Where did Randolph Carter go that mysterious night when he walked into the woods behind the old house? Some say that he used The Silver Key and was caught in the webs of Yog Sothoth before being hurled to an alien planet utterly remote in time and space. Others say that he passed into the Dreamlands and won through many adventures until he became king in Ilek-Vad. There are two men who are purported to know the answer, but they aren't exactly the sort that police listen to.
I got my Super Nintendo Entertainment System when I was eleven years old. That's a couple years after it first came out. The occasion was a little dramatic: to celebrate the end of a two-and-a-half year course of treatment for cancer. I had no idea that it would be waiting for me at home after the final doctors visit. It was a nice spring day, the trees were waving gently in the breeze outside the bay windows. With a cup of tea resting on the coffee table, I set down to play. What was that first game? It was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past . Around twenty years later, my SNES still works as does that Zelda cartridge. It's been a long way from boyhood in Southern Connecticut to manhood in North Houston, but I'm still playing. Why am I still playing? There were stretches when I didn't. Many times, I've just been too busy. There were also seasons when it felt embarrassing to still be playing video games....
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