After a long day of air travel (with the actual flight being the shortest component, damn shuttles), I took a shower to unwind. To try and distract myself from the new mystery substance rotting in the shower corner (pretty sure it's caulk), I thought about this blog and how I need to branch out thematically. Thus, I present to you...

The Great Mem'ries of Games I Did Not Purchase (or Pirate)

I was behind the Zelda curve. Up until OoT, my exposure had been limited to renting a Link to the Past, playing the prior renter's save game (how great was that as a kid?) for 20 minutes, and then giving up. That game was too damn hard and slow for a first grader, especially one that owned Final Fight. I did, however, tell one of my classmates that I had beaten the game. It turns out his parents played the game more than he did and I had to answer a bunch of gameplay questions from them during a field trip. I don't remember what I said, but my "tips" were definitely not useful. That should have taught those parents to get involved in their kid's life. From that point on, I avoided Zelda, lest I have to relive "yeah.. uh... you get the sword... near the tree.. " Years later, after hearing the many great things about OoT, I asked my younger sister to game a neighbor boy into letting us borrow his copy. He had bragged about his skills on the 64, she told me about it, we enjoyed a laugh at his expense, and then we threw down the gauntlet of "you haven't beaten it, I bet we can beat it in two weeks." Two weeks turned into more like a month, but we never gave the game back. I still have his gold cartridge somewhere in my closet. Zelda provided hours of free entertainment for us. We'd print out things from GameFAQs, she'd read them aloud, and I'd play. Sibling bonding at its purest. The first run through, I never played a minute without her.

My sister was also part of my other "theft." I scored a copy of Street Fighter Alpha 2 for the SNES from a friend of mine after a sleepover. He was still basically asleep when my mother picked me up the next morning, so I seized the opportunity and asked if I could borrow the game. Too groggy to object and not enough of a gamer to notice (this was also years after the SNES was released), I kept the game and he forgot. I suck at fighting games, but I was actually pretty decent SFAII. Once again, I had my sister on stand-by with the move list.

Anyone else have any good stories of misappropriated games?

For the few that care, my mom's new PC has been built. Pictures will be forthcoming.