fostered something really special here and it has been a fantastic community and a great resource for me on numerous occasions. Thanks to you and the team for everything you’ve done and all the amazing work you’ve accomplished. It is really appreciated!” –Sadikyo
