An Uber Online Museum is a great idea - one where you can not necessarily walk around it (I don't like that paradigm) - but certainly one where when you select an entry, you can manipulate a full resolution 3D model of the item and remove the insides and do the same, etc., as well as (as long as we're dreaming) immediately play the game in a browser-based emulator with full virtual keyboard/controls that match the original (or optimal) target system (and also download the ROM image for your own usage on the real hardware). No doubt that will come someday, particularly when 3D scanning technology takes the next technological leap in both availability and cost, but right now, it's just not practical. That would also take a huge community effort, a la something along the lines of Wikipedia, though certainly something more focused and stringent (and well above what something like Moby Games offers).

All this talk has left me to reflect a bit on my own somewhat haphazard method of sharing my collection with the world. I know I don't have the time or energy to do more, though, but it would make me sad from a legacy standpoint if when I passed my collection fell into disuse/disarray without doing more from a true archiving standpoint. Even AA is not future-safe, as it only exists on the host's server and whatever backups we keep. Nevertheless, that is a universal problem of simple human existence, so it's not something that's necessarily unique to videogame/computing/technology collecting. After all, it's not like we have 3D models/disassembly/archiving of the vast majority of anything else "collectible", be it stamps, coins, cars, whatever.

Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.