Before I got my Nintendo GameCube for Christmas in 2001, I rented the system from BlockBuster. I was enjoying the next generation of Nintendo, starting with their vacuum simulator Luigi’s Mansion. Everything was perfect… Well, minus that I didn’t have a memory card.
Luigi’s Mansion isn’t the longest game, so I had played through about two thirds of it the day I brought it home. My dad had probably already decided on getting the system for Christmas that year, so he went out to buy a memory card. It was an incredibly generous act, but I kept playing the game while he was out shopping.
Eventually, I died to one of the later bosses. Instead of offering a continue button, the game requires you to load a save file. That’s a problem without a memory card.
The game was fun enough that I was willing to start all over. Thanks to the help of a memory card, I ended up beating it before my rental period was over. I still have that memory card today, but it’s filled with Phantasy Star Online characters.
