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Post by Ex on Sept 18, 2019 11:31:15 GMT -5
I would get to the university early and download stuff to take home and play later. I came armed with scads of floppy disks. And I was late for class almost every time because I'd be waiting for downloads to finish. Terrible priorities on my part. Heh me too back then. Back in 1997 while I was working in the industrial controls department of a lumber mill equipment producer (no not the same place I work now), I had a ROM downloading issue backfire. Our department's boss was gone on a business trip. So I took advantage of his absence to utilize the company's good internet, and I downloaded a bunch of ROMs to floppy diskettes. Unfortunately one of my co-workers decided to be a tattletale snitch and reported what I did to my boss. My boss was super pissed about it and tried to have me fired. However I was in good with the company's president, and he overrode my boss and just moved me to a different department. Nowadays of course I wouldn't have been so brazen about what I was doing. But at 18 my priorities were not correctly aligned.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 18, 2019 11:43:09 GMT -5
I do wonder if they'd have kicked me out of the library if they'd known what I was doing. Probably. I know downloading ROMs or other illegal material isn't exactly kosher. I remember using some of the earliest CD burners later on to download massive chunks of ROM sets. This was when new releases were filtering out by the day; I remember waiting what felt like forever for Faria to be dumped. There was a ROM dumping group that I can't even remember their name that would release new sets occasionally.
But yeah, to say I was obsessed with gaming was an understatement. Honestly, I'm not sure it's changed all that much, although my priorities are reshuffled a bit better, at any rate.
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Post by Ex on Sept 18, 2019 11:54:52 GMT -5
I imagine the librarians would have had implemented some disciplinary measures for sure.
While I still love the medium, I'm definitely not as obsessed with video games as I used to be. I've picked up additional hobbies since 1997, so my obsession potential has to spread across multiple interests now.
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Post by hooplehead on Sept 18, 2019 13:58:29 GMT -5
Haha, I could imagine myself going to such lengths in my teens for roms and other gaming necessities if the Internet weren't so reliable and widespread as it's become.
Speaking of gaming regrets, I have a pretty big one. Growing up, I used to move a lot, and that generally meant cleaning out any unnecessary stuff to make the move easier. It was the late 90's and I'd just moved on from the SNES to the N64, and my parents thought I should clean house with the SNES and the 20 games I had for it. However, something told me to find a way to hold onto it. We compromised with giving it to my grandparents, since they had multiple TV's but no consoles or gaming systems whatsoever, and it would be something to entertain myself and my cousins.
It actually stayed there and was a fixture for years. That is, until about 2 or 3 years ago. While I wasn't set on turning my collection into physical copies with real hardware, I did want to hold onto what I already had, since I had a lot of my favorite games already - Super Metroid, Super Mario World + All Stars, DKC trilogy, etc. So, I called them up to see if they could send it over to me or my parents, and I was gutted to hear that they didn't have it anymore. Not only did they not have it, they threw it in the trash. They didn't even give it to a Goodwill or resell it!
I'm pretty happy I still have most of my original N64 games, controllers, and the system, and the same goes for the Gamecube, Wii, and PS3. Sure, I'd sell the odd game I'd beaten already to get something new that I just had to have, but I'm happy with what I have. But knowing everything related to my SNES is in some landfill is such a bummer.
It's probably why I immediately grabbed a SNES Classic. Had to make sure I had SNES controllers and a console replica of some sort to experience those games if I ever had the urge to.
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Post by Sarge on Sept 18, 2019 14:48:27 GMT -5
Ouch. I hate to hear when stuff like that happens.
An even worse scenario happened with my Dad. He used to have some really nice comics. First Spider-Man, first Superman, first X-Men, etc. While he was working on an oil rig back years ago, a guy told him how much they were worth. When he called his Mom to see where they were, she told him she'd tossed them years ago. Doh! Of course, I have benefited from this in that my folks won't throw anything away of mine unless I give them permission to do so. Good thing, too, 'cause a lot of my game boxes are stashed in my bedroom closet back home, and those add a ton to the value of the games I have.
(I've also informed them of how much they're worth, so they know not to ditch 'em.)
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Post by Ex on Sept 18, 2019 16:03:30 GMT -5
Not only did they not have it, they threw it in the trash. They didn't even give it to a Goodwill or resell it! If it makes you feel any better, anayo probably found it.
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Post by hooplehead on Sept 19, 2019 9:08:17 GMT -5
Not only did they not have it, they threw it in the trash. They didn't even give it to a Goodwill or resell it! If it makes you feel any better, anayo probably found it. Haha, glad to know someone’s rescuing these landfill SNES’s!
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Post by Sarge on Sept 20, 2019 17:46:25 GMT -5
I just remembered another one. I rarely got rid of systems, but I have done so. I sold our Intellivision, and wish I hadn't. We picked it up at a yard sale for $10, with like 20-ish games with it. I ended up selling it for twice that to my cousin, and apparently it died on him. Don't know if it was abuse or just hardware failure, but I figure I probably could have kept it going longer.
Anyway, that reminds me that perhaps I should actually go try to find a nice bundle that has a lot of the games we had. Most of what came with it had boxes and the controller inserts. We actually made our own for the games that didn't have them, which was a lot of fun for someone that both dug video games and was art-inclined.
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Post by anayo on Sept 21, 2019 13:39:04 GMT -5
If it makes you feel any better, anayo probably found it. Haha, glad to know someone’s rescuing these landfill SNES’s! Nah man I'd give them back to you. I'm sure your grandma didn't mean anything by it, but that was whack.
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