Top 10 Video Games That Are Gone FOREVER
10 Games Lost to Time FOREVER
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Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at 10 games lost to time forever. Did you get a chance to play these before they disappeared? For this video, we’re looking specifically at games with no original source code, as well as online games that have been shut down completely; you could still get old copies of some of these games, but no new copy will ever be printed in its original form.
“PlayStation Home” (2008)
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In 2015, Sony’s weirdest experiment was shuttered. Launched just a year after the PS3, “PlayStation Home” was marketed as being more than just a game, more than just another MMO – it was going to change the world. Ultimately, it didn’t do that, but for all its flaws it definitely found a passionate fanbase who liked its opportunities for socializing, playing minigames, and buying fancy clothes for their avatars. Those same dedicated fans have, in recent years, been trying to restore “PS Home” and rebuild it in different ways, including hosting it on private servers or recreating it in “Dreams”. It could return in some form since Sony has renewed the trademark, but it won’t be the same.
“Diablo” (1997)
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Since it’s one of the most popular ARPG franchises of all time, you’d think “Blizzard” would be a little more careful with “Diablo’s” source code. But it eventually came out that the source code for the original game had been completely lost. Luckily for all the video game preservationists out there, one dedicated programmer called GalaxyHaxz spent close to a year of their life reverse-engineering the game to recreate the source code, warts and all. But “Diablo’s” code still doesn’t survive in its original form, so no remaster or new port using GalaxyHaxz’s code will be exactly the same. Of course, Blizzard didn’t learn its lesson; the source code for “Diablo II” has disappeared as well.
“Silent Hill 2” (2001) & “Silent Hill 3” (2003)
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The first “Silent Hill” game might be incredible, but both “Silent Hill 2” and “Silent Hill 3” remain titans of the horror genre. Unsurprisingly, Konami decided to remaster them both, releasing the “Silent Hill HD Collection” in 2012 – but those versions had some issues. Konami never saved the source code, forcing the development team for the remasters to use unfinished prototypes and work backward. When the remasters finally came out, you could definitely tell; of the myriad technical problems they boasted, the worst was, by far, the fact that the town’s famous fog didn’t load in half the time. Those games are a whole lot less scary when you can see everything around you perfectly.
“Final Fantasy” series (1987-)
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Many “Final Fantasy” games have been re-released, remastered, and remade over the years, thanks to the series being one of the most wildly popular franchises in gaming. But despite that, many of the older games don’t have their original source code intact. This includes “Final Fantasy VII”, which had to be reverse-engineered from the original release copies so that it could be ported to different platforms more than once. “Final Fantasy VIII” ran into some difficulties too and didn’t have a remaster until 2019 – a year after “VII”, “IX”, “X”, and “XII” were brought to eighth-gen consoles. And other Square Enix games have suffered a similar fate; the HD remake of “Kingdom Hearts” had to be built from the ground-up because of lost data.
“Ninja Gaiden Black” (2005) & “Ninja Gaiden II” (2008)
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The first two modern “Ninja Gaiden” games were initially Xbox 360 exclusives, later being ported to the PS3 as “Ninja Gaiden Sigma” and “Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2”, versions widely considered to be inferior to the originals. But unfortunately for Team Ninja, the source code for both of those Xbox versions has been lost; this means they’ll be instead reworking the “Sigma” ports for 2021’s “Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection”. Only time will tell whether Team Ninja brings back features from the original versions that the ports lost, or whether this will end up being a terrible collection. It’s sad that we’ll never see those two acclaimed games in their original forms again.
“Bubble Bobble” (1986)
An incredibly popular and influential arcade game, “Bubble Bobble” reigned supreme for a decade, until development studio Taito announced in 1996 that the source code was missing. This was despite “Bubble Bobble” being so successful it spawned an entire genre of single-room puzzle-platformers, as well as having some of the best graphics and visual design of any contemporary arcade game. Never again will we get to experience the two main dinosaurs hopping from room to room to that iconic soundtrack – not in its original form, anyway. Re-releases of “Bubble Bobble” do exist, but they’ve all been recreated from the arcade boards of the old cabinets.
“Ashes Cricket 13” (2013)
Unlike many of the lost masterpieces on this list, “Ashes Cricket 13” disappeared for an entirely different reason: it was so bad that 505 Games went to great lengths to try and scrub out any evidence of its existence. Released in a buggy, unfinished state, the game was completely, and hilariously, unplayable. These problems were so bad that it was canceled after it had already gone on sale. It was only ever released digitally, so there weren’t any physical copies for 505 to pull, but everybody who bought it on Steam was able to claim a refund. And this was after the game had already seen two delays because of how poor it was.
“Panzer Dragoon Saga” (1998)
In 1998, the Sega Saturn saw the release of this critically-acclaimed RPG – but very few people ever got their hands on a copy. Suffering from a highly difficult development where two developers actually died from overwork and stress, “Panzer Dragoon Saga” appeared right at the end of the Saturn’s lifespan. It was a commercial flop in Japan, and fewer than 25,000 copies ever reached the West. In the years since, the game has been celebrated as one of the best RPGs ever made, and Sega’s failure to market it properly - or at all - has been lamented worldwide. And then to make matters even worse, Sega revealed that it hadn’t even kept a copy of the source code around.
“BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets” (1997)
The Satellaview was an interesting, if misguided, add-on for the SNES, that enabled games to be streamed to the console through limited-time satellite broadcasts. To encourage people to actually spend money on it, some exclusive games with Nintendo’s biggest names were developed, including a “Legend of Zelda” title. “Ancient Stone Tablets” was one of the most unique “Zelda” games ever made, featuring a protagonist whose gender could be chosen and who wasn’t Link. As well as that, it was just a pretty good game. Unfortunately, it was never properly preserved; some bits of it can be played through an emulator, but other parts – like all the voice acting – are completely lost, never to be seen again. Kirby also had a lost Satellaview game, “Kirby’s Toy Box” – though, in 2016, ROMs were found and later auctioned.
“P.T.” (2014)
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“Silent Hill 2” was lost because Konami was careless, while “P.T.” was lost because Konami was being petty. This terrifying PS4 exclusive was a demo for “Silent Hills”, a “Silent Hill” reboot directed by Hideo Kojima that was canned after Kojima and Konami had their famous falling out. But rather than let bygones be bygones, “P.T.” left the PlayStation Store as mysteriously as it arrived; it was pulled from the digital storefront never to return. You can’t even redownload it if you’ve already had it on your console. The removal was Konami cutting off the nose to spite the face, getting rid of one of the best horror games ever made just out of revenge for everything that happened with Kojima.
