Preserving games is really, really important. Old games can die out all together if archivists and passionate fans don't put in an active effort into preserving older titles, and so it was with this idea in mind that a special SNES preservation project was born, to store games digitally, to save them from extinction.
The archivist in question bears the name Byuu on Reddit, and he's been working hard to preserve a number of rare SNES titles by storing them digitally. Now though, he's announced that the project is dead.
The cancellation of the project stems from a special shipment of over 100 SNES titles en route to Byuu worth between $7,500 and $10,000. This was the second batch of five shipments being sent from a collector in Frankfurt. The shipment was to arrive at Byuu's home in New Jersey, where he would store them digitally, repackage them and them send them back.
However, the second batch went horribly wrong, because it got lost by the USPS. Byuu had insurance, but only until the parcel made its way onto US shores. He now has to compensate the collector in Frankfurt, and is therefore unable to continue the preservation project.
Our thoughts go out Byuu and the collector, and we hope that the work may continue sometime in the future, or that the games finally resurface.