DGA TALKS: Preserving Dutch Games for the Future: How to save your games!

When: Wednesday April 23 2025, from 15.00 to 17.30 pm
Where: Beeld & Geluid, Mediapark 1, Hilversum

Beeld & Geluid (The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision) has been archiving games in playable form for eight years. But as games rise and fall it is more important than ever that studios can learn how to save and preserve their games for the future.

In this talk, Willem Hilhorst, games-archivist at Beeld & Geluid, will not just explain how they do this at an institutional level, but provide insight to developers and studios. With suggestions, tools and guidelines they can take the first steps into preserving their own work themselves. Be it a premium, applied, mobile or web-based game, this talk will be a kickstart to making your games accessible for the future.

Joining Willem is Joost Lubach, who developed two web-based games for the television program 'Zondag met Lubach' and who reprogrammed his games for long-term preservation.

Finally, attendees of the event will be invited for a guided tour through the institute. Join us as we open the vaults, where we keep historical artifacts, such as props and production materials from Dutch media history, and show you how we exhibit video games as part of the media landscape in our interactive media museum.

Program
15:00-15:15: Reception, coffee & tea
15:15-16:30: Main topic, talk and Q&A
16:30-17:30: Guided tour in the Beeld & Geluid depots

Afterwards, for those who would like to stay and chat for a bit, there is the option of having a drink at Bar Boon (drinks at your own expense), located 300 meters across from Hilversum Media Park train station.

Only a limited number of tickets (free) are available, so make sure to sign-up fast! (And please sign-off if you cannot make it after all, as we might have a waiting list.)