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Tuesday, August 26, 2003 » gaming update

You'll notice that I mentioned Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance yesterday. Well, here's a bit of backstory detailing my experience with this game before actually playing it.

Although I always assumed since its release that I'd eventually purchase and play this game, I think I can pin down the decision to go out and get it to sometime in June, when I was approached by Ken and Phil about putting together a Castlevania-style game for the Gameboy Advance. (If you'd like to know where that project went, this should give you some idea.) I was partially hoping to garner some ideas from the game, but mostly I wanted a semi-legitimate excuse to go out and buy it.

It was shortly following that decision when I realized that the game was near impossible to locate in good condition. For some reason it had already left most stores, including online retailers. As luck would have it, a brand new copy appeared on the indispensable eBay, and I quickly snapped it up.

Then I waited.

Many weeks later, the game had still not arrived. After several attempts to get in touch with the seller via both email and phone, I accepted it as the first time I had gotten burned on eBay. I eventually found out that the Electronics Boutique down in Santa Barbara had a copy on hand, and I purchased that.

Tangent: I actually discovered, when I arrived home and turned on the game, that there was already someone else's save file on it. Having been told it was a brand new copy, I returned to the store the next day, a bit confused. Apparently at EB they will actually repackage a game down to the shrink wrap if it is returned quickly enough? They say they only accept returns of new games if the buyer was "extremely unsatisfied." Still, it's a pretty messed up practice. With disc games it's not as much of a problem that you might get a used game in disguise because of the all-important SILVER STICKER, but with Gameboy games there's not much stopping them from going crazy with it. Except for the battery back up, HA H AHA HA HAH AHA!! Anyway, I exchanged that copy with another unused one, and was on my way.

So, I've been playing this game for several days now and am now back at my house, when what should arrive in the mail but the old copy of Harmony that I ordered weeks ago. Now, I have mixed feeling about this. On one hand, I did not throw my money into the toilet. On the other, I have an extraneous copy of a game that sells for ridiculous amounts of money on eBay in complete condition.

.........................

I will let you know how much it goes for.