software can be exemplified by the history of the word processor WordStar. A popular option for WYSIWYG document editing on C/PM and MS-DOS operating systems during the 1980s, a delayed port to Windows 1.0 caused WordStar to lose significant market share to competitors WordPerfect and Microsoft Word by 1991. Further development of the Windows version stopped in 1994, and WordStar 7 for MS-DOS was last updated in 1999. Over time, any version of WordStar grew increasingly incompatible with modern versions of Windows beyond 3.1 to the frustration of long-devoted users, including authors William F. Buckley, Jr. and Anne Rice. Digital obsolescence has a prominent effect on the preservation of video game history, since many older games and hardware were regarded by players as ephemeral products, due to the continuous process of computer hardware upgrading and home console generation cycles. Such cycles are often the result of both systemic and technical obsolescence. Some of the oldest computer games, like 1962's Spacewar! for the PDP-1 commercial minicomputer, were developed for hardware platforms so outdated that they are virtually nonexistent today. Many older games of the 1960s and 1970s built for contemporary mainframe terminals and microcomputers can only be played today through software emulation. While video games and other software applications can be orphaned by their parent developers or publishing companies and classified as abandonware, the copyright issues surrounding software are a very complicated hurdle in the path of digital preservation. One prime example of copyright issues with software were those encountered during preservation efforts for the BBC Domesday Project, a 1986 UK multimedia data collection survey that commemorated the 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book. While the project's specially customized LaserDisc reader resulted in its own hardware-based preservation problems, the combination of one million personal copyrights belonging to participating civilians, in addition to corporate claims on the specialized computer hardware, means that publicly accessible digital preservation efforts might be stalled until 2090. Prevention strategies Organizations possessing digital archives should perform assessments of their records in order to identify file corruption and reduce the risks associated with file format obsolescence. Such assessments can be accomplished through internal file format action plans, which list digital file types in an archive's holdings and assess the actions taken in order to ensure continued accessibility. One emerging strategic avenue in combatting digital obsolescence is the adoption of open source software, due to source code availability, transparency,