March 20, 1997 – I had my license and my freedom! I drove two and a half hours to a game shop and ended up paying double for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Now, let’s rewind a bit. The game was supposed to come out on the 20th, but in my area, either the stores didn’t have it, or the clerks were too lazy to check. I called around for most of the day before finally reaching a wannabe GameStop that I knew of. The guy had the game, but warned that it might be gone before I got there. I offered him an extra $10 to hold it, and of course, he said no. After some back-and-forth, he finally agreed to hold it for an extra $20. So, off I went... two and a half hours one way.
Did I mention I was driving a P.O.S. clunker? The windows only rolled down half the time, the A.C. was as dead as a doornail when I bought it, and it drank gas like a scummy uncle who "just needs a place to crash for a few days."
But I made it! The sun hit the shiny plastic jewel case, and my eyes lit up. Remember, it was supposed to be $20 extra on a $50 game.
“That’ll be $110.” After much grumbling and bargaining, I begrudgingly paid the ridiculous price. After all, I was already out time and gas might as well get the game, right?
For context, I was living in the middle of no-fucking-where, USA, at the time. The closest Walmart was probably 70 miles away, and they, for whatever reason, either didn’t have the game or the lazy clerk didn’t bother to check. K-Mart was a no-go as well.
But you know what? I enjoyed that game. In fact, I still have that copy of Castlevania.
Little twist: the guy who ripped me off got shut down a couple of weeks later for selling burned movies he ended up with a $130,000 fine and five years in prison. So yeah, he may have given me the shaft, but I’m pretty sure his cellmate had a different way of giving it to him!
