2002-06-20 - 2:57 a.m.

I spent most of my non-working evening doing some research on the pathetic demise of the Turbo-Grafx 16. Very sad.

I owned one of those things as a teenager, and I threw myself behind it.

I was really into it. It wasn't in reality that great of a gaming console. It had no software support. It got crushed by the Sega Genesis.

I think that's why I got so obsessed with it. It became, for me, the alternative gaming system. Nobody else really even knew about it, that I knew of, at least. There were only a handful of people out there that truly did understand, and I was one of them.

I really enjoyed belonging to a fringe, and it felt really good to imagine that I belonged.

I would spend hours and hours thinking about it.

I would ask for a shitty game for my TG-16 for Christmas rather than a good game for a different system, and I gladly offered up each sacrifice for the cause.

I would pour over my most recent installment of Electronic Gaming Monthly, digging for a mention of the TG-16 or one of its games.

Gradually, the TG-16 faded into a new level of uber-obscurity. Nobody would admit to its mere existence, as if they had been brainwashed.

There actually were others who felt the same way. A real underground, I guess? This was the only time in my life where I felt compelled to subscribe to something as worthy as a fanzine.

I dunno. I'd like to write a proper eulogy for the Turbo-Grafx 16, but I can't seem to get my heart into it.

Which, although ridiculous, is actually kind of sad.

Yeah, actually, really sad.

As sophomoric as my fanaticism for the TG-16 was at the time, it was in many ways more important than the comparative utter indifference towards everything I�m not paid to care about that I currently exhibit.

Yeah, the Turbo-Grafx was a toy boat in the bathtub, but I truly was willing to go down with the ship.

I can�t promise that level of commitment or enthusiasm to anything or anyone today.

Maybe I was better off back then.