Source: NFSA.
What we collected in 2022, National Film and Sound Archives, March 2023
The NFSA collection now holds more than 4 million items. Here are just a few highlights from what our curators collected in 2022 including video games, television, online media, costumes and more.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the following article may contain images and/or audio of deceased persons.
VIDEO GAMES
In 2022, the NFSA continued building relationships and engaging with game developers and stakeholders within the gaming industry to collect software, documents and artefacts from video games dating back to the 1980s. This included titles from Beam Software, Krome Studios and Micro Forté.
In collaboration with ACMI and the Powerhouse Museum, we collected Untitled Goose Game from developer House House, where the player controls a trouble-making goose that wreaks havoc on a small village. The game has been praised for its simplicity and sheer joy:
Another video game added to the NFSA collection in 2022 was Necrobarista, a 3D visual novel game released in 2020 by Australian development studio Route 59.
The game is set in a Melbourne café called Terminal where the staff are necromancers and the customers are the recently dead, who are there to spend their final 24 hours in the world alongside the living.
The NFSA acquired both the PC and Nintendo Switch versions of the game. Watch the game trailer:
We have also developed relationships with gaming news and review websites and channels, including Checkpoint Ltyentye, a YouTube channel featuring a cast of young First Nations gamers from Central Australia who are part of a community development program from CatholicCare NT.
In the following clip the Checkpoint Ltyentye panel review the VR game Beat Saber:
TELEVISION
VOne new broadcast TV series we collected was Barrumbi Kids (2022). It is a coming-of-age children’s series set in Arnhem Land and based on a series of novels by Leonie Norrington about best friends Tomias (Nick Bonson) and Dahlia (Caitlin Hordern). Barrumbi Kids, which also stars Justine Clarke, aired on NITV and was notable for its representation of kids growing up in remote Australian communities. Here’s a trailer:
In 2022, the NFSA acquired more than 6,400 episodes of Neighbours (1985–2022), the incredibly popular Australian soap opera that aired for more than 30 years and was the launching pad for many of our A-listers, including Kylie Minogue, Margot Robbie, Guy Pearce, Liam Hemsworth, Jesse Spencer, Delta Goodrem and Natalie Imbruglia.
The series came to a close on Network Ten, with the final episode airing in August 2022, before producers Fremantle secured Amazon Freevee and Prime Video as international partners and announced the show will return to Network Ten in late 2023. Neighbours will also continue to live on as part of the NFSA collection for future generations to enjoy.
From the Seven Network, we acquired more than 1,000 episodes of the equally popular soap Home and Away (1988–current) and medical drama All Saints (1998–2009).
