Academics at Nottingham Trent University have teamed up with the National Media Museum in Bradford to establish what they call the first "official" videogame archive in the U.K.

The archive will document the timeline from early games like Pong to modern-day industry hits, and will be housed at the National Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

Along with "a treasure trove" of gaming consoles and cartridges, the games archive will collect industry-related items such as ads, magazine reviews, artwork and other pieces that reflect the culture and community surrounding games.

Dr. James Newman from Trent University's Centre for Contemporary Play, the group managing the archives, said, "“The National Videogame Archive is an important resource for preserving elements of our national cultural heritage.

"We don’t just want to create a virtual museum full of code or screenshots that you could see online. The archive will really get to grips with what is a very creative, social and productive culture."

He added that the archive is a "vital academic resource."

The archive will launch at this year's GameCity 3 festival later this month.