the "I mowed 48 lawns for Game X!" topic

[MrSmiley381]

Last summer I mowed this old lady's lawn and di yard work for her. I also sold lots of games at the flea market. Then, I traded in a lot more games and still came up $20 short.

But what was I saving for?

A crazy Gamecube bundle. $120 for the Metroid Bundle that also came with Super Smash Bros. Melee and the guide, as well as a memory card. My dad tossed me the last twenty. I unlocked every character and stage in Smash in a week. It was fantastic.

[Canadian Psycho]

My dad considered everybody on the planet to be liars & thieves

My dad was the same way!

[npward.]

My brother and I started up our own little lemonade business when we saw some pictures of the Super Smash Brothers game(N64).

As soon as we saw Mario fighting Link, we set the stand up in my front yard and waited. This proved to be a good idea, and well a bad idea. Since my yard was right beside a very busy road we had lots of business. The down side to that, was everytime a car would whiz by, my mom would run out the door to see if we were ok. Anyway, We charged about a buck for each drink, and we sold some cookies n' such that my grandma had made. At the end of our four day business venture, we had enough for the game!

Yeah, I was pretty god damn proud of myself.

[Slimedog]

When I was a kid, our house was infested with fleas. We would bug bomb about once a month, but it never seemed to make much difference. So my dad put up a bounty of 2 cents per flea I could kill. I wanted a Sega Master System and I knew there were enough fleas in the house to make it happen.

The way I collected the fleas was to find them on the dog (or on me) and pick them off one by one. You drop them into a bowl of ice that kind of stuns/freezes them. Then you show them to dad to do a body count and finally you squish them with the tweezers from your chemestry set. Otherwise they hop off when the ice melts. How sad is that?

I did get a Master System eventually but I think it was a few years later. We didn't have a lot of cash when I was a kid so I had to work or do creative trading for most of my games.

[rbudrick]

When I was 8 years old I saw a cocktail cabinet SMB vs. at the local pizza shop-Milano's in Milford, NH. This had to have been some time in '86. I'd heard of the Nintendo but didn't know anything at all about it. But, when I saw this game being played by others, I was amazed. It was the coolest game I'd ever seen! The other kids playing it obviously knew a lot of the hidden secrets, and it was cool to see others play to get the gist of the game, since it was all new to me.

One of the kids told me that it was available for the home version of the NES. I decided right then and there I HAD to have one. Some time soon after, I went ot the local Ames department store (probably less than a half mile from Milano's), and saw the Deluxe set (with R.O.B., of course) set up in the electronics department. The price was $139.95. I was screwed. My parents would never buy me that, I thought. Ever.

After much begging and pleading and whining, anda little more begging, my father finally made a deal with me...if I could get half of the money, he would pay the other half.

Seventy dollars! "Where the fuck is an 8-year-old going to get that," I thought.

Sometimes I'd babysit my brother for a dollar or two an hour (I'm 7.5 years his senior). Other times, I'd do housework/chores. It felt like years (It was probably 3-6 months. I hav no clue. Come to think of it, it was warm out, probably spring or summer when I saw the Vs. machine for the first time, and it was probably Oct. or Nov. when I finally got my NES), but I finally got $70 together. The very day I got it, I was ecstatic. I ran to my dad and demanded we go to Ames that second and get a Nintendo. He said no. I pissed and moaned and went to my mom like a little brat. My mom yelled at my dad and gave him a big guilt trip. Finally he gave in. We went to Ames and he wrote a check. The Deluxe Set came with Gyromite and Duck Hunt, but he also bought me three more games: SMB, Ice Climber, and Kid Icarus. He asked if I wanted any others, and I said no, as I started to feel badly about what a dick I was, especially when he started buying more games well beyond the $70 I earned. I didn't realize my dad didn't have the dough at the time (times were pretty tough then), and he was probably floating a check to get this stuff for me. I still feel like a dick when I think about itto this day!

However, as much as I loved the family Atari 2600 we'd had since I was probably 4, that day I'd earned my 70th dollar was the day my life changed forever. I think I knew it too, because that's why I was being such a bratty little shit- The anticipation of saving that money over the past months was too much, and when my dad said "no," it was like going full speed into a brick wall, and it hurt...for admittedly selfish reasons--but man, SMB ROCKED!

-Rob

[aaron7]

"Where the fuck is an 8-year-old going to get that," I thought.

Exact words of an 8 year old?


I don't want to sound spoiled, but Santa got me my systems. NES for xmas of 86, Genny later on, SNES the xmas it came out, etc.

[Dobie]

In order to buy Street Fighter II for SNES one summer, I babysat for the neighbors ($2.50 an hour), mowed my parent's lawn ($1 for the front $3 for the back), and helped my favorite neighbors move for a flat fee. I forget how long it took, but between SFII and a new bike, I was very busy that summer. I think I may have sold off some of my treasured baseball card collection too.

[hezeuschrist]

Heh, the only game I really remember saving every penny I possibly could for was Killer Instinct for SNES. I had a jar on the top shelf of my closet with the witty phrase, "Fulgore Fund" on it. I can't remember what I did to save, most likely just save my allowance and try not to spend anything on stupid crap like I did all the time.

I finally got it, and I was actually stoked it came with the soundtrack. I had just got a CD player for my birthday recently and I listened to it all the time.

I actually have a copy of the game, new sealed, on the way to me right now as well. I can't WAIT to bust out my Capcom fighter stick on that badboy while blasting the CD through my 12 speaker soundsystem. I'm guessing it'll last about 5 minutes, haha.

[XianXi]

I once mowed 286 miles of lawn to buy a telescope.

[Ed Oscuro]

During my pre-adult gaming years all of my games were either gifts, trades, bought after the `84 market crash and in a few cases were shoplifted

haha, oh well.

Me, I used to get games as presents only; now I pay for 'em myself. Haven't bought too much recently though. Money crunch!

[krooked love]

I was thinking today about how i have gotten all of my video games and systems. My first system ever was a Nintendo 64. when i was a little kid i was very bad so i didnt get a choice of things i wanted. then when the N64 came out i wanted it but since i was always bad i couldnt get one. then my mommy(yes i said mommy) told me that if i was good for an entire month and didnt get in trouble once i could get a N64. so everyday i would sit in class and not do anything then when i got home i just stayed in my room or watched tv because after school is when i got in the most trouble. i finally made it an entire month of being good so i got my N64. then my mom told me if i wanted a new game i would have to be good for a week for each new game. so thats how i got my N64.

my next two systems i got were easy to get. i was in my uncles garage on day and a seen a box with a sega masters and sega genisis 16-bit systems. i asked him about it he told me he was going to throw them away and said i could have them if i wanted. so i asked my dad and he said i could have them but i would have to do a super cleaning in my room. so i spent four hours and it was done.

my next system which i worked the hardest for and had nightmares about for a few years was the playstation 2. i had just gone to the store and spent a 100 dollars on N64 things. then the guy at the counter told me a ps2 was coming out after i made my purchase. the ps2 was 300 dollars. i had just spent my 100 dollars on something else i was mad as hell. so i started by doing extra house work for more money then i would ask my neighbors if they needed any help and had finally got enough money to buy one then i did something bad by accident then i tried to cover it up then that made it worse then because of that somthing else bad happened then i tried to cover that up then both of the problems started getting worse until it blew up in my face and i was grounded for a year......so close then by the time i got off grounding i had spent a good part of my money on everyday things so i was far away again. but i started working again and finally had enough money. i live in an area were there is only one game shop. so i went to the store to buy my ps2 but the clerk told me they were having some shipped to them because everybody came and bought them all up. i also live in an area were there area huge amount of kids so alot of kids+one game store= game shortage. but i came back a week later and finally purchased my system and went home and had the best time of my life