What is Digital Archaeology? The name is still a misnomer.
Digital archaeology is part of a wider field of study called archaeogaming, centering around excavation research of the inner-workings (using my own written tools) into concepts as applied to video games, internally as part of the game development represented as data and preservation of the physical media. Only because the technology we are dealing with is, in most cases older than 25 years, the term digital archeology is applied with no distinction from less older software and development.
The process of analysing the ROM chips (or chipsets) may give insight into the development process of an earlier state or concept of the game by showing leftover files and references to unused stages, music, graphics and test menus left inside by the developers and testers. Disabled function calls may also be accessed as well as button press combinations to activate hidden menus or other assets.
