SEPTEMBER

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Issue 412

Memories locked

Now that I’m a chap in my late 30s, it is not uncommon to get nostalgia for games I played growing up. I’ve realised that, after about ten to 15 years of not playing a game I previously enjoyed, I begin to get quite a longing to relive it once again. I recently went back and revisited such delights as Terranigma, Jet Force Gemini and Super Mario Land II. All of these still worked on original hardware, and all were amazing experiences.

I then look at my PS5, which already has a disc drive that is dodgy and often won’t eject games unless I stand the console up. I look at all my physical PS5 games and note with some worry that disc-free consoles are seemingly becoming a bigger presence. I look at my all-digital Steam library, currently maintained by a seemingly responsible company but only a corporate takeover away from being altered irrevocably. I look at my children, only just starting to get into games now, and how my son is loving playing Bowser’s Fury. I look at this and also the games I’m playing now and wonder, in 15 years’ time, when (presumably) I feel nostalgia for these games and not the ones I played as a child, will I be able to access them? Will my kids be able to easily access the games they grew up with? Will the seemingly inevitable march toward an all-digital future allow us to easily experience those delights we currently enjoy, or is it going to be like streaming and either hard to access or carved into a million fiefdoms, all demanding payment for access?