Two weeks ago, when Time Extension ran a feature on our struggles, we weren't optimistic about turning things around.
There was a crisis of confidence that perhaps we weren't needed, weren't wanted, or that the community wasn't interested. The response was the complete opposite. We received around 400 new supporters, bringing in roughly ¥160,000 (£830 / $1100) per month. There were hundreds of new emails in our inbox, which we are still going through. The response was overwhelming and deeply heartwarming. In fact, we now have more supporters from outside Japan than from within.
Thank you to everyone who donated or signed up—the Japanese Game Preservation Society is safe for 2025. All of us at the GPS are overjoyed and extremely grateful for this support. We have also read through all of your feedback. In the comments on the Time Extension article, on Twitter / X, on BlueSky, on Facebook, multiple threads on Reddit, this ResetEra thread, and also private emails to the GPS and our allies.
Thank you to everyone for the feedback. The outpouring of support, in conjunction with the feedback, has given us a clear mandate moving forward. There has been tremendous discussion among the GPS board members, and we pledge to improve communications. It's apparent that while we're able to share knowledge that our supporters want, we're not very good at conveying it.
Below are some of the changes the GPS hopes to implement, explained via a Q&A based on specific comments seen online.
Q: Where are the English newsletters and other materials?
A: All English materials are HERE. Please enjoy them.
Q: Isn't communication through downloadable content a little antiquated?
A: Yes, and we plan to modernise. As pointed out in feedback, PDFs are more like mini magazines, filled with features. They take a lot of time and effort to write, layout, proofread, and generally put together. But they are not easily searchable and not convenient for reading. Moving forward, we hope to provide material in easily accessible web pages and other means. In addition, the existing material will be exported over time. Please look forward to this and new material.
Q: If you need 300 new supporters each year, is it feasible?
A: At the time of being interviewed, we only required 300 to 400 new long-term supporters, singularly, not cumulatively, each year. That figure of 400 would stop us from losing money. Since the article, we have received around 400 new supporters, meaning we are no longer losing money. The direct immediate impact is we are going to restart government subsidies—this is a huge relief and major development. We can restart work with the Japanese government this year—it's something we should not stop. As explained previously, making use of the subsidies requires us to spend money since the subsidies can only be used for salaries, not ancillary costs.
This also means we are now able to restart some smaller projects which had been put on hold. Again, thank you to everyone for believing in the GPS.
In total, we now have more than 900 supporters. In the years to come, we hope to expand to 2000 members (double our current number) so as to achieve greater critical mass and not rely so much on a few large donors as we currently do. Their generosity is deeply appreciated, but we are aware of the individual burden placed on them. Patreon is the next step in our long-term plans.
Q: Do you have a database?
A: Yes, though this is complicated—there are three categories. We have an enormous database of raw data comprising everything believed to have been available in Japan, including things we do not have. This "big data" is a navigation tool containing multiple sources, many of which need confirming. It contains more than 140,000 games. This is not publicly accessible.
Secondly, we have an inventory of items owned by the GPS, the status of each item, and what we are doing with said item. Currently this is not publicly accessible, it's only for internal use, and the reason why is complicated. It's not just what we have but also how it's handled. My promise to supporters is I intend to make publicly available all the items owned by the GPS, so that everyone can see what we have and what we are doing. You have my assurances of remedying this in due course.
Short version: it used to be public and online, but this was not synchronised to the offline database, so it became outdated quickly, and it was very slow. Thus, the entire system needs overhauling. One thing I wish to share now: every single item we digitise for the archive, we keep a permanent physical copy of. We have a strict policy of not migrating an item unless we can have a permanent copy to refer to if required.
Finally, we have an online catalogue, which is an extract of the inventory, but it's curated for the general public, where we have checked information and verified it with thumbnails and scans. This is information you can safely use for your research or articles because we have catalogued every component. Currently, it's small, only for the PC-8801, but our goal after restarting the government subsidies is for next March, we aim to add 4,500 titles to the catalogue.
Q: I tried to subscribe, but it failed; what do I do now?
A: We had approximately 70 people attempt to subscribe and the system failed to process the payment. We apologise for this—it pains us knowing there are keen supporters out there. It could be network issues, it could be the size of the payment to a foreign organisation, or possibly the card used was out of date. We will be emailing you directly, but perhaps please retry, maybe with another card? Or contact us so we can investigate.
Q: Why don't you use Patreon or allow smaller one-off donations? Paying a big annual fee is problematic.
A: In response to feedback, we have implemented the ability to make small one-off donations, even as little as $1. We are also considering plans to expand into areas such as Patreon. If you want to make a small one-off donation, please use this QR code.
Q: What do I personally get in return for monetary support?
A: The response we had from those discovering the videos and newsletters for the first time is that the GPS is able to provide desirable content. We're looking into providing content to subscribers, possibly including the following:
- Articles based on our work, as found in the newsletters
- Short podcasts updating everyone on new developments
- Regular photo updates of our projects
- Developer interviews
- Smaller news items: news feed and / or Twitter & BlueSky updates
Some of the feedback made us realise that our work is not accessible enough. The GPS isn't simply acquiring games to sit locked away—we are continuously working on digitising different materials. It's important that we share this process with our supporters so you can see where your money is going. A lot of the planned content will depend on our ability to write and edit English copy, but we're receiving offers to volunteer. Moving forward, hopefully our new framework will be informative and fun.
Q: What about connecting supporters to items in the archives, like museums do?
A: We like this idea a lot. Donor recognition is important since we rely on your support, and it's a nice way to weave supporters into the history itself. We received a very big donation from one supporter (thank you again), and it would be nice to provide more than just words. For higher tiers of subscribers, we're considering some sort of system where you receive a certificate, and your name is credited to a specific item.
Obviously donations go into a pot and are then allocated, but we can have a discussion about attributing your support to an item we're cataloguing which you're fond of. The item would then be listed as: "Preserved thanks to the generosity of First LAST, 15 May 2025." You might be updated on the acquisition, cataloguing, and various aspects of preservation of said historical item. Or something along those lines—how do you feel about this idea?
Q: Will there be a divide between direct annual supporters and monthly Patreon supporters?
A: If we decide to implement Patreon, the aim would be for equality between both sides. There would be no favouritism for one supporting group—each would have access to the same rewards. Given how successful new memberships have been, we're still deciding on Patreon, but we're keen to expand. Any subscriber content received early would eventually be made public to help spread the word of the group's work. But you'd have the satisfaction of enjoying it before anyone else.
Of course the Patreon plans are still in process, and we will provide a detailed Q&A when ready to launch, and details are finalised.
Q: Why can't you provide playable binaries (ROMs) or cover art? Will the law change on this?
A: We actually did provide scans of all the covers we had preserved. It was online and accessed by a lot of people. Then recently the Japanese government contacted us requesting it be removed. Everything is still preserved, we just cannot make it so easily accessible (the intricacies of the requirements of law warrant its own article). Also if you're logged in as a supporter and visit our online catalogue, you have access to a slightly bigger full cover, including the back.
We, of course, help anyone requiring this material for their work. For example, Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 required some rare cover art for his JRPG book, which we were happy to provide. As for actual game data, this is a little more difficult. If a rights holder gives permission, this would be legally acceptable—otherwise, we are securing the data and currently can only provide it to the rights holders. We are, of course, lobbying to relax the laws, and the government is listening, but it's a slow process.
We also share with anyone who has the rights or authorisation to use the materials—this includes the original developers who may have lost their data, and also academic research.
Q: Do you do any consulting for game developers?
A: Yes! In fact, this is one of the great success stories for the GPS, though it's difficult to list specific examples due to NDAs. Given the popularity of retro games and the increase in legacy compilations, sometimes a developer or publisher will contact us requesting dumped game data or related materials (manual scans, etc.). If we have already digitised them, then we provide this to the company for free.
Ultimately, this is the goal of the GPS: to preserve material and share it. We are simply giving back something that belongs to them anyway. If we do not have the item, or it's not been migrated yet, we charge an appropriate fee. To acquire the item, if needed, and then to prioritise its archiving over other materials. In one instance, an arcade game publisher hired us to salvage the source code data on very old floppy disks, which we did. The salvaging of data is a service we provide—for any company which has legacy floppy disks they cannot read, the GPS is available to hire.
One example we can reveal publicly: we co-operated with HAL Laboratory (famous for Kirby) in preserving the PC-8001 software for its PasocomMini PC-8001 release.
Q: Can I do research at the archives? Do you allow student access?
A: We regularly have international students visit the archives to do research, sometimes for a week. We regret not publicising this more since it's a great example of the on-site access the GPS provides. In future, we hope to showcase this more with words and photos from those visiting. We are also planning to contact previous students who visited—would you be interested in an article describing their experiences?
We realise that since most of our supporters now are from outside Japan, the opportunity to visit the archives isn't easy. However, we are a public-facing organisation, and if any researchers, journalists, students, YouTubers, or supporters want to organise a formal visit, this can be arranged. We have welcomed several guests over the years.
Q: I've messaged to volunteer - I'd like to help, but I've not heard back?
A: Thank you to everyone who expressed an interest in volunteering. We received offers from a Japanese law firm, plus individuals wishing to aid in communication, and more. Due to the volume of emails, we still need to reply to many. A lot of donations contained messages too. We apologise if we have not responded.
If we have still not replied by June, it may have gotten lost in the volume, please email us again directly.
Q: Why don't you partner with Ritsumeikan or other local preservation groups?
A: We are, in fact, already all cooperating. We're all part of a big consortium for game preservation. Here is the formal website for it. There is a lot to be said about this, since it's a complicated story. However, almost everyone in Japan who is involved with game preservation, including small groups, are members of this consortium. Even the Japanese government is part of it. The mission is to inform the government about game preservation and was, in fact, requested by the government.
Q: Why don't you partner with other international groups?
A: We already have strong ties with MO5 in France, while for all preservation related to Sega materials we collaborate with Omar Cornut (Bock), the administrator of SMS Power. We also have a good working relationship with Hit Save!, and the i-mode team (RockmanCosmo) who have done great work preserving mobile phone games.
We look forward to the opportunity to collaborate with other groups—for us there is no rivalry, only the importance of preserving material while we still can. We’re open to intelligent synergies for the benefit of the whole community and general public - please contact us!
I hope the above has answered many of the questions raised. Ahead of us is the task of modernising our approach and improving our communication, by working more efficiently in conveying all of this knowledge. As always we welcome and encourage continued feedback.
From myself, Joseph Redon, and every member of the Game Preservation Society board, thank you for showing us how much you care. It is our sincerest desire to make your support feel worth it.
Until next time.