Nintendo: My Dream Emerges

Yesterday a magnificent event occured.

I was walking up Clark Street, meandering towards the comic book shop ( to buy the latest Dark Tower comic), and low and behold I see a shop called PEOPLE PLAY GAMES.

Walking in, the sound of classic video games emerges from the sound system. I am talking about tunes from the original Legend Of Zelda and Nobuo Uematsu's beautifully composed music for Final Fantasy VIII. Then comes another familiar sound, the rallying call of Mike Tyson's Punchout. In the corner, a man is trying to beat Mike Tyson. Of course the great ones classic lightining quick punches are not enough for Little Mac, the character you take through the ardous circuit. I walk up behind the guy and apologize for looming. He explains that he has spent the last three day's trying to beat Tyson and was unsuccessful.

I begin looking at the shelves and see the thousands of classic Nintendo games they have. Apparently these guys refurbish old Nintendo systems for ultimate capability and sell the games at a reasonable price. At once my childhood ( another haiku?) came flooding back.

It did not take long for me to decide to buy a system. $89.00 later and now I am a proud owner of a classic NES system. The system came with Super Mario Bros/ Duck Hunt and I bought Super Mario Bros 3 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Super Mario 3 is an old favorite and I can remember scouring the malls of Bloomington/Normal looking for it. My mom and I eventually found it at K's Merchandise. The orginal Super Mario is always a great a game for a little fun, but it is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that is my Everest.

You see, the second level of TMNT is the underwater level. When I first borrowed this game from my childhood pal Jeff, it took countless hours to try and beat the level. The set-up is that you are swimming underneath the dam trying to disable all the bombs before the damn explodes. Of course there are dangeroud underwater foot soldiers and stinging algae. I was never able to beat that level.

I am about to turn thirty in a couple years. My only goal, besides being successful at my job, and starting a family, is to defeat this level.

I will update everyone once I have done so, and I will also update on any new classic games I will pick-up.

I am contemplating a huge Tecmo Super Bowl tournament for my friends.

We shall see.