archive 0.333

Archive 0.333 is a speculative fiction game that explores the questions of post-humanity and archiving media artifacts through the method of critical making. By creating speculative fiction, questions of archiving and sharing of those archives are put at the forefront of the piece in a way that provokes a player to engage with the questions in their own way. Throughout the narrative, the player controls an unnamed protagonist tasked with the upkeep of a small peer-to-peer network and finding more artifacts for others to store. The project is accompanied by an essay that explores the archival process of GameBoy games as well as other media. By considering the definitions of media archaeology and the techniques of archiving, the essay explores the game’s questions theoretically by examining the way that Nintendo archives their own materials without sharing, such as games from their handheld platforms, and how that inspires online communities relying on emulation to play the older games. Archive 0.333 and the accompanying study question the efficacy of archival measures by corporations and advocate for the necessity for independent archivists.