New Obsession

One day, Chin and I were studying when she suddenly blurted, "Did you know that Uncle David bought a Nintendo Family Computer from Goodwill?"
My eyes grew big as I asked, "The real deal? The cream colored one with the red accents?"
"YES!" She said. "We played Mario Kuti-Kuti (our term for Super Mario 3...the one where he could turn into a cat/racoon and fly). We were nailed in front of the TV...I swear, it was the most fun thing ever!"

That conversation started it all. Now, Chin, Mark and I are obsessed. We talk endlessly about our favorite FamiCom games and laugh ourselves silly.

My Favorites:

• Mappy (my area of expertise)
• Super Mario World 3 (never reached World 8...this our everlasting frustration)
  
• Milk n Nuts
• Antartic Adventure (the penguin racing to reach home)
• Twin Bee
• Ice Climber
• Circus Charlie (the boy who jumped through rings of fire astride a lion in stage 1)
  
• DigDug
• Road Fighter (the one where Superman flies by if you haven't made any booboos)

Chin and Mark laugh at me because they think all my favorite games are lame. Well, hmph. They're not lame...I just don't like violent games.

Mark's Favorites:

• Contra
• Spartan X
• Sangokushi (I don't know this game)
  
• Double Dragon (nor this one)
  
• Battle City
• Punch Out
• Excite Bike
• Legend of Kage (the ninja game where the princess was abducted and ninja guy has to rescue her, huge trees as background in stage 1, and movement of screen is from right to left)
  
• Urban Champion (don't know this one)
  
• Gradius (and this one)
  
• Exerion (and this one)
  

Notice the difference in our choices? Punch here, kick that, shoot those...how violent!

Half the games Mark used to play I don't even know. I always find myself saying, "what's that game about?"...and him sighing, "It's about...blah blah blah..." It's to be expected, however, that anyone born in the 80s would have a FamiCom repertoire that's twice as long as mine. Sadly, we were only allowed to play in the summer. Mark, on the other hand, played anytime he wanted. One of the perks of being a genius, I guess.

With all the talk of FamiCom and how fun it was back then, it suddenly occurred to me that we NEED to have our own console! Thanks to Ebay, purchasing a FamiCom console in 2006 is not as impossible as it sounds. Expensive, yes. Impossible, no. How Chin and I wish we took better care of our console and game cartridges because those damned cartridges now cost at least $9 (and up to $32!). One console in Hong Kong is on sale for $300! The seller says it's in mint condition, with the original box and all that. WOW, what a nerd.

Mark, the gaming king, said US and Europe had NES consoles, instead of FamiCom (only in Asia). They had bigger cartridges (72-pin, instead of the 64-pin we were used to). The NES consoles are aplenty at Ebay, and sell cheaper too. Problem is, some games that we really love were never released here in the States and only come in the 64-pin format. Boo.

Mark, the uber obsessed researcher of FamiCom (hehehe, thanks for doing all the leg work, baby), found an alternative console. Messiah, a third party company, released a console last year called the Generation NEX (funny!) that has 2 cartridge slots: one for the NES cartridge, and another one for the FamiCom cartridge. I guess we're not the only ones to be hit by the FamiCom bug. The controllers of Generation NEX are fancier and even has a wireless option! Connection to the TV is composite, no more two-pronged wire thingies (good luck finding a TV that allows for that type of connection!). Sweet, right? It doesn't come without a catch, however. There are some who say that the Generation NEX can destroy the cartridge because of the way it's wired. =(

So the obsession continues. Should we buy a FamiCom? Should we buy a NES? Or should we risk it with the Generation NEX? Chin added, "should we just steal Uncle David's? I know it's in good condition." How tempting.

-posted by tanya-