The English website for Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s legendary rhythm shooter Rez went live in 2001 and shut down in 2003. Thanks to the efforts of Rez preservationist (Rezervationist?) Brian Hargrove, that sweet piece of internet history has been restored, complete with detailed staff bios, tiny screenshots, and Windows Media Player-friendly video clips.
A passionate fan of all things Rez and NeoGeo, Brian Hargrove has been waiting years to get his hands on the United Game Artists web domain, U-GA.com. In 2020 the company that had been sitting on the domain finally let its renewal lapse, giving Hargrove the opening he needed.
“When the site went down in 2003, it had been a few unused landing pages since with no real content,” Hargrove told Kotaku. “Every time it was set to expire, it was always re-registered before I could buy it. It wasn’t renewed in 2020, so I was finally able to pick it up at Godaddy’s expired auction page.” Ownership of the domain acquired, Hargrove used Archive.org to put the page back together again.
Highlights of the revitalised website include four pages of 480 pixel-wide screenshots featuring details you can barely make out if you squint. I particularly enjoy the creator bio page, with its bite-sized messages from the makes of Rez. Hargrove even restored the site’s “homepage design kit” so you can make your very own ‘00-era fansite.
Obviously one of the game’s biggest fans, Brian Hargrove just wants everyone to be able to experience Rez as he did back in the day. He urges fans old, new, and potential to grab a copy of expanded re-release Rez Infinite for the PlayStation 4 or PC and get their trippy rhythm shooter groove on.
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