Continuing our Countdown to Christmas series, I wanted to share a short story with everyone today!
When I think back to Christmas and the day I received my PlayStation (which allowed me to finally play Rugrats Search for Reptar), I can’t help but also think back to the day I lost that very same PlayStation. It is a memory that is burned into my memory, as it was burned into my PlayStation, and it completely changed what I would or wouldn’t do around electronics.
This is the story of how I killed my PlayStation with a cup of hot chocolate!
I still remember it like it was yesterday. It was the Christmas of 2000, and there were only two things on my mind at that time. While I’m sure most people were looking at heavy hitting titles like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, I was sitting here asking for the “true gems” released that year. Hey You Pikachu on the Nintendo 64, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command on PlayStation!
Yep…
As a kid both games simply sounded amazing to me. I loved Pokémon, and the idea of being able to actually talk to Pikachu sounded so cool. I had hoped you could get more Pokémon besides Pikachu in the game, sure, but being able to talk to any Pokémon at all was good enough. As for Buzz Lightyear; I was (and still am) a huge Toy Story fan, and I also really liked the Star Command TV series. The Toy Story 2 game was also one of my favorites at that time, so having another game where I could play as Buzz was a dream come true! I was really excited to play it that Christmas morning, but I made the decision to play it after I started up Hey You Pikachu. Which honestly? Was kinda a strange choice on my part.
Although I asked for the game for Christmas, and couldn’t wait to play it, I had actually already spent a couple of days with Hey You Pikachu. My parents actually let me rent it a few weeks before from the movie store, so I had already put a few hours into it. I guess they wanted to make sure I liked it before they bought it for me, and little kid me did in fact enjoy what I had played. Did the mic work? Not perfectly, no. But was it good enough? Yep.
Even when the game gave me the error for not understanding what I had to say, I didn’t let it discourage me, and kept saying whatever I wanted to Pikachu until he listened to me. I didn’t realize a lot of what I said was lost anyway (the game wasn’t that advanced), and I wanted to continue spending more time with my new Pokémon friend. So when I had to return the game to the rental store I was sad, and couldn’t wait to finally be able to play it again. I’m sure that is why I ultimately chose to play it first, but again, it was a dumb move in the long run. In fact if I hadn’t played it first, then my PlayStation would’ve survived.
Death of the PlayStation
So jumping back to Christmas morning, kid me was sitting in front of my little TV in the corner of the room playing with Pikachu, when my mom walked in with a cup of hot chocolate. I remember it being too hot to drink, so I sat it down on the shelf under my TV and went back to talking with Pikachu. This is when I made one fatal mistake, and accidentally pulled on the microphone that was plugged into my N64. That’s cable caught the hot chocolate, the cup moved forward, and the next thing I knew the entire thing was covered my PlayStation which was sitting in front of the TV. Not only did it stain the carpet of my room, but it leaked into every nook and cranny of the PlayStation, and no amount of cleaning was enough to save it.
I was devastated. I had so many PS1 games I loved playing, and I wouldn’t be able to play Buzz Lightyear after all. We tried opening up the console and drying it out, but it didn’t work. Later on I plugged it in and was able to turn it on for a few minutes, but it eventually just died. That was the end of my PlayStation, and it wouldn’t be until a couple of years later before it would be replaced. Until then I was cut off from playing favorites like MegaMan X5, and classics like Spyro 2. Of course I made due with my N64 games going forward, but that didn’t mean I didn’t miss my old favorites. From time to time I was able to take them to my cousin’s house to play, but in general it wasn’t until my parents bought me the PSOne model that I was able to return to them.
Ever since, I’ve always avoided putting drinks anywhere near my game consoles! I’m always extra, EXTRA, careful about what I bring around electronics, and do whatever I can to keep liquids as far away as possible. I’m much more careful than I was as a kid, sure, but I still don’t fully trust myself to not slip up one day and ruin something. So my simple solution is to keep drinks away, and to never sit anything on the shelves above them. You just never know what might happen, and I never want to go through an ordeal like that again.
So yeah, PlayStations do not like Hot Chocolate, and I unfortunately had to learn that the hard way.
Post a Comment