This account exists to document, verify, and preserve game software, data, and hardware ecosystems that are actively disappearing — arcade, PC-based arcade, computer, console, handhelds and hybrid platforms that never had a clean consumer afterlife. If it ran in a cabinet, a back room, or a shipping container full of server blades, it probably belongs here.
🗃️ Datfiles and data collections XML/DAT ecosystems built for accuracy, auditability, and long-term maintenance. Every entry verified. Every version tracked.
🕹️ Arcade & PC-arcade preservation Raw Thrills, Namco ES1/ES3, Taito Type X, Sega ALLS, LaserDisc systems, and the long tail of platforms that ran on PC hardware but were never meant to exist beyond the arcade. Arcade coverage is a primary focus.
🛠️ Tooling & automation Python and C#-based utilities for dat creation, validation, normalization, hashing, and large-scale curation — shared freely with the preservation community. AI-assisted development is used here.
📚 Hardware notes & forensics Board IDs, storage formats, version strings, encryption quirks, game notes and the small details that disappear first when nobody writes them down.
- Accuracy beats convenience
- Reproducibility beats aesthetics
- Nothing is "known" unless it's verified
- Silent modifications are preservation failure
If a file changes, it's documented. If a version exists, it's tracked. If something is uncertain, it's labeled as such. That's the whole job.
The pinned repositories below cover the most popular primary datfile projects, active preservation efforts, and tools. Each have their own README with scope, structure, and usage notes.
Click on the Repositories tab in the top-left of this webpage to see all repos I have
made available. Most of the datfiles are in the Datfiles
repo to keep them all in one place. The most popular and complex dat collections have their
own repos to provide more detailed instructions and features, such as:
TeknoParrot
Eggman's Arcade Repository
AI tools are used in the production of this work — for coding assistance, documentation, and research. Every output is reviewed, tested, and verified before it's committed or published. AI doesn't determine what gets preserved or how it's classified; that judgment stays with me. What you see here reflects my own standards and decisions. AI just helps me move faster. Don't like it? Don't use it. That's a really simple concept to understand here. I'm also not interested in what you have to say about it.
This work builds on decades of effort by operators, developers, collectors, and preservationists who came before. Credit is intentional here. Attribution matters.
There are people taking the contents of these dats and colletions and passing them off as their own work. Some don't even change the filenames — they append a tag, call it theirs, and move on.
Some charge money for the privilege of receiving stolen goods, lurking in Telegram groups, Discord servers and forums, cultivating the impression that they've done something worth paying for.
They haven't. Keep your money. They're not your friend.
If these dats, tools or utilities help save you time, consider supporting the work. I do not intend to keep this money for myself, and will donate it annually to various worthwhile preservation organizations such as archive.org.
This is my hobby.. not a side hustle.
