Try to play Ty the Tasmanian Tiger the way it was originally released. Not the remaster — the 2002 PS2 original, made by Krome Studios in Brisbane. You need a working PS2, a physical disc, and a CRT TV if you want the authentic experience. How many of those things do you have?

Now try to play De Blob, originally developed by Blue Tongue Entertainment in Melbourne before THQ took over. Or any of the games from the original Team Bondi before they became L.A. Noire’s studio. Or the dozens of mobile games made by Australian studios in the 2010s that have been delisted from app stores and exist literally nowhere.

Australia has been making games for decades. We’re losing that history faster than we’re documenting it.

The problem

Game preservation is a global challenge, but Australia has specific factors that make it worse.

Studio closures. When an Australian game studio closes — and many have, including 2K Australia, THQ’s Australian studios, Team Bondi, and dozens of smaller outfits — the source code, design documents, and development materials often disappear. There’s no standardised process for preserving these materials. They end up on hard drives in someone’s garage, or they’re simply deleted.

Digital-only releases. The shift to digital distribution means games can be delisted at any time. When a publisher decides a game isn’t worth maintaining on a storefront, it vanishes. No physical copies to find in a second-hand shop. No way to legally acquire it. This affects Australian indie games disproportionately, since many never had physical releases.

Format obsolescence. Games from the early 2000s and earlier require specific hardware to play. Emulation covers some of this, but the legal status of emulation in Australia is ambiguous, and not all games emulate well. The hardware itself is degrading — optical drives fail, capacitors leak, storage media corrupts.

No institutional mandate. The National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) has a small games collection, but it’s not comprehensive and the institution’s mandate prioritises film and audio. There’s no Australian equivalent of the Video Game History Foundation (US) or the National Videogame Museum (UK) with dedicated resources for game preservation.

What we’re losing

It’s not just the games themselves. It’s the development context. How were they made? What tools were used? What design decisions were made and why? What was the Australian games industry like in 1995, or 2005, or 2015?

Some of this exists in the memories of developers who were there, but memories fade and people move on. Oral history projects capture some of it — ACMI in Melbourne has done excellent work here — but the scale of what’s being lost vastly exceeds the capacity to document it.

Australia’s contribution to global game development is more significant than most people realise. Australians worked on BioShock, the original XCOM, Fallout: New Vegas, L.A. Noire, and hundreds of other notable games. The studios, tools, and creative approaches that produced those contributions are part of Australia’s cultural heritage.

What’s being done

There are bright spots, all driven by individuals and small organisations rather than government policy.

ACMI’s games collection in Melbourne is the best institutional effort in Australia. They collect games, consoles, and development materials, and their exhibition program regularly features Australian games. But their resources are limited.

The Game On Australia project has been documenting the history of Australian game development through interviews and archival research. It’s valuable work, done largely on volunteer time.

Individual developers are preserving their own work where possible. Some studios make source code available when they close. Others donate materials to archives. But this is ad hoc and depends entirely on individual initiative.

What should happen

A dedicated game preservation program within the NFSA or ACMI. Games are Australia’s largest entertainment export. They deserve the same institutional preservation support that film and music receive.

Legal deposit requirements for digital games. Just as Australian publishers are required to deposit copies of books with the National Library, game publishers should be required to deposit copies of commercially released games with a preservation institution.

Developer archive incentives. When Australian studios close, there should be a streamlined process for donating development materials to an archive. Tax incentives for these donations would encourage participation.

Emulation legality clarification. Australian copyright law is ambiguous on emulation for preservation purposes. Clarifying that preservation institutions can legally emulate games for archival and research purposes would remove a significant barrier.

None of this is radical. Other countries are doing it. Australia is just behind, and the gap is growing every year that passes without action.

The games industry moves fast. If we don’t preserve our history now, we won’t get another chance. The hard drives are failing, the studios are closing, and the people who remember are moving on. We’re running out of time.