Super Nintendo

This post is getting more and more overdue as I type it. The week before Thanksgiving I busted out my old Super Nintendo. That's a 16-bit system. To help paint a better picture, its graphics are rated at 3.58 MHz. PlayStation 3 is rated at 550 MHz. While I don't know exactly what that means, I do know the disparity between the two video game systems. It's a canyon.

What's monumentally more important is how happy I became from the playing of this video game unit.

I had just gotten off work and was bored, so I dusted off the old box and got it up and running. I played NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, Super Mario Kart, NBA Hang Time, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball, NHL '96 and some older football games that were difficult to get the hang of.

As I sat there, reveling in my childhood memories and re-living past memories of all-night sleepovers and rainy summer days of just sitting around going through seasons or home run derbies, I realized that that was all a 22-year-old needed in his life. (Mind you, I have a job, a roof over my head, great friends and family, and a beautiful girlfriend that is amazing). So what else does a recent college graduate who isn't doing what he went to school to do and has all those things need?

I sipped a beer, ate a cheesesteak leftover from lunch, and took it all in. I really indulged in what felt like pure and utter ecstasy. "Ah yeah!" I thought as I remembered how dominant Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp were in their heyday. I felt scorn toward Michael Jordan. Why was that guy never on a video game? Was he too good or something?

I called friends who would appreciate how special this moment was. I ended up talking with my brother for a half an hour, which is actually short for us. It was like my favorite team had just won a championship and for once I could share it with all my buddies.

Of course, like Patrick Van Horn-Sue in Swingers-informed us, the Kings are definitely a finesse team. They spanked me as the Penguins 4-1 and even won a fight in NHL '96. But I took home the 50cc Mushroom Cup trophy in Mario Kart as Yoshii and clobbered the Red Sox as the Yankees 11-1. I could have won the homerun derby but wanted more so to see how many overtimes the game would allow. I lost to Griffey in the fourth.

Of course, while this was all sorts of fun it wasn't until I got into it with my buddies that it got crazy. Since only two could play at a time, we took turns and obviously whoever won got to keep the controller. I owned Josh and Kane. NBA Jam, Mario Kart, Griffey Baseball. Neither of them could touch me. I was getting awfully proud.

Then down the stairs came Brad, a master of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, the first-person shooter games that nerds play. He suggested we look up some cheats, so I got Bill Clinton and Kane got Randall Cunningham. I still won, but it was a much closer game. Then Brad acquired Heavy D. The tension in the room grew as Brad and I battled into double overtime. :e won that one and I realized I had met my match when Brad won the second meeting between us.

Bill Clinton was unconscious from behind the arc although his defense is a little lax. Brad pointed out that Clinton was all offense. He also said that while he was cherry-picking Clinton was "just another democrat waiting for a handout." What I will say though is that there is nothing better than sitting around playing old video games from yesteryear. It helps us reconnect with old memories and recall the sporting landscape of a different time.