How to Join a Project

Assuming you don't want to send your games/demos/etc in for donation for others to dump, you may wish to try to dump games yourself. If you're particularly technically minded and are willing to follow the rules of a particular preservation group, you can be a huge help to preserving video games. We have a Discord chat here to guide you into an appropriate project, or you can use the cheat sheet below.

Guides

Here is a list of guides for preserving various bits of media:

• Dumping.Guide and Preservation.Guide - Work in progress sites for preserving all sorts of media
• No-Intro - Prservation focusing on cartridge-based and digital media
• Redump - Prservation focusing on optical media
• Scanning.Guide - Comprehensive guide for scanning physical media
• VGSC (Floppy Disk Dumping Guide) - Surface-level guide for floppy disks

Disc-based Systems

The processes of dumping disc based systems vary in difficulty from relatively simple (like PlayStation 2 discs) to more complex (like Sega Dreamcast). Redump.org offers open registration, and many detailed dumping guides. Newer consoles are visible only to contributors. Miss lists are here, but incomplete for some systems (it's best to search for a title or serial number in redump to be sure).

Cartridge-based Systems

These systems are well covered at the No-Intro group. Their database spans many console generations leading up to the present day. Submit dumps via their forum. Miss lists are being maintained here.

Floppy Disks

Floppy disk preservation projects are a bit of a runaround due to the sheer amount of possible physical and digital formats. This list of projects is far from complete, as some may not have a dedicated web presence, instead relying on posting collections on Archive.org.

• The Good Old Days specializes in preservation of floppy disks from IBM PC, PC/DOS, MS-DOS, Windows systems. TGOD roms are disk images (as opposed to just copying files over) and are therefore the highest quality open floppy disk preservation project. Kyroflux hardware is recommended for dumping (but NOT required). Contact them via their forum to help out. Their list of dumped games is here.
• Unfortunately, TGOD is no longer around and therefore, is not a recommended project to contribute to. We are currently trying to find another floppy-specific project to recommend. Please check out the other projects below in the meantime.
• MAME also archives floppy disks, and any new additions can be submitted to them. Finding a publicly viewable list of their games requires going into their software lists, however.
• Total DOS Collection (TDC) is another floppy project focusing on gathering as many versions of every game ever released. A large chunk of the project focuses on the files from the floppy disks and not images of the disks themselves.

Arcade

Dumping arcade games usually requires specialized hardware for dumping chips as well as possibly optical and hard disks in more modern systems. There are a few great resources for getting into arcade preservation

• Start here to see a basic overview of what's involved.
• CAPS0ff blog.
• Hackday's instructive site.
• MAME's unofficial forum at MAMEWorld.
• Consider donating to The Dumping Union fund.

Digital

Digital preservation varies wildly by platform, though a large number of them are covered by No-Intro.

• Console eShop / Console App Store content is being datted by No-Intro. Submit content via their forum. Miss lists are being maintained here.
• PC Downloadable games are being datted at No-Intro.
• Flash games are being preserved via Blue Maxima's Flashpoint project. They also have a Discord chat for coordination and contribution.

Scanning

VGPC has a high-quality home grown raw scanning project organized via our Discord scans channel.