A Nintendo Wii game console may one day be a part of a videogame archive. - file

The videogame medium is, depending on when you start counting, 46 years old. That's still relatively young compared to other popular media, but it's old enough, it seems, to start preserving the industry's rich history. To that end, the United Kingdom's first official national videogame archive was launched earlier this week. It will house a treasure trove of consoles and cartridges ranging from the humble beginnings of 1972's 'Pong', to the blockbusters of the 21st century.

Media museum

The archive was formed by academics at Nottingham Trent University, in cooperation with the National Media Museum in Bradford. The archive will, in fact, be located at the National Media Museum, and managed by Nottingham Trent University's Centre for Contemporary Play. Interestingly, along with games and consoles, the archive will also include a wide range of game-related media, such as advertising campaigns, artwork, and "the communities that sustain them" (which we really hope doesn't mean they'll be preserving the average videogame forum post).

The archive will really come to grips with what is a very creative, social and productive culture. It will not only be a vital academic resource to support growing disciplines in videogame studies but will also be something that the general public can fully engage with.

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1. Nintendo has released DSi with camera and more online features.

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