Square Enix uncovers a huge collection of mint retro games

Ready to weep tears of nostalgia? Staff at a UK-based Square Enix have discovered a container-full of classic retro games, in near pristine condition, some untouched for 30 years. And if you’re ancient like we are, it’s going to have you reaching for a tissue.

As spotted by Time Extension, Lee Singleton, a head of studio at Square Enix External Studios, Brighton, shared this amazing retro-game discovery on LinkedIn, alongside a 30 second video clip. According to Singleton, they “.. just opened a storage container at work that’s been closed for over 20 years”. To their astonishment, they discovered a colossal retro-collection of 8 and 16 bit games.

There’s no Final Fantasy in there, sorry Cloud fans, but there are some real classics, from studios that no longer exist. The games you can glimpse include:

007: The Living Daylights
Badlands
Castle Master
Hard Driving
Kat Trap
Klax
Race Drivin’
Rampart
Super Space Invaders
The Ancient Art of War at Sea
Thunder Jaws
Tomb Raider (N-Gage version)

As Time Extension points out, most of the games on show were published by either Domark Limited or Eidos Interactive. Domark became Eidos and was eventually purchased by Square Enix. Naturally, there has been a flurry of interest in this discovery, and Singleton has responded to some enquiries.

He stated that “..employees have been invited to take whatever they want”, so some of the finds may now be in private collections. Cynically, we expected to find them all ending up eBay, but we haven’t spotted any Brighton-based sellers trying to offload copies of Castle Master.

We’ve got our fingers crossed these finds are being given the retro-reverence they deserve. We have fond memories of playing several of these games, Castle Master included. Just being able to explore a castle in full 3D felt like magic.

Singleton also indicated that, following one suggestion, he was getting in contact with the National Videogame Museum, who’d no doubt be interested in these. The container included multiple copies of many titles, so there are probably plenty left to preserve.

We can’t imagine the elation Singleton and staff must have felt. It’s an important lesson for us all; if there’s an unopened, unclaimed container at your work, don’t be afraid to take a peek. Unless you work for the Umbrella Corporation, that is.