The year was 1989 or 1990. I really wanted a TurboGrafx 16 for xmas and begged my mom over and over again for it. Then came an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up…

I played for the St. Edwards elementary basketball team from 6th-8th grade, playing – what else – small forward. I had dimes like Magic and Stockton, though haha. Since I really wanted this new game system, I knew that I would do anything for it. Then came a game that was to be played at O’Dea High School’s gym (where I later went to high school…this is an awful lot of information and im pretty sure a lot of jokes will be coming from it). My mom, who was a reasonable person who bought me things as a tween without the guilt of feeling like she was spoiling me, came up with a proposal.

Now, I wasn’t exactly the highest scoring player on the team, but I did crash the boards and had many assists. My mom told me before the game that if I scored more than 15 points (i think), that she would buy me a TurboGrafx 16.

HOOOOOOOOOleeshit. So I basically put my game face on and stayed focused. I never felt so driven to score buckets for the team, especially since I was a pretty unselfish player. I was scoring all the way to my goal – i might’ve even passed it – when I did something uncharacteristic – I started to commit a lot of uncalled fouls. I mean, a scratch here, a bump after a rebound, an elbow….I even pushed an opposing player in the back while he was running down the court and he fell flat on his face. The refs didn’t see it. But you know who did?

Yup. Mom.

Now, she didn’t exactly say anything about my play, or the fact that I scored more than what she/I expected. She didn’t even end up buying me the TurboGrafx 16. But I think we both knew that what happened on the court was to be unspoken. Yeah, so I messed up. Lost the battle and the war. Oh well – I eventually sold my whole NES system and games so I could buy a SNES….from someone who posted a Classified Ad in the paper (the original craigslist).

But now I think about all these great TG16 games I missed out on, like:

Bonk’s Adventure

Splatterhouse

Keith Courage in Alpha Zones

Legendary Axe

You get the point. I still rock my SNES on the 42″ flat screen, only because I can’t play get over playing Final Fantasy 3 and Street Fighter II Turbo.