Ben Drowned was one of the great fables of the web: a haunted Nintendo cartridge, unsettling glitches and footage, and a tragic backstory emerging over time. Posed originally in the hoax mode of storytelling, it was the creation of Alex Hall. The BBC posted a retrospective of it, as seen by a tween, 10-year-old Saarthak Johri, chancing across it early on.
Ben Drowned left an indelible mark on the web and continues to spawn art and fan fiction long after it emerged. Though lesser-known outside gaming circles, the story and its accompanying videos racked up millions of views and have inspired other narratives in a similar vein.
At its core, Ben Drowned is a story about a ghost in a machine – one that speaks to our deepest fears about new technology. But it's more than an effective urban legend. Ben Drowned is a myth born from a medium that shaped a generation. In an era when video games were still often seen as a frivolous pastime for children, Ben Drowned was early proof that society's relationship with video games goes beyond childhood nostalgia, tapping into our deepest emotions – and maybe even our souls.
By the time Johri stumbled on Ben Drowned in around 2015, it was already widely acknowledged as fiction. But that didn't matter.
Reading this made me want to check in on Jonna Lee, aka iamamiwhoami. On tour this summer!
Previously:
• The full story of the Dybbuk Box
• Ghostwatch, the greatest TV Halloween hoax of all time
• The story behind the Cottingley fairies
