Gaming has a past; it cannot escape the rearticulation of genres, traditions and images of its history. The haunting of the present is all the more visible here than in other forms, as non-digital media are bound by types of material traces. But what traces does gaming leave – what breadcrumbs to follow? This paper seeks a telling of the inner life of game history, the force that surges through game culture to forever remember its roots and seek out the infinite regress of its future. Keywords pastness, past, arcades, transmedia, kittler, crary, rosen, materiality,