Frank Cifaldi

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Frank Cifaldi
Game Developers Choice Awards 2024 - Frank Cifaldi (cropped).jpg
Cifaldi at the 2024 Game Developers Conference
Born (1982-05-22) May 22, 1982 (age 43)
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Occupation(s)Video game archivist, historian, and developer
Known for
Founding the Video Game History Foundation

Frank Cifaldi (born May 22, 1982) is a video game preservationist, historian, and developer. Cifaldi initially developed a website titled Lost Levels dedicated to unreleased video games. This led to writing for print and web sources such as Nintendo Official Magazine UK and Gamasutra .

Contents

In the early 2010s, Cifaldi pivoted his career from journalism to game development, working at Other Ocean and producing work on compilation titles such as the Mega Man Legacy Collection (2015) and the The Disney Afternoon Collection (2017) for Digital Eclipse. He founded the Video Game History Foundation in 2016 and left Digital Eclipse around 2020 to focus on the foundation full time.

Biography

Early life and journalist

Frank Cifaldi was born in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 22, 1982. [1] [2] Cifaldi lived in Las Vegas until he was an adult and attended community college briefly before starting a career in video games. [1]

In 2003, Cifaldi founded Lost Levels, a website that collected information about unreleased video games. [3] His first published writing was in Nintendo Official Magazine UK and would later write for gaming publications such as Gamasutra and GameTap . Cifaldi reflected that at that time, he was trying to "redefine how people talk about video games", covering obscure and unusual material. [1] [4] He was also a former host of the Retronauts podcast. [5]

2010s and beyond

Cifaldi said that around 2013 he found that online video game journalism did not have a future for him. Feeling confident he understood video game development, he connected with people in the video game industry such as his friend Mike Mika specifically, who was the studio director of Other Ocean. He began doing work he described as tasks that "no one feels like doing", such as making writing the internal newsletter and other internal work. He worked for the company for five years, where he described his position as evolving into a "designer slash producer" role, and spearheading the launch of a game label within the company called Digital Eclipse, working on projects like the Mega Man Legacy Collection (2015) and the The Disney Afternoon Collection (2017). [1] [6] Cifaldi described the Mega Man Legacy Collection as "his baby", and began stepping away from the company after he began work on the Video Game History Foundation which he founded in 2016. [1] [3] As of 2018, he was the director of the organization, [7] [8] Cifaldi would leave Digital Eclipse around 2020 to work on the Video Game History Foundation full time. [9]

He is also known for his extensive personal collection of video game periodicals. [10] [11] Cifaldi has also researched early video game advertising, [12] early Nintendo prototypes, [13] and the official Super Mario Bros. release date. [14] He presented on games preservation at the 2016 Game Developers Conference. [15] [16]

Select works

YearGame titleRole
2015 Mega Man Legacy Collection Producer, designer, head of restoration [17] [18]
2017 The Disney Afternoon Collection Head of restoration [19] [20]
2018 Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Historian [21] [22]
2018 SNK 40th Anniversary Collection Creative director [23] [24]
2023 The Making of Karateka Additional Creative [25] [26] [27]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Lowood, Henry (December 2022). "Frank Cifaldi: A Conversation on Game Preservation and Documentation". Rom Chip. 4 (2). Retrieved September 10, 2025.
  2. ↑ Cifaldi, Frank [@frankcifaldi] (May 22, 2022). "I'm 40 today for some reason??" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 22, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2022– via Twitter.
  3. 1 2 Stephen, Bijan (September 1, 2022). "The Collectors Who Save Video-Game History from Oblivion". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 4, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  4. ↑ Kohler, Chris (April 9, 2007). "Take Frank Cifaldi's Job at Gamasutra". Wired . Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  5. ↑ Parish, Jeremy (October 27, 2015). "Cover Story: Retronauts Looks Back 30 Years to the NES Launch". USgamer . Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  6. ↑ Hall, Charlie (April 18, 2017). "Why is The Disney Afternoon Collection so good? Because one of the devs helped pirate it as a kid". Polygon . Archived from the original on May 19, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  7. ↑ Bowman, Mitch (February 27, 2017). "Inside The Video Game History Foundation". Polygon . Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  8. ↑ Alexandra, Heather (February 27, 2017). "New Non-Profit Has Plans To Save Gaming's Past". Kotaku . Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  9. ↑ Yarwood, Jack (March 5, 2024). ""A True Original" - Digital Eclipse on 'Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story'". Time Extension . Archived from the original on March 5, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  10. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (September 25, 2014). "These Lord of the Rings games were never released". Polygon . Archived from the original on May 29, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  11. ↑ Hamilton, Kirk (January 29, 2014). "The First And Only English-Language Review Of Super Mario Bros". Kotaku . Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  12. ↑ Alexandra, Heather (December 19, 2016). "It Took Five Years For One Man To Find The First NES Advertisement". Kotaku . Archived from the original on August 28, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  13. ↑ Hall, Charlie (August 16, 2016). "This could be the first code Satoru Iwata ever wrote for Nintendo". Polygon . Archived from the original on August 27, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  14. ↑ Hamilton, Kirk (March 28, 2012). "Nobody Knows When the Hell Super Mario Bros. Was Released". Kotaku . Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  15. ↑ Orland, Kyle (March 20, 2016). "How the demonization of emulation devalues gamings heritage". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  16. ↑ Hall, Charlie (March 18, 2016). "Emulation isn't a dirty word, and one man thinks it can save gaming's history". Polygon . Archived from the original on December 5, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  17. ↑ Martin, Michael (August 5, 2015). "Gamescom 2015: Mega Man Legacy Collection Release Dates Announced". IGN . Retrieved June 25, 2024.
  18. ↑ Digital Eclipse (August 25, 2015). Mega Man Legacy Collection (Xbox One). Capcom. Producer/Designer - Frank Cifaldi, Head of Restoration - Frank Cifaldi
  19. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (March 15, 2017). "Six Classic Disney Games Coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in New Compilation Pack". GameSpot . Archived from the original on April 30, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  20. ↑ Digital Eclipse (April 18, 2017). The Disney Afternoon Collection (Personal Computer). Capcom. Head of Restoration - Frank Cifaldi
  21. ↑ Wong, Andy (March 21, 2018). "Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Is Coming May 29, 2018! Pre-order for a Free Copy of Ultra Street Fighter IV!". Capcom. Retrieved September 10, 2025.
  22. ↑ Digital Eclipse (May 29, 2018). Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (Nintendo Switch). Capcom. Historian - Frank Cifaldi
  23. ↑ Gach, Ethan (December 13, 2018). "SNK 40th Anniversary Collection On Switch Is A Brilliant Historical Package". Kotaku. Archived from the original on April 14, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  24. ↑ Digital Eclipse (November 2018). SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (PC). SNK. Creative director - Frank Cifaldi
  25. ↑ Hagues, Alana; Reynolds, Ollie (August 25, 2023). "Don't Panic, The Making Of Karateka Will Arrive On Switch This Month After All". Nintendolife. Archived from the original on August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  26. ↑ Handley, Zoey (August 29, 2023). "Review: The Making of Karateka". Destructoid. Archived from the original on August 29, 2023. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  27. ↑ Digital Eclipse (August 29, 2023). The Making of Karateka (PC). Digital Eclipse. Additional Creative - Frank Cifaldi

Further reading

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