So, I'm avoiding a nasty homework assignment while my sister (who is visiting me today) is playing on the Gamecube. I like the Gamecube. It's pretty self explanatory: a cube that has games. Self-explanatory is good. But there's something missing from it.
I'm talking about cartridge power.
Anyone from my generation knows damned well what I mean. Sure, the minidisc things are nice and small and contain about 81 gajillion times what a cartidge can hold. But where's the challenge? I miss the days of having games that took, not only skill to play, but skill to turn on. For instance:
You're sitting around with a bunch of friends, getting ready to start the Super Mario Showdown. It's a select group of diehards so you don't have to hear the old "The 'A' button isn't working" excuse. Every one is psyched for the match as you slide the cartridge in and are rewarded with... nothing.
"Blow on it!!!"
"Jiggle it!!!"
"Pull it out and push it back in, leaving exactly 1/8'' of cartridge exposed!!!"
They all shout at you simultaneously.
Everyone has their own method, from hitting "reset" to breaking out the titanium micrometer to ensure ideal cartridge placement.
But it doesn't matter how many times you swear that your method has worked on Maniac Mansion. It's a mad dash to become the Master of the Cartridge.
"You're blowing on it all wrong!!!"
"Let me do it! I Knooooow how to do it!!"
"Q-Tips and rubbing alchohol! Someone get the Q-tips and rubbing alchohol for god's sake!"
But whatever method you used, you stood a bit taller that day if you were accredited with making the game work. You were revered, if only for the 30 second attention span that your friends had.
Until you got your ass kicked by a fire breathing flower, that is.
But now, all is changed. I guess there's no room in this world for an unreliable, expensive to produce and low- capacity cartridge. I guess the only character we build is the one on Phantasy Star rather than the one gained from determination and hard-won respect.
Well, fine, Nintendo Fat Cats. But you can pry my Game Boy Advance cartridges from my cold, dead fingers.
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1 comment:
I feel your pain, bikinikiller. I remember many happy hours spent around the family camcorder, trying to figure out why it wouldn't record even when the little red recording light was on. I think appliances that work too easily are destroying family life.
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