The Dev Kit

Back in 2001, I was getting ready to purchase a new Windows XP computer from the Microsoft website. The PC, well, at the time, looked brand-new, and almost completely untouched. It costed about $700 to buy, and considering I had $2000 in there at the time, I decided to purchase it, and 30 minutes later I got a order confirmation on my AOL account. The PC was set to arrive in about a week, so I had no choice but to wait. However, I heard a knock on my door as soon as I finished reading the confirmation e-mail. It was Microsoft with my order, and I was asked to sign for it. Strange. I decided to sign for it, and I opened the package up to see my brand-new Windows XP PC.

When I opened it, it wasn't what I was expecting. It looked like a PC, but it wasn't. It was a development kit for Microsoft's at-the-time upcoming console, the XBOX. It seemed that I was shipped with the wrong item and I made sure that I would call Microsoft to return this and hopefully get them to understand their mistake. But that is not what I did. I thought it was so cool to own a development kit of something that wasn't even out yet! So, I began hooking up the dev kit to my computer, grabbed the controller, and began to start playing.

"No disk inserted. Please insert a XBOX Dev Disk now."

Whoops, I forgot to insert a disk. So I decided to rush towards the cardboard box to see if there was anything else that was shipped along with the unit. To my surprise, there was! It was a development disk for the exclusive XBOX launch title, Halo: Combat Evolved. I was excited to try this out and see what I would come to expect when the XBOX releases, so I popped the disk into the console, and it booted up the game. The green orb on the XBOX Dev Kit strangely turned red, and the Halo dev build booted up. I was only given the option to start a new game, since there was no game already on the system. I decided to start a new game, and the "Loading..." screen was present on the screen afterwards, and then split to the first cutscene, but for some odd reason, it was unskippable. After the cutscene ended, I then finally got to play the game. I was Master Chief, and little did I know how well known he would become in gaming history. After escaping the UNSC ship and killing all of those aliens, The XBOX orb on the dev kit became blood red, and started flashing. The unit then shut down completely.

Outside of my house, I heard a loud crash. The unit instantly turned back on with a message in blood-red text.

"LOOK OUTSIDE."

I decided to look outside, and I saw a near exact clone of the UNSC ship I was just in, and it was on fire. Master Chief emerged from the wreckage and began to search for surviving UNSC troops, and shooting random aliens along the way. While it was cool to see this happen in real life, it was still worrying. He stopped a short distance later, maybe about 6 feet away from my house. And then, I heard the faint sound of a dev kit booting into a game. I rushed back into the house to find that the XBOX Dev Kit was booted into the Halo dev build, and Master Chief, by some sheer coincidence, was in the exact same spot where he had stopped outside of my house. I was indeed terrified about this. Sooner or later, the unit's controller had wrapped its cords around my hands, and I could not move them away from the unit. A message arose on a black screen, in blood-red text.

"Welcome, tester."

I soon found myself losing my vision and all of my other senses, and then I heard the dev kit start to smoke and catch fire. I finally broke loose and darted out of my house, only to find the house burn to the ground. The house I had spent my childhood memories in, gone in an instant. Everything outside went back to normal, and the UNSC ship, Master Chief, and aliens were no longer there. My house, though, gone forever. I still had enough money to buy a new one, so I did, as well as bought necessaries like food, water, and electricity. I bought myself a new computer as well. But about a week later, I heard a knock on the door. It was Microsoft, and they were wanting their dev kit back, believing I had stole it. I explained the whole situation to them, and they walked out. When I turned back to my desk to use my computer, my computer was gone, and in its place...

was an XBOX Dev Kit.

A few minutes later, it turned on, and on the screen laid a message.

"Thank you for playing. Now you shall perish. Farewell."

I soon fainted, and when I woke up I was in a hospital, recovering from nausea. The doctors were lucky to tell me my house did not burn down, but the kit was smoking and almost burned down the house. They got the XBOX Dev Kit safely out of the house before it could have caused any damages to the house. I let out a sigh of relief. When I recovered, I went back to my house to find it was unaltered, but inside it was incredibly green and ominous, and I nearly lost my vision as a whole. I then felt someone grab onto my shoulder. I could fully make out the following phrase.

"You want to steal from us? Now you gotta work for us."

I soon found myself in the Microsoft Headquarters, and I was located in the XBOX testing facility. I was to be testing out dev kits and stuff like that for the XBOX. I did not know what was going on. A employer escorted me to my office cubicle, and sat me down. He then walked off, and never, ever looked back to me. I was scared about this, but I had no choice, since Microsoft thought I had stole that dev kit from them when they clearly sent it to the wrong address. I got even more worried when I looked at my cubicle. There was a monitor, and next to the monitor was an XBOX Dev Kit, and it looked nearly identical to the one I had accidentally sent to me. I watched in absolute horror as the unit turned on by itself, and displayed the following message.

"Ready for round 2?"

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