It's early summer in Rochester, New York. The weather is perfect, even though the lavender hasn't yet bloomed – but I'm in an elevator going down to a basement, frozen like an excited rabbit because I'm about to see the archives at the Strong National Museum of Play.
Established in 1969, The Strong is a palace from a child's notebook – a mess of organic shapes bleeding together in rainbows to form a comfortable home to the World Video Game Hall of Fame, as well as other impressive artifacts like the recently acquired Volition collection, which is what I'm here to see. Once I do, I'm convinced video game preservation – in this dark age of extensive industry layoffs, censorship, and dead games – is one of the only things keeping us from ruin, despite what some skeptics say.
