Memories and old save games

[Melooon]

I was playing animal crossing this evening and looking at my island. I started playing March 11th? 2020, almost 2 years ago. In those 2 years the world has changed so much, there was a pandemic, I finished college, moved cities and countries, started and ended a relationship, have had relatives and friends pass away, have started a career and seen web communities like the yesterweb and this forum rise from the ground up, and now this business with Ukraine. Its been a LOT!

When I look at that animal crossing island though, its almost timeless, I remember it was spring 2020 when I placed a particular streetlamp, or selected the carpet I still have in my room. I think so much has happened in my life, its almost like playing a strangers game, yet its still mine. The person who first started working on that save file 2 years ago could never have imagined all that would happen.

The other day I found the memory card with my first animal crossing town on it from 2004, Iv no idea if it still works, but I'm genuinely scared to try, I'm not sure I want to return to that space that I made all that time ago, maybe its better to let it stay a memory.

I also lost a save file today, I had an old backup with a Skyrim save on it that was encrypted, but Iv forgotten the password so I deleted it

Old save files are strange, games are like other worlds, or at least dreams of other worlds. We can freeze them and return to them, forget them, find them or loose them forever. They have no right to exist, but maybe we never had a right to visit them in the first place, or maybe it was always just a happy accident.

How do you feel about old saves, or do you feel anything at all? Have you ever returned to an old save and had a weird experience?

[cynderthekitsune]

for some reason i still remember a ~2014 Minecraft Pocket Edition Alpha save on my old tablet -- it was a creative mode world and i remembered playing through several updates in that world, i even remembered trying out the new wood type doors and things in it!

but i ended up deleting it i think, and it's from easily a decade ago and i've already wiped that tablet to factory default numerous times, so it's more than gone. though i did remember having hostile mobs appear in several areas since i didn't light them up properly, i did remember a "rollercoaster" as i called it (was more just a BUNCH of rails that go around the perimeter and with fencing too) and i had a weird "town" or "village" made entirely of just oak wood planks and nothing much else.


that's at least the one that mattered the most for me even though i wasn't even that old at the time
also i did remember a few Pokemon saves that i can't get back anymore. it sucks you can't change your name without straight up wiping the whole game, but i did remember my first big playthrough of Moon on my 3DS -- i still used great balls even well into the game (and i think i nearly got up to the elite four too? or was i gonna fight either Acerola or the Team Skull street (on Ula'Ula Island) i forget) but i was frustrated since every single wild pokemon WOULDN'T STAY CAUGHT but eh. kinda funny looking back.

[AY38910]

*Looks at unfinished playthrough of Zork 1 he started in 2018*

[Eboypitou]

Ive Played many Games during my life so There are a Lot of saves that don't take up any space in my mind or have me suddenly want to seek out again that I don't plan on playing again or don't have the time too.

which is only really a sentiment i share Regarding PC games *for reasons* and 9th Gen console games. However I'm always remembering saves from Xbox one and 360 games i played together with my brothers like halo and a lot of Xbox Live Arcade Games that are either lost to time or cant be played without a modded console.

The funny thing about a lot of those games is that they were trials or demos so i never really got to experience the full game or actually be left with a save to revisit so all i have is very skewed memories of these games. Luckily i can still revisit  my old Minecraft worlds that i made with both my brothers on the Xbox one edition of Minecraft *the one that released on disc in 2014 by 4j.*

The most nostalgic memory i have from this version of Minecraft was building a city map on a world me and my brothers decided to name California. we wanted to make a very large city akin to the ones you would see a minecraft youtuber in the early to mid 2010's playing on PC. sadly it was too large of an undertaking for us and we gave up on it after building a decent sized town with a lot of derpy buildings that even had a beach a hospital, and a school.

I come back to the map occasionally making backups and exploring the town all by myself which kind of gives me abandoned Gmod darkrp map vibes along with making me cry a little.

Also heres some pics of the map 



some weird outdoor cafe i built


The school me and my bros worked on together


 

[candycanearter07]

I do get attached to a lot of my old saves, but it also somewhat depends on how much customizability the game offers and how many save slots there are. Something like Stardew Valley, that has near infinite customization and slots, yea I am NEVER deleting one of those saves. An rpg with only 3 slots, where the only real customization is like choosing what equipment you use? I usually don't mind those as much. The exception is the mario and luigi games, since I absolutely grew up with those and they are very nostalgic (also i can use homebrew to backup the saves to a seperate file :>)

[milo]

The only save file I really feel like I'm attached to is in my original copy of Sonic 3 for the Sega Genesis.

My grandma got me the game as a gift and when I was a kid my family couldn't really afford the latest, greatest gaming systems, so I had and played my Sega Genesis for a long time while other kids were getting the brand new Playstation or Nintendo 64.

So I played the crap out of Sonic 3. I filled up every save file and beat the game every way I could with every character. I still have that cartridge and those save files are still intact and I'll never ever touch them. I know that one day, the battery inside the cart will die and those saves will be gone... but until then I really cherish that cartridge.