A researcher at the US Library of Congress has uncovered the source code for an unreleased Duke Nukem title. David Gibson, the researcher in question, was going through some newly acquired gaming material for the Library and came across an unusually labelled CD. On it, was the unfinished Duke Nukem: Critical Mass; which was originally intended to be released on the Sony PSP.
Accessing the material on the CD proved to be extremely challenging as the information was stored in Sony’s proprietary format. Gibson resorted to looking for help on the homebrew forums on how to access and retrieve the data. He presents a full account of the discovery of the lost treasure, and brings up some interesting questions about the future of preserving video games as part of our culture.
The Library of Congress encourages developers to submit their work for archiving, although many games in the collection are currently running the risk of being unable to be used by future generations. Older formats that are abandoned remain locked away as the companies that hold the copyrights and trademarks tend to use proprietary software for accessing the information. These same companies are often unwilling to share their software with anyone and create an environment where those games are practically lost. This is especially true for console games that fall into history as newer consoles appear without having any backward compatibility.
It might be tempting to wait and see if there are any other lost games that might be stashed away in the collection; although Gibson has been quoted as saying that there is nothing else to find.