The Joys and Horrors of Video Game Demakes
The ornate, gothic structures of Bloodborne are now finally available to experience on the platform, having been meticulously replicated as a PlayStation fan demake called Bloodborne PSX. And to no one’s surprise, it’s also a rendition that translates well to the rough, heavily pixelated aesthetics of the PlayStation 1, with the demake adding more layers to the already oppressive atmosphere of the original. Skulking around the towers among the ghoulish streets of Yharnam in Bloodborne still carries the sort of grandiose but abominable beauty that Bloodborne has been known for.
There are also a few tweaks that make the fan game feel more true to the dated PlayStation 1 platform, such as a tanked framerate when using the Flamesprayer, a cumbersome menu UI that’s right in the vein of PS1 games, and even a mock memory card save system. Bloodborne PSX even has the tell-tale sign of a CRT TV glare at a not-so-discreet corner of its screen.
Related: Why Fan Games Are Crucial To The Games Industry
Demakes are a mark of the technological legacies behind the video games medium, and emblematic of the industry’s unyielding penchant for nostalgia. Players are understandably fascinated by renditions of modern games that could have developed in the past, to see how these platforms’ limitations will fare against today’s much more technically intensive designs. And with demakes like Bloodborne PSX, it’s also a burgeoning video game genre that’s coming on its own, a type of thought experiment, even a fun exercise to reimagine some of the biggest names in games—the most ‘next gen’ of titles—as experiences that might have been released years or decades ago on older platforms. Bloodborne PSX, of course, is one of the more hotly anticipated
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