Fahrenheit 360

“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” —Heinrich Heine, from his play Almansor (1821)

The burning of books is not a good thing. Throughout history groups have sought to manipulate others through such methods of controlling information. But that’s not what is being prompted for discussion, rather:

Is it all right to burn games?
Well ok, not literally burning, but rather destroying games that are otherwise fully intact and working. They may not have been around as long as books, but even in their short existence they have had a serious cultural impact.

And the reason for all this?
To complete an electronics project I need a small casing, and it just so happens that an N64 game cartridge is a very suitable size. I tend to look after my own junk – ahem videogames – too well and don’t have a deceased one.
On Ebay I saw a cartridge going for £1, cool, but hang on it’s a working Zelda. I can’t destroy that game its great, so I’ll look for something else, no broken ones that I can see, erm how about NBA PRO 98? That’ll do nicely…

So comes the dilemma…
Just because I see no inherent worth in NBA PRO 98, I can’t be sure there won’t be others who might. And on top of that I would be helping a limited resource creep further toward extinction. Is it ok to divide games into camps that should be saved and camps that should be erased? Or is it just up to each individual to keep safe those media which are important to themselves alone?

Let’s Get Theoretical! – As Olivia Newton John once never sang.

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