Generally speaking, if you beat a game in today’s generation of games you are privy to any number of things: multiple endings, new game plus, DLC and the like. However, in 1989, a Russian game company called The Karvina Corporation released a game that didn’t hold true to that rule. Their game, Killswitch, was released in a very limited quantity (5,000 to 10,000) and offered the player a very unique twist. Once the player beat the game, the game would delete itself, and all data related to the game, as if it never existed. That meant that the game was only there for the player at that moment in time, it could not be copied, replayed or loaned to a friend. Intriguing huh? The most intriguing part is the fact that the player is offered two characters to choose from: Porto, a little girl who can change size to navigate the mines, and Ghast, an invisible, extremely powerful demon. So upon completion of one story path, the rest of game was closed off to the player forever much like a collapsed mine.

This game was billed as an older survival horror game. The player would have to navigate an old mine with ghosts and the dead lurking about. For the most part people picked Porto to play due to the fact that she could be seen. It was considerably more difficult to play as Ghast due to the fact that you could not see him on screen. Playing as a completely invisible character would make it very difficult to jump or aim. So most players, after failing the first few levels with Ghast, would opt to play and beat the game as Porto. Which means they would never see Ghast’s ending unless they purchased two copies.

In 1989, purchasing two copies of the same game was not a normal thing to do. So instead, there was a mad scramble to find a sealed copy of the game. Players even petitioned The Karvina Corporation for more copies, but their requests were denied. Karvina released a statement in 1990:

“Killswitch was designed to be a unique playing experience: like reality, it is unrepeatable, irretrievable, and illogical. One might even say ineffable. Death is final; death is complete. The fates of Porto and her beloved Ghast are as unknowable as our own. It is the desire of the Karvina Corporation that this be so, and we as our customers to respect that desire. Rest assured, Karvina will continue to provide the highest quality of games to the West, and that Killswitch is merely one among our many wonders.”

Obviously this game became extremely rare, and possibly non-existent. However, in 2005 a sealed copy showed up at auction and went to Yamamoto Ryuichi of Tokyo for a hefty sum of $733,000. Some believe that this was the last copy on Earth, and Yamamoto paid a nice price for it. Since the distinct possibility that this was the last copy hung over Yamamoto, he decided to play the game for everyone. Which meant he was going to record his play-through and post it for all to see. To this day only one video has every been seen. It’s a video of a very tired, very drained Yamamoto sitting in front of his computer screen. The short video shows the viewer the choice screen on the game, and you can see him sitting there in the glow of the screen, crying. Oddly enough, this video has also disappeared, just like every trace of the game. What made him cry is as big a mystery as Ghast’s ending since there is no report of anyone beating the game as him. Some say he was crying because he couldn’t succeed as Ghast. Others say it was due to the fact that he couldn’t decide which storyline to play, knowing that once the decision was made, half of the game would never be revealed to him. Or quite possibly, he made the realization that he paid $733,000 for a game that he could only play once, and never again, that would bring even me to tears.

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