Game preservation is one of those topics that we keep returning to with greater and greater frequency.
In a week like this, and a year like this, it’s not hard to see why.
It’s heartbreaking, and my thoughts go out to everyone affected.
People are losing their jobs and others are seeing their work forgotten.
There’s also a sense we’re going to see more of this and more often.
It’s terrible stuff.
But game preservation is tricky stuff even with older single-player offline games.
Maybe this is why there are so many signs of changes to how people are thinking about game preservation.
This stuff is in flux.
Karateka, meanwhile, is a self-conscious effort to establish a kind of Criterion standard for video games.
It’s utterly wonderful, and also rather moving.
And the preservation of memory is right at the centre of this project.
It isn’t going anywhere.
And it takes a fascinating path.
If this was it, it would be brilliant.
Genetics is very much the guiding principle here - the way that ideas travel and evolve over time.
Here’s the creation of Blockade and its first appearance at a trade show.
Here’s the rush to a market that was already filled with pre-emptive clones.
Here’s the story of how it got onto mobile phones.
Here’s the connection with the lightcycles of Tron.
It’s Blockade as one creator remembers, loves, and is influenced by it.
Blockade is everywhere in this game, even though you could’t really play the original Blockade by playing it.
Memories are sharp because they take us this close and then say: no further.
And Qrth-Phyl is a game that understands this utterly.
