Remakes of interactive narratives, including adventure games and electronic literature, have risen over the past decade, propelled in part by nostalgia. However, unlike obvious parallels in other media (such as the remake of cult classic Ghostbusters with a new cast and mentality), game remakes are rarely re-imaginings. In many cases, the original games have been rendered unplayable or at least very difficult to access by time,
as digital history is constantly in a process of bing lost thanks to the rotating door of technologies. Given these challenges, remakes play an important role in establishing and preserving canonical play. How do we evaluate and value fidelity in the remake of procedural content, and what role do changing interfaces and platforms play in our understanding of an interactive narrative as experience? I examine these questions
through the lens of several remakes of classic adventure games from the last decade. Fan reactions to each of these games and the design choices behind them reveal the difficult balance between preserving the nostalgic experience of an original and adapting to new modalities and expectations.
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