The Video Game History Foundation makes its digital library available to the public next week

The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) is making its digital library system available to the public for the first time next week.

The first public version of the library will launch on January 30, offering digital access to some of the Foundation’s “exciting special collections”.

“After years of collecting, cataloging, and digitizing video game history materials, the VGHF is finally opening the virtual doors to its library – wherever you are,” the Foundation said in a statement.

The news was teased with hi-res images featuring Donkey Kong arcade flyer artwork and Final Fantasy 7 artwork.

Although it says it plans to “save the details for the big premiere”, the VGHF says its library includes “never before seen game development materials” and “artwork, press kits and promo materials from iconic video games”.

It also says it will feature access to more than 1,500 out-of-print video game magazines, which will be fully text-searchable.

The VGHF was set up in 2017 by game preservationist and historian Frank Cifaldi. Since then, it’s been building an extensive collection of video game related material, with the aim being to catalogue, digitise and preserve the history of video games.

The non-profit foundation relies on donations to build its archives. “Thanks to your support, we’ve built a powerful tool for video game history research,” it said. “We can’t wait for you to get your first look at what we’ve been up to.”

In October, the VGHF criticised the US Copyright Office’s refusal to grant an exemption that would allow researchers to remotely access out-of-print video games.

The Software Preservation Network, supported by the VGHF, had petitioned the US Copyright Office for an exemption that would let libraries and archives provide remote digital access to video games, so researchers could access them without having to visit their physical premises.

To make these games accessible remotely, libraries and archives would have to break the copy protection on games, but current anti-circumvention rules in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prevent this.

The US Copyright Office concluded that it would not grant an exemption in the DMCA, meaning remote access remains prohibited.