Videogame Memories

When I was younger I had this scam type thing I would use on my parents. Well maybe scam is the wrong word, but anyways here's what would happen.

I would happily volunteer to accompany my mom or dad or both to Target or the mall or wherever. The goal was to be somewhere that sold videogames. So I'd sit in the car with a smile on my face, being the perfect angel. Throwing a fit was no way to ever get your way in my family so I always took the other route. We'd enter the store and I would set my plan into action:

"Can we look at videogames? I don't want any but I like to look"

How could they say no, I basically flat out told them I wasn't looking to buy any, I would sometimes add in there that I had all I wanted or I was still very much addicted to the last game bought for me. So of course they would say I could, this usually happened at the start of the shopping trip, big mistake on their part. We'd walk over to the games, I'd look at them with a slightly bored look on my face, making them think I would soon be ready to move on. But then I would say it:

"No way! I didn't know this game was out! I've been looking forward to this forever!"

This was only partly true, and only part of the time. I knew when games came out, I did subscribe to several magazines as a child and would read them cover to cover, several times. Sometimes though I hadn't even heard of the game, or had no intention of wanting it when I saw ads and articles for it in Nintendo Power or EGM. Yet I needed to have a videogame, and I knew I could get one if I stuck to my plan. My parents would of course open with a line about almost being Christmas (only worked if we were in October or later) or that they didn't have any money. Did I yell and scream then? No freakin way. Instead I would simply give them the wide eyed bambi look that only brown eyed children can fully pull off. My happiness would be shattered and for the rest of the shopping trip I would mention how the graphics in the game were awesome or how everyone at school would have the game before me (Always a lie, I had the best games, nobody ever came close). This would break them down bit by bit, this wasn't about buying their son a videogame, no, for my parents this became part of their duty. They knew that if I didn't end up with the game I was going to mope about it for days, and I'd do it to. So before we reached the checkout counter, my mom would fold and go back with me to the videogames to pick out my new toy (If I was just with my Dad my plan was simplified to "Mom said you could buy it for me cuz I raked leaves or something")

What was the first thing I did when I got into the car? Opened the game and read the instructions, yeah I didn't need to, game controls were hardwired into my brain at birth. The point was the car ride home would last forever but I knew that when I got there I would be able to pop in my new game and be satisfied...until the next trip to the store.