A short story/rant
I’m about twelve years old. I just walk out of a Circuit City with my brand new copy of Golden Sun for my Game Boy Advance. I step into our Dodge van, buckle the safety belt, and tear into the plastic wrap as if it were the last game I would ever have.
I hold in my hands, a
Brand New Video Game. I admire how I can feel the box in my hands the exact object I’ve been saving up for and looking at through the hard plastic protector to keep thieves out. I look at the box art and see four heroes I will soon control; their story will be mine to experience. I see the “ONLY FOR GAMEBOY ADVANCE” on the box and I realize “I have a Game Boy Advance, this game is for
my Game Boy Advance and it’s
only for the Game Boy Advance!” My excitement overwhelms me.
I have severe motion sickness when it comes to cars and reading, playing games, or paying attention to anything at close range, but who cares? I have a new video game! And it’s for
my[i] Game Boy Advance and [i]only for the Game Boy Advance! If you don’t have a Game Boy Advance, you’re shit out of luck!
Despite my dizziness I carefully open the box being sure not to bend the tab that keeps it sealed. I pull out the game cartridge and manual and leave the plastic rectangle in the palm of my hand, immediately I feel a surge of power. Something so small has so much? I still couldn’t believe how they managed to fit a whole adventure into such a small cartridge, but that doesn’t matter time to learn about my new game.
The manual smells like what god would smell like and its contents even more precious. I pass the warnings, table of contents, and basic information. The manual, like foreplay before sex, was only a taste of what I was about to experience. I learned slightly about the backstory, how to access my inventory, the battle system, using magic and about the map. I was equipped for my journey ahead. I had all the necessary tools to venture into a new world and fight battles never fought before. It was time. The rest, as they say, is history.
I am now eighteen and much more into video games than ever before, but one thing has changed. I have long traded in my Game Boy Advance for a Nintendo DS. The next generation of handheld gaming is here. I buy a couple games, and again the experience is every bit as sweet as when I was younger.
I hear that there’s this amazing device called the R4. And apparently it will allow me to download games and more than just one. I can have a whole library of games in my pocket. No more dealing with cartridges, bound to get lost, chipped, and worn-out. I had to get one.
Ok, Advance Wars is out for the DS, time to get a new game. I log onto my favorite ROM website. Search for the latest ROM and locate my target. Like a sniper hitting his target I click on the download button. Boom Headshot. I am redirected to a file hosting website and await my place in turn. Kinda reminds me of waiting for those stupid toll lines in Grand Theft Auto IV. Finally! Time to download! The wait from zero percent to one hundred seems way longer than a minute and fourteen seconds. Seconds turns to hours when you
want something to happen! Here we go, I’m done, time to un-rar this file. A familiar ritual starts all over again. Double click, open, extract, and place onto my desktop. Next is to rename the file to something more pleasing. The final step is to drag and drop the game into the “DS ROMs” folder on my micro SD card. I quickly slide the SD card out of its USB connector and pop it into my R4.
I switch on my DS, browse to the file and start the game. “Oh nice, this one has a story, that’s neat. “ After hours of playing my new game I
feel content, but something is missing. My preparedness is gone, my beautiful box art is missing, and I seem to have misplaced my manual. I feel happy I have a new game, but not excited. In my hands I have nothing; no tabs, no papers, no cartridge. Oh well, time to move onto the next game!
Since I’ve gotten my R4 I no longer feel like an excited kid ready to spend days playing his band new game. The wonder and excitement has been stripped from games (at least on my DS). Now that I have the entire library at my disposal, one game no longer holds any value. It’s works in economics too: If the US decided to print more money and giving everyone in the United States a billion dollars, the dollar would be worth less than it is now. I find it more difficult to appreciate one particular game when I have fifty others waiting for me.
Sometimes I feel a bit regretful that I bought my R4 because it isn’t the same when I could bring home a game and be giddy about it, but on the same note, I have saved so much money and time and it’s awesome to have all the games on the DS at my disposal.
To those that have an R4: Am I just a complete and utter nerd? Or is there anyone else who has felt the same way?
To those who don’t have an R4: buy an R4 if you must, but know the dangers before you do.
I have felt the same as you, although there are some games that made me buy them like Ninja Gaiden DS and The Worlds Ends With You, must of the games don't leave me excited anymore as when I had to buy my games for the GBA.
Send it to me...that'll fix it
This is why I have not gotten an R4 yet, not only am I not one to support it, but also I do NOT want to end up in that situation of not really wanting to play any of the games that i get for it.
Couldn't you just buy some games you really want, so that you can get that special feeling, and emulate other that you sort of want, but would never pay for?
Maybe the games hold no value to you because you are downloading them for free...
This is why I don't have an R4 and I never will. Nothing beats the feeling of having a proper physical game in your hands.
the ’ hurts my eyes
could it be your feeling pirates guilt?
I have an R4, and honestly, I have had that same feeling. But, it passes after I realize that I'm a broke college student, and this is the only way I could play any games at all.
Instead of using the DS for pirated games, look into using it to emulate the games you've missed out on on the NES/SNES/Genisis/NeoGeo. Or look into the wonderful world of Homebrew. :)
Ha, I can kinda see what you mean, but I don't think that piracy makes the game less enjoyable on the whole. Tiberian Sun was the last game I bought until this generation, and it was the last one because a) it fucking sucked and cost a ton of money and b) broadband internet arrived.
Since then, there have been some games where perhaps I would've enjoyed them more if I bought them while anxiously awaiting its arrival for month. But mostly, you just start playing more games and see how not-so-special some games were when compared to what you once had. Shitty games are still shitty, good games are still good. It's only your own nostalgia and whatever meaning you ascribe to a purchase/boxart that will gather dust over time/manuals you will never read.
When I started buying games for the Wii, it did nothing to me. GTA4 pirated or in a box, it's all the same to me now. It's all just in your head that somehow games in retail packages are better. If the R4 does anything, it is that it shows you what kind of games are out there and gives you more opportunities to try out different things, ultimately making seemingly good games not-so-special anymore.
The more you play, the less special your single purchase becomes. I'll never regain a special feeling for any purchased game ever again. I'll just pop in the disc, finish the game and move on regardless of whatever the size of the useless package that will fill up your room/house.
LOOK AT ME I GET EVERY DS GAME FOR FREE, WAAAAAAA I WRITE HORRIBLE 7TH GRADE QUALITY NARRATIVES ABOUT GETTING A GAME BOY GAME! WAAAAA
I'm with Scary Womanizing Pig Mask as that's exactly what I do. I only download games onto my R4 that are either not out in the UK or games that I'm not too sure about and would never buy anyway. If I end up really liking the game I go out and buy it and the same if the game eventually sees a European release. I just bought Apollo Justice and am loving it :-D
also, ’
This is one of my biggest fears of getting an R4/Digital Distribtution in General. I like physical media(for the most part), sure, it's convenient, but you don't get that magical feeling of holding the package in the car on the way home from the store/from the ups box to the couch.
I want an R4, merely for Cave Story. That game is the shit.
Personally though, I wont try to cheer you up. Continue stealing your games and ruining that joy you used to have. Your loss.
Oh and billions of dollars a year to the industry itself. That loss too.
It's R4 owners and pirates that cause problems for people that like to buy legit games. The whole Mass Effect and Bioshock DRM issue. Thats all because of you guys.
It happens the same with me, i miss buying original game for my handheld console. Even if i do what the others say, buy the ones i like the most, sometime happens that when i like the game i've already beaten it, like what happened with "The World Ends With You", it is an awesome game, but i've already beaten it on my DS with almost every pin so there's no point on buying it now.
You opened long forgotten wounds, i also miss when i bought Golden Sun (my godfather gave me the money, it was the last thing we did together after he left the country)
you better.
"I get free games illegally I feel empty inside"
Solution: Burn that R4!
DONT COPY THAT FLOPPY!
Screw that. I have an R4, mainly for the times I'm bored or going on long trips. If I wanted to feel excited about the experience of buying a game, I'll just buy some console games.
THE ROMS ARE EATING YOU FROM THE INSIDE!
Velcro: Ur a too faced dick ;_; bawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
I love the feeling of getting a new game and I refuse to buy an R4. I'd rather have the cartridge.
have fun having no money :D
I've never played a game from beginning to end that I've pirated.
BTW Golden Sun was so cool. Maybe I should get that rom......
dude i have no idea wut ur talking bout but golden sun was awsome im gunna go dl the rom
Stop using the stupid R4. Problem solved!
You can't play as many games? Well, go do some work and get paid, or just deal with it. When you were little you had to pick and choose carefully what games you bought, remember? And it was sweeter, like you said. So now that you recognize your problem, stop being dumb about it.
I'm reporting you to nintendo.
i'm still trying real hard to fight the temptation of getting R4. and i'm doing it for the exact reasons u experienced when u were younger. but i'm still going though ay.