OK, I couldn’t leave you hanging for another thrilling journey into my memory.

The year was 1991 and I was trying to pay off a Megadrive via layby. Dad decided to pay off the Megadrive for me rather than dishing out the money slowly in the form of pocket money. We took the bus to Cranbourne, and picked up the unit. Unfortunately, the unit I’d been paying for didn’t actually come with Altered Beast as had been advertised; it turned out I was a week or so late for that package. The bus trip home was a particularly quiet one for me, as I knew my awesome new purchase wasn’t particularly awesome without a game to play on it.

We got off at the Karingal Hub shopping centre (which was about 4 stops before our house) and Dad kindly agreed to buy me a game; the game I wanted more than any other was Sonic the Hedgehog. Dad waited outside with the Megadrive while I eagerly went into Toyworld (the only place with games at the time) and browsed their limited selection, which was on shelves behind the counter.

Their limited selection did not include Sonic the Hedgehog.

Despondent, I walked from the shop and told Dad there was no Sonic to be seen. He asked if I still wanted a game — of course I did! The only other game that interested me was a Disney game (I forget if it was Castle of Illusion or World of Illusion; I suppose it was the former, given the release dates); I’m not sure why I was so intrigued by a Disney game, but I’ll try and regain some dignity by saying that it had good reviews at the time.

Dad walked into the store while I guarded the boxed Megadrive with my life from the evil inhabitants of the shopping centre. A few minutes — which seemed an enternity — passed and eventually he emerged from the store with the game in a white plastic bag.

I sighed for a moment with my audible disappointment as I opened the bag to read the manual for the game I would surely enjoy anyway.

It was Sonic!

As the person in the store picked up the Mickey Mouse game, the last copy of Sonic in the store had revealed itself. Now that is a positive gaming memory.

I recall playing Sonic until the wee hours of that (Saturday) night, barely sleeping and getting up at around 6:30 just to play more Sonic. Since I didn’t want to wake anyone up, I used my crappy headphones and connected them directly to the console — wow, stereo! Every time you picked up a ring, the sound would swap from one ear to the other. Running down a hill: left, right, left, right. Picking up speed: leftrightleftright. Great stuff.

The 2005 Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), which starts tomorrow in the US, is shaping up to be a big one this year. Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will all be showing their new consoles in one form or another, which means lots of information to digest and even more hype to sort through.

In the spirit of gaming, I thought I might relay some of my fondest gaming memories (plus it’s an easy way to post something, since it’s been a bit deserted around here recently). So, away we go:

I’d had my NES for a couple of years, and had heard about this fantastic new system coming out called the Megadrive. It provided 16-bits of power, as opposed to the measly 8-bits the NES could provide. Obviously, it must be twice as good!

A K-Mart catalogue arrived at our house one day, advertising the Megadrive at a bargain-basement (compared to everywhere else) $295 with Altered Beast. Since the nearest K-Mart was in Cranbourne, and I wanted to save as much money as possible, I took the bus and put the console on layby. Over the next few weeks I made my way to Cranbourne to put some of my hard earned pocket money on the layby.

One Saturday, I got off the bus, paid off a bit more and wandered around Cranbourne for a while. Since I had no pockets (and I have no idea why I had no pockets) I put the layby slip in my shoe. My bus ticket was a 3-hour ticket but just my luck, I missed the last bus that fit into the time I was allowed to use the ticket. Since I didn’t have enough money for another bus ticket, I decided to walk home. It’s not a particularly long walk — it only takes a few minutes in the bus — so it shouldn’t be too tough, right? The day was warm but not hot, so I used my paltry amount of remaining money to buy a no-name brand can of lemonade.

As I walked home, it became apparent that it was a much further walk than I’d anticipated. After about 2-3 kilometres, I realised I couldn’t feel the layby slip in my shoe. It must have just moved around the shoe, right? Wrong! The layby slip was nowhere to be found. So what’s a boy to do? Head on back, that’s what! I must have been the luckiest person alive that day, since I found the layby slip under a bench on which I’d been sitting almost an hour earlier. I have absolutely no idea how the slip fell out of my show, but there it was. Thank the stars, and head on home!

As I walked the sixteen kilometres home (don’t forget to add the six just mentioned) I had to ration my warm can of generic lemonade so I didn’t overheat in the sun. It wasn’t that hot, but since I was in my all-black phase, it was doing a good job of warming me up.

So I finally managed to get home, and collapsed on the couch for all of five minutes — just enough to start relaxing — when I realised that a video I’d rented from the second-nearest store (about 2km each way) had to be returned before 6pm. It would have been about 5:30pm as I was sitting on the couch. I asked Dad if he’d be willing to return it and made a point to tell him I’d walked from Cranbourne. No luck… stupid responsibilities. So, back on the road to return the video. I finally made it home at about 6:20pm and vegetated for the rest of the weekend; I probably didn’t even move that night. And people wonder why I don’t like walking!

Next time I’ll actually write about a video gaming memory which has something to do with video games.