Requiem for an appliance or What do you do with a drunken sailor, ear-lie in the morning?
I
broke it. I broke it good. I thought I was being a
clever git and I broke it. I was playing
Fallout, and I had
painted myself into a corner by saving over my game on the same spot, no
history to jump back to.
As I stood with an empty
plasma rifle steaming in the cold reactor room, boot squarely on the chest of my fallen
super-mutant foe, I realized two things: I am out of ammo; I need to
fight my way out of here.
The hideous tentacles and ravenous
post-apocalyptic roaches knocked the
plasma saw from my hands and stomped my armored body to a
fine paste in short order. I was built for spraying lead, not
hand to hand.
Game Over.
Load?
Loading...
As I stood with an empty
plasma rifle steaming in the cold reactor room, boot squarely on the chest of my fallen super-mutant
foe, I realized two things: I am out of
ammo; I need to fight my way out of here.
The
hideous tentacles and ravenous post-apocalyptic roaches
knocked the plasma saw from my hands and stomped my armored body to a fine paste in short order. I was built for
spraying lead, not hand to hand.
Game Over.
Quit?
No. Cheat.
Electronic warfare, thy name is
Gameshark. Fuck you PS2! I r teh
leet haXX0r!
I drop the disk in and
fiddle with some codes. Infinite ammo. It rolls off the tongue.
Infinities of lead...
I start the game and load the save...
As I stood with an empty plasma rifle steaming in the cold reactor room, boot squarely on the chest of my fallen super-mutant foe, I realized two things: I am out of ammo; I need to fight my way out of here.
Wait.
No ammo? Goddammit! The cheat didn't work! I try again.
The hideous tentacles and ravenous post-apocalyptic roaches knocked the plasma saw from my hands and stomped my armored body to a fine paste in short order. I was built for spraying lead, not hand to hand.
Game Over.
Grr! Back to the
Gameshark CD. I press the reset, having only now noticed the strange whirring coming from the CD drive. Like a computer with a bad
disc.
Aw crap.
Reading Disc blinks on the screen for 5 minutes. I mash the reset button about 60 times, like a
Pavlovian rat dreaming of sweet cheese. I know it is
pooched.
Disk Read Errors, the black plague of
Sony Playstation2's, has
come home to roost. But my baby was so
young... WHY GOD WHY!
Not one to shy away from
voiding warranties or getting my screwdrivers dirty, I turn to the
Interweb, the collected knowledge of 15 year olds worldwide. I fiddle in the
guts for 4 hours, spinning various
gears, checking voltages, wiping tiny lenses.
Alas, PeeEssToo was gone.
Rest in several pieces my friend.
(I will heartlessly purchase a replacement posthaste)
Andromache01 says My condolences on the loss of your dear friend, the PS2.
Brontosaurus says re April 8, 2004: Ah, fallout, one of my favourite games of all time... Sorry for your loss.