When I got all A’s on my report card for a whole year, my parents got me a Sega Genesis. I think I was in 2nd grade. I still own that Sega Genesis today. I’ve since owned a Dreamcast, Playstation 2, and an Xbox 360. They were all played enough, but I always played the Genesis too through out the years. In fact, I used to play the Genesis more than the 360 for the most part. I recently added an N64, Super Nintendo, and the NES to my living room.
Why am I writing about all this video game stuff on a dog blog? Well, here’s the thing…
These old systems are very touchy. It takes 5 minutes of off and on, putting the cartridge in the system, and taking it back out, you know… finding the sweet spot for the game to work. In addition to that some of the games don’t have a way to save progress.
So over the course of about a week or so, I had been playing Super Mario World on the SNES. Most the time the dogs liked the video game time. They got to curl up next to me on the couch, and when I lost a life they got tons of pets. Of course sometimes I’d get sucked into the game and they’d have to woof at me to feed them or let them out. For the most part I’d oblige and pause the game to tend to the rulers of the house.
It had gotten to the point where I found all the switches, found and completed all the star levels, and I had 1 more world until Bowser’s final castle. It was an intense little time for video game Sam, but Yuki didn’t care, she wanted attention. Ignoring her made her run to the toy box to get a squeaky ball. If you don’t throw the squeaky ball she just pounces on it all over the room like “look at me, I’m so cute, but you’re a jerk for ignoring me and I am having fun all by myself”. Well usually that little bit makes me grab the ball and toss it into the other room for her, but I was so close to the end of the game.
I learned something that night. I learned that you cannot, and should not ignore a Yuki. When a Yuki wants attention, if you don’t give it to her, she will TAKE IT. That night, Yuki pounced on the Super Nintendo. The jolt froze up the game. I restarted it, only to find that the game had erased and all the progress had been lost. It was a sad night. All my accomplishments were gone, if I had only just thrown the ball into the kitchen! D’oh!
On a brighter note, I knew that something like this would more than likely happen again, so now I keep a folding chair in the living room and place it above the console, blocking it from dog pounces and careless trampling. If you have a problem with a dog knockin’ into your video game console, I recommend the chair guard. Trust me, it will save you from losing weeks of gaming. Now lets throw back even further to Mario Bros 3! Warp whistle, warp whistle!
