Dinky Kong to map Aust-NZ digital heritage

A spin-off of the cult game Donkey Kong, "Dinky Kong", will take its rightful place alongside new computer software programs in a collection of trans-Tasman digital heritage.

Researchers from Flinders University in Adelaide are documenting Australia and New Zealand's digital heritage — from amateur-made computer games of the 80s to a contemporary software program that forensically sanitises computers.

The Australasian Heritage Software Database (AHSD) is the first publicly-compiled record of trans-Tasman software history, documenting programs created for a range of sectors including the arts, business, banking and defence.

The database contains more than 120 contributions from both professional and hobbyist software writers so far.

They include Dinky Kong, an amateur spinoff of the cult 1980s videogame Donkey Kong and a software device developed in New Zealand in 1984 to label, price and dispense medication in pharmacies.

Flinders Screen and Media senior lecturer Melanie Swalwell is appealing for public help to build the database.

"The knowledge is out there but it's in the community, not in libraries or other record-keeping collections and the software itself is deteriorating fast," Dr Swalwell said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Already some of it doesn't work and we don't want this material to be lost forever."

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