archaeology, lost media, and the internet archive

every few weeks i find myself researching the old web. usually it’s about meteos, a nintendo puzzle game franchise that is 50% lost media. sometimes it’s about ‘classic’ roblox (2004-2010).

i guess it’s a form of archaeology in a way. did you know you can’t look back at posts on the official roblox blog from over a decade ago? i assume they’re either gone or you have to scroll all the way there, anyhow

and it makes me sad. not just because this was something that no longer exists, but because sometimes i find forums where people are just… talking.

last week i was researching a flip phone game (meteos mobile) and stumbled upon a 2chan thread. and with the power of DeepL by my side, do you know what i found?

a community! people in 2006-2008, who all liked this little game. talking about high scores and gameplay and collecting information to make a little wiki of their own. one person said they’d seen someone else on a train playing the game. a lot of people revealed their usernames to eachother.

and it made me sad because i could not reach out to these people, over a decade after their time. there was both a language barrier and a chronological barrier. but for a moment i got just as excited as the community members, and it felt a little bit like a home. not my home, but somebody’s home.

alas, the game is lost media now. the meteos mobile wiki is still up, but it has been incomplete for years. i doubt it ever will be completed, but i’m grateful for the information on there.

and it makes me wonder if, a decade from now, someone will be reading something i wrote and wondering if i am out there somewhere. if you’re in the future reading this, hello!