It’d been about a month since the fire, the cause of which is still unknown. I don’t like to think about it, not because we narrowly escaped with our lives, but because our two dogs didn’t. Since then we’d relocated to an apartment in the city while our house got fixed up. Things hadn’t been the same since then. Our home atmosphere, which had usually been warm and lively, had since shifted to a more depressing one that nobody wanted to be around. The insurance company had been kind enough to scavenge the house after the fire, collecting any items that survived and repair them from the fire damage to the best of their extent. They’d dropped off a few…

There are tons of stories out there about hacked Pokémon games. Some of them really quite neat such as the one about a version where you get a ghost as a starter. Some are ridiculous, silly stories about individuals dying after playing a game, or the game talking to them. God, don’t these writers know less is more when it comes to these stories? Ah well, I digress. I grew interested in these hacked games that are apparently in any thrift store, on eBay, or handed out by homeless people to random passersby. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting these creepy people, I merely found this particular cartridge in a trash bin when the garbage truck backed into my…

I’m what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokémon games. Pokémon Diamond & Jade, Chaos Black, etc. It’s amazing the frequency with which you can find them at pawnshops, Goodwill, flea markets, and such. They’re generally fun; even if they are unplayable (which they often are), the mistranslations and poor quality make them unintentionally humorous. I’ve been able to find most of the ones that I’ve played online, but there’s one that I haven’t seen any mention of. I bought it at a flea market about five years ago. Unfortunately, when I moved two years ago, I lost the game, so I can’t provide you with screencaps. Sorry. The game started with the familiar Nidorino and Gengar intro of…