lots of games (the vast majority, these days) try to mark your progress in some way, so you can continue where you left off on a previous session. what’s your favorite game that doesn’t save? OR, do you have a story about a time you needed to save a game, but couldn’t?
arcade games are an obvious choice, but i’d prefer thinking more in the realm of home consoles and personal computers, and less about arcade games and arcade ports. still, they are fair game. the saving of high scores is therefore left intentionally ambiguous.
D is unique in that it’s an adventure game that doesn’t save. My guess is Kenji Eno wanted to force an uninterrupted, cinematic experience. It sort of works! But then there’s a rotating room section that ruins the pacing.
The one I used to leave on for days was Blaster Master. And I could never quite beat it. I guess I could probably do it now with save states, but I don’t know that I ever will. But typing that just now kind of makes me want to play the game again.
Video game things that I think about a lot: the music in Area 5.
I like the idea of these games - games that let us make our mark on them temporarily, but give up no ground in the long term. Our mark is fleeting, the game is an immovable object. We draw in the sand and the sand returns to its original form, only changing with the ravages of nature and time. The only thing we can do to change it is to destroy it completely.
I actually have anxiety that grows the further I get into the game no matter if there’s save states or not because i used to lose my progress all the time I think
If memory serves, Tulpa’s Wife’s Little Brother got really into a copy of Shadow of the Colossus I left at her house, but he didn’t have a memory card of his own; so he, like, just left it on for a whole day or something until his mom got him a memory card. Something like that.
It’s his favorite game of all time, and he thinks of it as life changing.
