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Purpose – This two-part study aims to expose the challenges and establish the necessity of preserving digital content, with a focus on console video games. Design/methodology/approach – Through a method of establishing the history of video game consoles, identifying the challenges presented by the format and addressing the current preservation efforts, this article serves as a brief retrospective of the issues and a guide to extending the conversation. Findings – Representing a unique format, heavily reliant on advances in technological and industrial standards, console video games have experienced a demonstrated lack of preservation. Originality/value – With special attention to the non-gamer, this is an introduction to the conversation and an invitation to lend expertise to not only an often overlooked area of popular culture, which is facing (and in some cases, has experienced) irretrievable loss of information, but also to other formats facing adjustment to the digital, always-online environment.

Purpose – This two-part paper aims to expose the challenges and establish the necessity of preserving digital content, with a focus on console video games. Part two identifies the preservation challenges, methods of preserving digital content and the current efforts by preservation groups and organizations. Design/methodology/approach – Through a method of identifying a video game content which has been lost, or at risk of being lost, describing the challenges presented by the format, and addressing the current preservation efforts, this paper serves as a brief retrospective of the issues and a guide to extending the conversation. Findings – While preserving video game content faces many challenges due to copyright issues and risks associated with digital format, some institutions have made progress that other libraries can follow. Originality/value – With special attention to the non-gamer, the conversation on video game preservation continues by focusing on the challenges and current efforts.

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In Superman: Red Son (2003), Mark Millar reimagines America’s fictional “Man of Steel” as the surrogate son and ideological heir of Joseph Stalin, Soviet Russia’s historical “man of steel.” In doing so, Millar and his collaborators reimagine the power dynamics of the Cold War and grapple with questions of villainy and heroism in such a redefined political landscape. This essay considers how, in separating Superman’s idealized morality from his ideological association with America, Red Son challenges the reader’s conceptions of “good” and “evil” and raises questions about leadership, hero worship, terrorism, and the influence of political ideologies on our ideas of ends versus means. This was particularly poignant in the three-issue series’ consideration of national security and mass surveillance, a theme that continues to be relevant even as it was especially effectual for the post-9/11 moment in which the series was released.

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