Bringing life to lost video game tapes – BBC News

  • By Tom Richardson
  • journalist

image source, Danny O’Dwyer

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Danny O’Dwyer rescued mountains of old videotape containing game footage from the landfill

As a keen gamer, Danny O’Dwyer is no stranger to quests.

But the documentary filmmaker has just embarked on a different kind of mission.

He’s rescued thousands of tapes containing rare video game footage – trailers, interviews and behind-the-scenes clips – from being sent to landfill and lost forever.

Danny reckons he’s saved hundreds of hours of gaming history. But now the real challenge – logging and preserving it all – begins.

You may recognize Danny who lives in California from his YouTube channel NoClip, which has produced documentaries on top games including Final Fantasy, Rocket League, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us and more. God of War.

His latest project started when a contact tiptoed him about a San Francisco media company that had a huge collection of tapes that he definitely wanted to see.

He was about to throw them all out, but Danny had other ideas.

So he rented a truck, and quickly drove the boxes and crates back to his studio. And that made him think.

«Certainly, more and more such collections are just sitting there in these buildings, and will eventually end up in their own landfill or on the verge of decay.»

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Danny said some boxes contain «hundreds» of smaller tapes that will be put inside the video camera before the memory card takes over.

After contacting others, Danny now has piles of cardboard boxes filled with tapes of various shapes and sizes, including some super rare professional formats.

On each tape is a piece of video game history from the late ’90s until around 2010 – and chances are you’ve seen it before.

«A lot of this stuff predated YouTube,» says Danny. «So that was before any of us had high-speed internet.

«There were things like videotapes that were sent to video game sites or TV channels that were never shown.»

From just a few tapes taken from «a few random boxes,» he discovered an interview with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and a Call of Duty Infinity Ward studio tour with two developers. The developer was later fired and went on to launch a multiplayer mode. Apex Legends shooter.

Since then, he has found other gems.

«A few days ago, I found a tape that said ‘Nintendo Tour’,» he said.

When he uploaded it, he found footage of an employee-only museum inside Nintendo’s former US headquarters.

«It’s like 30 minutes of this room that none of us have ever seen and no longer exists,» he said.

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One of Danny’s finds so far is footage from inside Nintendo’s former US headquarters

Danny and the NoClip team plan to go through all the tapes and digitize them, turning the footage into files that can be uploaded online.

But to do that, they had to upgrade their stock of equipment, as some of the technology needed to actually play some dedicated tapes is rare and rather archaic by today’s standards.

“Finding things that work these days is incredibly difficult,” says Danny. «They cost a lot of money to buy and then shipping them is a nightmare because they weigh a ton.»

It’s been a challenge for a crowdfunding company that relies on donations to stay afloat, but Danny says that dealing with the disparate machines, cables and screens is «a chore.» hard», but worth it.

“When you get the tape in these and find it still looking as good as it is, you can’t buy that feeling,” he said.

«Hidden within that collection, I know there are going to be some things that will truly shock and excite the wider world of video games.

«So I’m excited for those big moments.»

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NoClip also found footage of Tony Hawk showing off the Xbox 360’s not-so-successful skateboard controller at E3 2009.

And Danny, originally from Waterford, Ireland, says he’s «just as excited» about the smaller moments and awakening people’s memories.

«Someone is going to stumble across one of these videos and it’s going to be an old game they love or they used to play with a cousin they’ve forgotten about, right?

«If that person has that moment, when they watch that video and they send a YouTube link to their cousin and say, ‘do you remember when we played this?’

It’s available to anyone, and he hopes other creators, documentary filmmakers, and historians will use it in their projects.

«We hope that people interact with this content,» says Danny.

«We’ve seen people start their own Twitch streams where they watch a series of videos or create their own YouTube video essays using this footage.

«But for me, having a living, breathing archive, it’s like a museum, there’s no point in having a museum if people don’t walk around it and interact with the history there.

«We want people to watch videos, share videos, create their own artwork from these videos, and try to breathe new life into them.»

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