In the depths of Moria, possibly the lowest dungeon, there waits a lonely soul. He’s been there for years now, in the same spot, currently safe from the Evil Iggy, the Ancient Multi-Hued Dragon, and,of course, the Balrog. Years, still, alone, waiting.
Waiting for me. For me to return, to control, direct, to help him achieve his goal of slaying the Balrog. Does he realise it will never happen, that his quest will never be completed.
Does he know how many times he’s failed, been killed and brought back to life through restoration of a save file?
Yes, this is all about me playing a computer game. Really.
The game is Moria, a classic rogue-like which I downloaded using a Surrey University computer (in the days when you could wander into their lab and use PCs without any check or hindrance) and installed on my mother’s IBM PC. Elena and I would play it, both having our own save files which we’d swap using a small DOS-script I cobbled together. Being the days before I understood how Wrong it was, I (we) save scummed mercilessly, so our characters suffered a fate of perpetual death and resurrection. I wonder now, did they realise they died, or did their memories only reach to the save file?
Anyway, while the PC’s gone, I may have kept the save file somewhere, so there would lie waiting my hero of old. Waiting for me to come again.