Need I remind you that without maintenance, Flash memory, hard disks, VHS tapes, CDs (basically every dynamic digital storage medium we use) will have erased its data within 20 years.

Nintendo's cartridges used ROM and will last significantly longer, but probably still won't withstand 1000 years.

I probably should have specified that I didn't actually mean the hardware that the games are on, but just the media on those devices since they can be shared and reproduced infinitely.

Id have to agree that the only games that survive are the very simplest ones.

This is because they are so simple that if you do modifications, most would classify it as the same game.

I'd say tic-tac-toe because new programmers will still be trying to figure it out

This is the consensus that I expect from everyone now. I suppose most games could just be considered a couple of dozen basic game ideas thrown into one to create something new. Kind of depressing that unless we create another fundamental game people will likely never enjoy our creations past their small lifespans.

Strip Chess anyone?

To be honest thinking about it again I think that non of the video games that exist today will be remembered and played in 1000 years. 1000 years is such a long time that so many other games or entertainment mediums will have been thought up that will make what we have now seem pointless and people will just forget about them.
Even if there is still internet 12.0 in the future there will have been so much data generated that even stumbling across a super mario related screenshot may never happen.
Even if people did find reviews of current games the language may have changed that much that people wouldn't be able to understand the english text unless they were an ancient text expert.

There may be a record of some games from our time. But nobody will be playing them or know of them outside a few history geeks. Seriously, we view games from 20 years ago as being ancient retro classics. New gamers won't know what Doom is or Quake or SimCity and those are as near to genre-defining as anything recent-ish.

Same for music and literature - barely ANYONE reads literature more than 2-300 years old let alone 500 years or older, and there are loads of excellent books from those periods. Very little music from 400+ years ago is known outside a small number of niche enthusiasts, and things are speeding up - things are changing ever faster and dropping from fashion sooner and sooner. I bet even the Beatles will drop from general knowledge in the next few decades and they are by far the best known modern group - look at Bieber and Gaga and ask yourself if they will be widely known in 10 years.

Crysis - by then, computers will be able to run it.

Well, here I am going forward with the Mario It's been there for more than a decades and still people just love to play Mario. So, Mario is going to keep on standing for more decades.

Can you name the first games Mario was in, with out using the internets ?

Mario as a character may survive, however Mario the game will not.

Can you name the first games Mario was in, with out using the internets ?

Donkey Kong.

I agree that everybody will know who Mario is... Even pac man and frogger have their rebirths now and then on different mediums so I figure we can expect the same from Mario. As for the technical portion of the question... well I'll leave that you all.

Awww... you people are so cute... "This has survived for over 10 years!" like that means something.

I'm reminded of American's who'll proudly say that a building is over 50 or 100 years old and that some how makes it seem ancient...

I think, before deciding what will or will not survive, you probably need to get a handle on just how long 1000 years really is.

Concepts will probably survive (I also found it amusing that someone thought Halo would survive while COD wouldn't... *chuckles*) assuming we keep making games based on them but the games themselves, probably not.

They are basically disposable; its like asking which issue of a magazine will survive 1000s years.

They are basically disposable; its like asking which issue of a magazine will survive 1000s years.

Well...things like "Great Expectations" were originally published as part of a weekly magazine, and that one has endured at least 150+ years, and going strong :)

You never know, but in principle yes, I agree it's really unlikely that in 1000 years people will know who "super mario" is.

>>>barely ANYONE reads literature more than 2-300 years old let alone 500 years or older,

...What?!

I'd think saying "barely anyone" reads things like Illiad or Odyssey or Plato or Shakespeare or Dante's works or the Bible or the Quaran or the Torah or Confucius etc etc is...a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?