Seeing an appearance of a video walkthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask on YouTube today made me think back to Christmas 2000, when I got my copy. Just tearing open the wrapping paper and seeing the shiny box was a tip off I had received a gold copy of the game (for the uninitiated, it is a tradition in the Zeldaverse to have the first copies of the game be a different color from the others), which meant I had one of the first copies of the game. Only problem was, we didn’t have an Expansion Pak, and a major ice storm blew in the day after Christmas, so I had to wait a few days to get one.
It was well worth the wait when I powered on the N64 and settled in with my younger sister to partake in Link’s then-latest adventure. We had agreed that we would play in shifts–when one got tired, the other would play. Since the maps in the Nintendo Power guide looked like Greek to me, she had to navigate me through the temples, which sometimes led to “No, not THAT thing, the other one!”
We worked tirelessly to save Termina, only stopping for food (which we would eat while we played), bathroom breaks, and sleep. (since this predated my Chrono Trigger marathon, we would stop close to bedtime; since we both knew that when our accuracy started going down, it was time to stop.)
By the time all was said and done and we had gotten the best ending, 4 days had passed (in reality). Until another game comes along that really pulls me in, that will stand as the longest time I’ve spent gaming (with breaks)
