Our mission
Preservation is not only about storing files. It is about making games discoverable, understandable and playable while recognising the people who created and steward them.
Nelfe Play is being built to connect players with retro and neo-retro releases, document their provenance and create new economic paths for creators and rights holders.
Preservation
Nelfe Play treats players’ techniques, routes and decisions as part of gaming history. The aim is to preserve a performance alongside the game: a score with its rules and technical context, plus replays that other players can revisit, learn from and challenge.
The protocol links a score to a digitally signed session record describing the game, the software environment and the checks applied. Its record format, verification rules and reference verification code are public, making the evidence accompanying a score open to examination. Local score capture uses a separate component.
Read the protocolWe want players to rediscover the real original games and the true experience of playing them, by making them accessible. For example, with challenges that open straight onto a level of the game or put the player in front of a boss. We look for a balance between fun, accessibility, experience and performance.
Publication starts with a creator, publisher or rights holder able to authorise distribution.
We describe what has been reviewed and who declares it; we do not hide uncertainty behind a “100% legal” badge.
Target hardware, native features, execution environments and test evidence remain separate facts.
Attribution, product history and the economic role of creators belong on the game page.
Players, homebrew authors, rights holders and venues should be able to build new legitimate uses together.
NELFE PLAY / SCOPE
Nelfe Play is a curated distribution project for games and licences. It is not a ROM directory, a frontend vendor, an emulator bundle or a promise that every old game can be commercially offered.