Public Accounting System

Since the start of the project in early 2001 to March 2004, the team have collectively donated around €17,000 to the cause financially (and no, we are not rich) and this was used for buying games, paying site fees, etc. Our time dedicated to the effort for this period comes in at well in excess of 10,000 hours of work, most of which is commercial quality research and development. We have been very happy to do this and will continue to do so, because we really believe in what we are doing. Also note, that up until this point, we did not accept financial contributions of any kind. However, we would like to make these facts more widely known so people appreciate the kind of resources needed for a project on this scale. Properly preserving every single game out there was never going to be an easy task.

However, times change and we realised that we can accomplish so much more if we allowed people to donate money to the cause if they want to. This in no way implies that we think people should donate money, just that you now can. It is for a very good cause after all.

Unfortunately, the reality is that it is getting harder to find missing items without money, and if something good turns up, it is a good idea to buy it promptly. That is something that was not easy with our previous situation, not to mention for things like buying test hardware for new platforms supported, etc. In fact, we recently lost access to a few rare titles purely because the funds were not available at the time. The games that are left available are not going to be around for ever.

As with all things, we decided that if we are going to do this, we would do it properly. This part of the site is our “open accounting system”, where people can see exactly where the money is going, maybe this is a good incentive to contribute, but that is not really the point. All monetary transactions will be listed here, which includes donations by the team itself (since we have always been, and probably always will be the primary source of funding for the project), donations by you the community, and all the things we use the money for.

So, if you would like to help us on our software preservation crusade, you can do it using the link below. If you would prefer we used your donation for something in particular, please state this with your donation. Note that this page does not have a live feed from Paypal, and so it may take a while for donations to be reflected here.

Thank you for your support,
The Software Preservation Society