Hello and welcome to The National Videogame Archive.

Videogames are a key component of modern culture and of our social, creative and technological history.

The National Videogame Archive is a joint project between the National Media Museum and Nottingham Trent University, which aims to celebrate that culture and preserve that history for researchers, developers, game fans and the public.

Announced in September 2008, the Archive is working to preserve, analyse and display the products of the global videogame industry by placing games in their historical, social, political and cultural contexts. This means treating videogames as more than inert, digital code: at the heart of the National Videogames Archive is the determination to document the full life of games, from protoypes and early sketches, through box-art, advertising and media coverage, to mods, fanart and community activities.

At present, the Archive’s activities are focused on determining the range of materials it will seek to preserve, and on exploring and devising innovative and engaging ways to exhibit and analyse videogames for a wide-ranging audience. Our intention is to encourage a debate about what games are, what they mean to the people who play them, and what elements of them should be preserved.

We’ve started by asking people from within the games industry to share their ideas, and you can see their responses at www.savethevideogame.org. If you’d like to add your voice to the debate, then come along to the GameCity Festival where we’ll be inviting submissions from the public.

For more information about the Archive, contact info@nationalvideogamearchive.org.