Caper in the Castro — the earliest known LGBTQ video game — is an old fashioned murder mystery. The player controls the movements of Tracker McDyke, a lesbian private investigator who must find her kidnapped friend and drag queen, Tessy LaFemme. C.M. Ralph created the game in 1989.
Caper in the Castro and its historical significance is included as part of the LGBTQ Game Archive at Temple University. The archive, which lists 1,290 games, is the only archive in the world dedicated to the history of LGBTQ video game content.
The Strong museum, located in Rochester, N.Y., and home to the World Video Game Hall of Fame, has received a copy of the LGBTQ Game Archive. The comprehensive material includes press articles, websites, blogs, web forums, videos, images, and character descriptions.
“This collection is a significant resource for anyone studying gender, sexuality, or LGBTQ representation in games throughout history and allows the museum to more fully tell the story of the video game industry,” Julia Novakovic, archivist at The Strong, said.
The collection includes information and digital copies of Caper in the Castro and GayBlade, a 1992 action role-playing game about fighting homophobic characters. The collection also includes several popular game series, such as The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Brothers, Fallout, and The Sims.
“From hidden subtext and problematic storylines, to games which let players make their own decisions about a character’s sexuality, queer representation in video games has made immense strides within the past few decades,” Novakovic said.
Video games are a huge industry. In 2019, video games in the United States alone generated more than $35 billion in revenue, more than music and movies combined.
Earlier last year, The Last of Us II was released and made history as the most successful high budget video game with queer characters who are center stage in the narrative. It sold more than 4 million copies in just three days, Sony said, making it one of the fastest-selling games in the company’s history.
Caper in the Castro was originally released as “Charity Ware,” meaning anyone who downloaded the game was asked to donate money to an AIDS organization of their choosing. Ralph, who had relocated from Southern California to the Bay Area, wanted to give back to the LGBTQ community that had embraced her and her partner and honor the memory of approximately 90% of their friends who had died from AIDS related illnesses.