The Hunt For Diner Dash

Have you ever... Felt nostalgic for something you've hardly experienced? Like, this thing wasn't a massive part of your life, but you exposed to it enough to where you know what it is and it's etched a lil niche in the folds of your brain? Yeah, that's how I feel about Diner Dash! It's one of the games I would see my aunt play all the time when I was being babysat by her at my grandma's house along with games like Plants vs. Zombies and Pet Society, a pet game that was on Facebook! (Does Facebook even still have games? I don't touch anything Meta related with a 10ft poll-) This it's a nice simple game and because I was bored, I decided to see if I could play the full game for myself and see how fun it is!

Alright! Now to find the game...

First stop? The Flashpoint Archive!!! While it's primary focus is being an archive of old Flash content it also has a lot of stuff based in other things like HTML5, Shockwave, and Java! (You can even play one of the first builds of Minecraft there!) Surely, some member of it dedicated team archived it right? Let's see!

Ok! Good start! A lot of different versions, but it's fine! I think Hometown Hero is the one I remember the most! So, well start there! 

So... Job done right? Found the game?

NOPE!!!

That is a DEMO of the game after about 5-6 levels in, you get stopped and told you should download or buy the full game! Now, of course, this doesn't work because the site that hosted the buy page is likely long gone... Ok... Welp! I'm not stranger to this and I am more than willing to search the dark corners of the internet for the sake of nostalgia! I've done this dance before and have managed to relive the days of playing Moshi Monsters, Club Penguin, and even Monkey Quest in the 2020s! How hard could this be? 

Alright... Where to look first? How about Steam!! Lots of old games get uploaded to Steam! I bought Insaniquarum for pennies and the OG PVZ for $5!!! Maybe it's there!!

It is!!! But...

$9.99... $9.99?????

This game came out in 2007; 18 YEARS AGO!!! PVZ came out 2 years later and even it had the sense to be cheaper!!! Not only that, it's currently sitting at a Mostly Negative review score with most of them being related crashes... Now some newer reviews say that this can be mitigated by playing in windowed mode, but I think I'll hold on to my 10 dabloons... But like... This is the only way to get the full version (To my knowledge)...

Online game sites only host the demo with the broken links, no one on Reddit or any other internet forums know if there's even a working version of it out there, and even Abandonware sites don't have it... I lose hope... Until...

My GOAT...

I may have done it... This really dumb, self-imposed quest maybe over! I just gotta see it it works!!! I hope it does!!!

In conclusion, proper digital archival is important!

If you've read this far... Say hi to Cherry!!!