CCG/TCG Preservation Project

Today, I would like to tell you about another of my pet projects. In a way, it is related to a couple of my older articles. If you are wondering how it is related, just keep on reading.

I started writing this blog in an effort to bring attention to the lesser known card games. Why? Because I have seen many great games come and go just because no one had ever heard of them, and that was mainly due to the fact that there were not enough advertisements for the game in question. I give my support to the little game, but that is not enough for the games that have already left us. That is where my other project comes in.

I have started archiving images from the hard to come by and dead card games I have stumbled across. Sometime I can find an online image library, and that is a big help. Of course, that is not always the case. Sometimes I have to scan the cards in my own collection, though I do not have a large enough collection to complete my project.

Like I have said, I have come across a few online image libraries that are hosted on the main sites for the games they depict. The only problem is that if the game is not longer in production and the company lets the “lease” on the domain name expire, and the company itself goes under, the images on the website will be lost. If no one can find the cards, then it will become just another game lost in the aether. I do not want to let that happen.

I have decided to take advantage of the fact that my image host doe not have a limit to how many images I can post, nor how much bandwidth I can use. I am going to take all of the images I compile and post them so that people can try these great games. The risky part in this is that there is a chance my image host may vanish, so I am dedicating an old 20 gig hard drive to this project as well. If one hos goes down, I can post my backups on another site.

Now, in the intro I told you that this project is related to a couple of my other articles. The articles I am talking about are “On Proxy Cards” and “Gatling Engine”. I am compiling this database so that people can print out the cards and try out the games. The people who created the Gatling Engine have a similar idea in mind, except everything is done online. This will save people money since they do not have to spend money on paper, but it takes away face to face interaction, which is my favorite detail of card gaming.

I am going to continue to compile my database, but I am not going to post anything until I know for a fact I am not going to be sued by the game owner. If you would like to help me out, feel free to send me some card scans. That would be great.