Archiving by Contextuality: the example of «Wing Commander»

As computer games become to play an increasingly prominent role in our cultural heritage, there is a growing need to preserve and provide access to artifacts. The challenge of preserving digital games is complex, requiring the integration of technological as well as archival considerations. Games cannot be understood as isolated pieces of software but must be put into the broader context of their computer architecture and the economic and social impact they had over time.

In this presentation I want to show two things by using the game «Wing Commander».

First, how the PREMIS standard and other metadata can be used to contextualise a software artefact to such an extent that an emulator can be automatically configured at any later point in time with the help of this metadata to get the original program code running again.

Secondly, how the new Records in Contexts (RiC) standard can be used to create a descriptive semantic network to document the economic and social context of the game in its entirety. This includes actors such as software developers, distributors, or game magazines. It also includes the game's development in several iterations from 1990 to the last version in 2007, and the game's own story of a young fighter pilot, with many parallels to popular movies as well as to real historic events such as the first Iraq war in the early 1990s.

My aim is to use semantic technologies and linked data to show how archival contextualisation in a literary archive could provide a reliable basis for understanding and maintaining the «playability» of an object as complex and diverse as a computer game.