Knock-Off Megaman X Cart

I love old games.

Not strange that though, seeing how I grew up with the Commodore 64, NES and SNES.

And there is one game series in particular that I love, and that is the Megaman and Megaman X series.

Man, I remember the first time I tried Megaman X 1, my brother borrowed it from a friend, and let me try it, and I LOVED it! The controls, the music, the storyline, good GOD was that an experience that I will never forget.

But, sadly, at this time I was both too young to be able to buy these games myself, and video games were not only expensive in my country, they were somewhat rare if they weren't mass produced and sent to every store that sold Nintendo games.

I was able however to get a hold of the third installment in the X series when my birthday arrived, and it was glorious!

But to this day however, I have not been able to get a hold of the original Megaman X, and it really bothers me.

And that is where this tale begins...

You see, I was so determined one day to get a copy of MMX that I went on Ebay, since that was my only oppurtunity after all to find and buy a used cartridge.

But seeing how I could buy that game on virtual console and other similar platforms, I didn't really want to spend too much, I am after all, quite thrifty when it comes down to it.

After snooping around on ebay for a while, I stumbled over a German user who sold the game cheaply with free shipping expenses, and I saw my oppurtunity. I transfered my money, and waited patiently for my price.

After about one to two weeks later, the package arrived. I opened it quickly, only to discover the fact that this game was a bloody knock off!

The cartridge were of cheap plastic, the sticker was somewhat loose, and the gamebox were made of the cheapest cardboard you could find.

I got really angry, this thing had cost me way more than what it was worth, and I went online to complain. But, the user had ended his account, and I could not get my money back.

Man, I felt ripped of, and I put the game away for a while in order to calm down from my burst of rage.

Later that evening though, I went to try out the cartridge, "who knows, maybe this thing works, maybe not, I have to try it at least!"

I put it into the Snes, powered it up, and picked up the controller.

The start up screen, it was normal. The menu intro with its awesome 16 bit soundtrack, normal. The gameplay, what do you know, normal!

I Smiled as I played, I was appearantly lucky to get a knock off that actually worked, and I finally got my Megaman X fix that I needed so badly.

A few weeks later, after playing the game a few times, swapping it out now and then to play something else, the label started to come loose.

I picked up the cart in order to use some glue to stick the label back on, but while doing so I saw something that was written on the back of the sticker.

It was a code, a code that seemed to go to the password screen in the game.

I got curious and wierded out, what was this code for I wondered...

I went online to see if I could find any connection to this password, to see what it did, but, of course there was nothing to be found.

Well, I figured that this code was probably specifically meant for this cart, seeing how it was a bootleg, and the guy who made it maybe left it there as some kind of easter egg or a joke, and I decided that I should see what it did.

Well... I didn't see this coming, to tell you the truth...

You see, the second I entered the password, the screen faded soundlessly to a black screen with blue game text that read:

"If you are reading this, Please help me! I am held against my wish at 511 B Stadbergenstraat in Enschede Netherland! I fear for my life, he is crazy, please help!"

It ran cold down my spine, I questioned to myself, was this a joke? or a prank maybe?

I called around to both family and friends about this, and they said that they didn't think it was real, but that I should call the police about it anyhow, just in case.

I went to the police station and told them about the game, the nature of this message and that it might be just a prank, and they told me that they didn't take it very seriously either, but they should contact Enschede's authorities about this just in case, and confiscated my game cart until further notice.

It was about two weeks later that the police took contact with me again.

Appearantly, the local authorities in Enschede had made a grisly discovery at this site, the site was an appartment complex, and the apartment that the code mentioned was completely empty, save for a room where the body of a young man had been found, and beside him laid a cartridge, similar to the one that I had, with the same code on the inside of the label.

But when they had checked the code out, the text was mostly the same, save for the fact that the adress was for somewhere else, In Germany in fact, and that adress again had a similar story, where the body of a young man had been found with a cartridge of Megaman X!

Nowadays, the police keep track of me, calling me once in a while to see if I am ok. I answer them that yes, I am fine, but deep down I still feel a restless fear, as if someone is following me, watching me, and that I can never stop looking over my shoulder ever again...

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