Closure

COVID-19 - School Closure - Day 102

It took over 30 years... but I finally found closure.  I finally beat Double Dragon, my very first Nintendo game.  But this doesn't come without a story... in this case... a saga.... 

Around the Fall of 1988... Dad got us our first Nintendo. I still remember the days leading up to that fateful moment. Big Bro and I would pour over the same Toys R Us advertisement over and over again.  Fighting, debating, arguing over the 2nd game to pick out.  Cuz hands-down, without argument, we were getting Double Dragon. This game was double meaningful because it had two guys on the cover. After we got done fighting over the 2nd game, we would then fight over who gets to be the blonde guy or Asian dude. The night we picked up the console... I remember getting Double Dragon but the 2nd game was sold out!! So we ended up getting Contra, which spins off to a whole saga on it's own.  We headed to Tony's house and quickly popped in our game. Tony and Howard already had their systems and their games. But ours were the newest and freshest.

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My eyes were bulging, my heart was palpitating and my glands were excreting.  This is it. The moment I've been waiting for... where I can now.. finally...be a red blooded American boy who owned an NES.  The first thing we realized... this was nothing I had expected.  For one, it's a 1-player game.  So much for fighting over the blonde vs Asian guy.  Then the game started... "Mission 1."  As if it was yesterday... I can still hear Tony say, "Heh... Mission 街." Then Big Bro and Howard, the obviously coolest of the cousins said "This is different from the arcade."  "Very different."  

My heart sank faster than the Titanic.  All my hopes of an amazing gaming experience dashed like the hopes of a forlorn 49er fan. Within minutes of bordeom, out came Double Dragon and in went Hogan's Alley... Pro-Wrestling... Duck Hunt... and every game, but Double Dragon.  The runner up... Contra was getting more screen time than my beloved.  Cast away to the shadows and replaced by the mistress... the runner up... the never-meant-to-be.  (Sorry Contra...)

In the days that followed, I tried to make it up to Double Dragon.  I courted it.  Dated it.  Befriended it.  But the game-play was horrid, unfriendly, truly a debacle.  In fact, the game play was the reason why the word debacle was created. (Or would that be TMNT....hmmm...).  The breakup wasn't spectacular.  There was no Moonlighting banging of doors. Nor was there some 80's ballad playing in the background.  We simply grew apart.  

Days became weeks became months became years.  As Ben Franklin once put it, nothing can be certain except Tax and Death.  After years of Taxing our NES, it started to show signs of near Death. The system started to hang... it wouldn't start... it was dying.  We creatively came up with so many techniques to resuscitate the NES. The infamous blowing into the cartridge!  Followed closely by blowing into the console. Holding RESET while hitting POWER.  Resetting 3 times in a row.  Was it just our system?????  The Yellow and Red Audio Video lines started to glitch.  We had to put some weight on it... to ensure a good solid contact.  We of course, used the box of gray cartridges (and the one golden Zelda cartridge).  One after another... games came and went.  Bases Loaded 2.  Dragon Warrior.  Ninja Gaiden.  Final Fantasy (the original!!!) The tower of gray cartridges started to crumble and then one day.... there she was again.  

I was bored.  It wouldn't hurt.  It was barely played.  It would be in semi-playable condition, perhaps? Perchaps??  I'm now a few years older.  A little less naive.  A lot more shrewd.  Ok... I learned how to cheat. HAPPY!?!??!  And that's what I did.... I cheated.  I figured out a way to earn as many hearts as I can, early in the game.  Instead of knocking down the bad guys while earning points to earn hearts, I would punch them twice then walk away.  That way... I can use the weakest enemies (in the beginning) to build up my arsenal, before I played the harder enemies in the harder levels.  Cheating????  Nah.

Our love was rekindled.  I was all over my lover and it was all over me. We made mad love on the floor of our Chinatown apartment.  The trick worked... I was able to get deep into Mission 3... Mission 4!!! The falling stalagmites.  The double Abobos in white shorts.  Then ONE night.... I finally got to Willie.  Big Willie.  First time encountering this boss.  All I knew about him was the little I read from the original Nintendo magazine that came with the system and an occasional mention in Nintendo Power.  He held a machine gun.  A MACHINE GUN!!! And then... as I was moments away from my greatest triumph....  the words came through the house, "食飯喇!"  

<to be continued>