From 1997-1998, I lived in a miniscule New York City apartment exactly one block from St. Mark's Place. At the time, I had about seven piercings, had just shaved off a leopard print mohawk, was sporting a short blonde 'do (ala Jeff Gerstmann) and a wardrobe primarily of safety pins. Just picture that.

My roommates and I were poor students, trying to scrape out a living while going to school and working full time. It wasn’t a comfortable life, but it was definitely a very happy one. On more than one occasion I accepted food from total strangers or went weeks with nothing but Ramen, while I hustled from work to school back to my six by six foot living space.

Buying games at that point was never an option.

The one thing I did have was a subscription to PSM, so my gaming was usually limited to demo disks. When people ask me if Final Fantasy VII is really my favorite game of all time, although I might hesitate or change my answer to Metal Gear Solid, I need only remember the emotions evoked by the demo (let alone the full game) to reconsider my initial answer. At that time, the demos were better than the majority of full games coming out in the market right now. It’s a good thing too, since I had to save up my money just to afford one rental. I can still sing the entire Chop Chop Mister Onion level of Parappa the Rappa because I have spent more cumulative time on the demo level than on the entire game.

Once in awhile during that year I would choose a game to rent, often based on those demo disks. When Tomb Raider II hit Blockbuster, I was the first person in line to get it. To me, it was worth skipping a few meals to grab the sequel that I had so greatly anticipated. After getting my hands on the game, I made camp on the floor of my bedroom for the 23 consecutive hours it would take me to beat it. At the time, rentals were only two days, so I decided that it was better to stay awake and do my best to get through the game than risk not finishing it.

On my triumphant return to Blockbuster, I ran into the clerk who had checked me out the day earlier. When I told him I had beat it, he declared that it was impossible and demanded that I bring him my memory card as proof. My reward was ten free rentals, with which I was able to pick up quite a few recent releases that I had missed.

To this day, I will argue the merits of Tomb Raider II, a game greatly disliked by critics. Maybe I was so desperate for a full game that my memories are more fond than they should have been. Maybe I’m glad for the sequence of events that led to my long torrid love affair with the PlayStation. But I believe that Tomb Raider II is truly a great game, one worth every minute of those initial 23 hours and every hour that I spent replaying it in the years later when I could finally buy it. Sometimes it just takes the right circumstances to really love any game and I’m of the opinion that there’s nothing wrong with that.