Does anyone remember this? It was a DirecTV channel that streamed video games. I remember using this all the time as a kid even though the games were on par with Java flip-phone games. Apparently, all the games on there are currently lost.
https://lostmediawiki.com/DirecTV_Game_Lounge_(lost_interactive_television_game_service;_2007-2013)
@xianc78 yup, definitely remember it. the games were utter shit though so i didn't spend really any time messing around with it.
@beardalaxy The games were pretty lack luster sure and I don't know who was willing to pay the monthly subscription to play the full versions of these subpar games, but I was always curious about what was used to make these games. And I still want these games to be preserved because they are probably the most overlooked examples of lost video games (the service was discontinued in 2013). Honestly, this shit reminds me of the Satellaview in terms of technology and the situation with the availability of these games.
Apparently, DirecTV wasn't the only one to come up with something like this. Dish also had one but it was only for Disney Channel games. There was also an interactive TV game service in the UK and Ireland and there was an exclusive Tomb Raider game that seems to be lost forever now. It actually looks good.
Quebec also had a satellite TV game service and it is probably the closest to being emulated. People tried to emulate the cable-box's hardware but the games are still lost forever. I wonder if @coolboymew had any experience with it.
https://lostmediawiki.com/Videoway_(lost_Canadian_cable-box_games;_1990-2006)
I never see any game preservationists talk about these games. I think they are more sought after than flip-phone games that haven't been dumped or arcade games that where only available at a single location.
There should be videos up on youtube about it
It looks like nobody was able to analyse that shit and the company doesn't give a shit to release them on a micro console. A terrible situation all around, as we had some real nice shit on there
@coolboymew @beardalaxy Judging from the screenshots, those games look better than the crap that was on DirecTVs game lounge even if the graphics look like something out of the Commodore 64. You guys apparently had a fucking Zelda clone on there which is hard to believe.
Even if the games on there are lost. It looks like someone tried to recreate one of the games (Temporel Inc) from memory.
Out of all the cable-box game services, yours seems to be the closest to being preserved even though all the games are still currently lost. And it seems like the source codes to these game are confirmed to exist even though they're locked in a vault.
It seems like video game preservationists have turned a blind eye to these cable-box games. I honestly think they're the most truly sought-after lost games ever. Nobody even talks about them anymore and most of these games were exclusive to these services. We can recover Japan-only Satellaview content from 25+ years ago but we have no way of playing these games from the mid to late 2000s. Sure, most of them were crap, but a lot of them were part of huge franchises and thus are part of their history.
@coolboymew @beardalaxy Well if someone was tech savvy enough to mod one of the cable-boxes to dump the game from RAM and onto a removable storage while the service was still running, then we may still have a chance. But I doubt there are people who regularly mod cable-boxes especially back in the 90s and early 2000s.
But if more popular YouTubers keep making videos about these games, it *MAY* get some companies attention or get some brave enough worker to leak the games.
The one that is most likely to be re-released is that Tomb Raider game that was on that European cable service. If Eidos kept the source code, then there is a good chance the Square Enix Europe still has it and they can re-release it as part of a collection at anytime. But then again, these major game companies don't even bother re-releasing their flip phone games, so it still seems unlikely.
Otherwise, I believe it might have been difficult. I am unsure, but I think a lot of the game kept being streamed, I believe there were significant loading between levels, which would have made this extremely hard to properly archive
There's also a local company that made a NES clone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1OmvdqrmD4
I am not sure if the puzzles are a complete clone or not