Desh thiere's entry

desh_thiere's entry for the How much do you love GBAtemp? competition.

Prose

Thanks GBAtemp, you provide a service that no one else can, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.

The day begins, steaming coffee is brewing in my brilliantly sunlit kitchen, yet the coffee is secondary to my true need, a need that must be fulfilled, I must check GBAtemp. I painstakingly stumble to my computer, the grit under my eyelids feels something akin to sand in my underwear, scraping harsh grains across my bloodshot eyes. Yet I do not feel this, I feel nothing but hope, hope that my needs of a new game will today be fulfilled. Today my flashcard will groan under the weight of a 1024 mbit rom, just waiting to be experienced, telling me to call in sick for work, telling me the only thing that matters is the game, nothing else.

I click. Firefox opens, and my homepage pops up with speeds that only ADSL2 can provide, speeds that I still scorn for being far too slow, too slow for me to obsessively check what has become an unchecked and unmitigated desire in my monotonous life. The GBAtemp homepage loads, I see the scene news, yet this is not the fix I need now. I must scroll, my middle finger working the scroll wheel with a mind of its own, automatically completing a task it has completed every morning for many months. Down the page rolls, past the homebrew news and towards the only thing that will quell my desperate desire, the Nintendo DS release information.

My mind works overtime during the short scroll, I smell the coffee finished in the percolator, a smell of fear and hatred, for I must leave the comfort of my computer chair and face the bitter world of full time work. Not yet! Not yet! I mentally scream, if there is anything at all I need to flash, it must be flashed this morning, all else is pointless in comparison. My mind justifies this somewhat ridiculous decision. “If I am late for work, they will fire me, which means I can spend all day playing DS games.” The justification is hollow, hollow and useless, my mind is unfortunately too intelligent to believe itself, the battle is over, I must leave.

But wait! There is a game, a new box image is merging and flowing into the very recesses of my sleep addled mind. “A new game,” it screams. My fingers fumble to click on the best ROM site I know, I cannot move with enough speed, it feels like I am swimming upstream to an impossible destination. Finally, I reach the ROM site, my mouse clicking frantically, eyes searching through the plethora of advertisements to find what I want, the only thing I want, the game.

Download ROM. Two innocuous and innocent words, yet two words that can make a DS junkie shake with anticipation. The ROM is down, my DS is ready, ready to be flashed and enjoyed like the breath of my girlfriend on the back of my neck, a feeling I forsake every morning to complete my ritual. The ritual is complete, I am late for work, yet that does not matter, as I now have what I require and I am happy. I could not be more happy, my obsession has been fulfilled, thanks to the speed and brilliance of GBAtemp news. A curse and a blessing, I thank you GBAtemp from the bottom of my DS obsessed heart.