After a long and unblemished record, he began acting up a few months ago. One night last summer all we wanted to do was fire up some Guitar Hero, and it took about 15 minutes of trying all the tricks (cleaning the disc, setting the console on its side, setting it upside down, hitting the reset button at the right moment) before it finally read the disc, and by that time we almost didn't care anymore. I had barely turned it on since then, and the other night there was no fixing it. I knocked it around for awhile, my anger escalating. Then a little voice in my head told me to stop....he was already dead.
So now I send him on to the next life with a heavy heart. (And by that I mean I'm trading him in to the used video game store in town, along with all my games, and hoping that they don't try to test him out first. I only want store credit anyway, hook a dude up.) We had some good times together:
- Sitting on the couch hungover as crap and watching Noles and Horp play ramp ball for hours on end
- Watching Guitar Hero take over our lives to the point that we rarely went to the bars for a few months because we'd always "start out the evening" pregaming with a little GH, more and more people would slowly come over, then we'd say time to go out...only to look at the clock and see it was 1 in the morning
- Coming back to the dorms after lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an entire semester to play Lane in NCAA football-- in the process losing something like 30 games in a row, and kicking a hole in my dorm room wall once when my two-point conversion with no time left failed and left me with a 56-55 loss...that game still haunts me
- Season after season after season after season of Madden.
There's also a slight residue of bitterness, as well. How does the PS2 crap out after nine years, but my Sega, Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64 are all still going strong? I think there's something to be said for blowing into the cartridge and console, rather than relying on a bullshit cd. Plus it seems like you have a lot more leeway to jimmy around with the old video game systems to get them to work. The best one I ever saw was Ike's old Nintendo. He had to take the top part of the shell off, flip it upside down, and put a 15-pound weight on it. 10 lbs. didn't work, 20 lbs. didn't work, it had to be 15. And then it worked like clockwork.
But I'm not here to dwell on the negative. The PS2 gave me everything he had for nine solid years, and I love him for that. This is a celebration, not a funeral.
Goodnight, old friend. Sleep well.
