Me and Gradius III

[Dire 51]

Okay, here's my story.

* * *

1991. After reading and readng about the Super NES for almost a year, the system was finally a reality. It was here, now, and my best friend Chris had one. Got it the day it was released too - he only had Super Mario World, but he was so engrossed in it that that was all he needed for a time.

However, both of us were huge Konami fans. Together we drooled over the preliminary screenshots of Super Castlevania IV, The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja, and most importantly to us, Gradius III. We both loved the series, despite only having played the NES versions of Gradius and Life Force. The news that Gradius III was going to be Konami's first release for the SNES had us both chomping at the bit for it. One day, while walking through the mall after school, we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Gradius III - one of the stages was being shown on a Babbages preview tape, and for the next few minutes we just stood there and stared at the screen, our jaws hanging just a few inches off the floor. We walked away from Babagges more excited about it than ever.

A few weeks passed. Usually I would hitch a ride home with Chris after school when his mom came to get him (we were in high school at this time, I should add), but today he had band practice, and I really didn't feel like hanging around school for a couple of extra hours, so I swallowed my pride, hopped on board the cheesewagon, and went home. A few hours later, I received a call from Chris. He sounded excited about something... unusually excited.

"Dude, you should have stuck around and gotten a ride home with me," he said.

"Why? What's up?"

I could hear something playing in the background, but I didn't know what it was.

"We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way home, and guess what I got?"

That's when it clicked. Why else would he be so excited?

"You didn't!" I practically shouted. "It's out?"

"It just came out today! I had to talk my mom into letting me get it, and she finally said okay. IT'S AWESOME!!!"

My heart skipped a beat. I knew I had to get over to his place, pronto. Luckily, he was one step ahead of me. He'd already asked his parents if I could come over for a while to play the game and have dinner with them. All I had to do was ask my parents if I could go, and if they said yes, his dad would come by to get me.

My parents said yes, and within a half hour I was walking into Chris' room. The SNES was off, but the game was in the system, and the box was sitting right next to the TV. I picked it up and devoured every inch of it... that sweet logo, the beautiful cover artwork, the tantalizing story, those beautiful screen shots...

And I was going to play it. I WAS GOING TO PLAY IT.

Chris smiled, and without a word turned the power on. Immediately a white grid came up on the screen. "Is that normal?" I whispered. He nodded yes, but said nothing else. That's when a neon purple laser beam flashed across the screen and scrolled downward to reveal the Konami logo. SWEET.

Then there was nothing.

Suddenly two rows of lights lit up, and a deep humming started. The interior of a hangar bay slowly lit up as the music kicked in, and there, descending into place, being held by two docking clamps - the Vic Viper. It looked beautiful. The bottom of the hangar bay opened up, and the Vic Viper continued to descend. Then the scene switched to a side view of deep space, and the lower hull of a gigantic spacecraft. The Vic Viper was still descending, but then it stopped, the docking clamps disengaged... and it was floating freely in space. The music faded away, and then, with a roar that shook Chris' stereo speakers, the Vic Viper's engines activated, and it shot towards the right of the screen like it had been shot from a cannon. The scene changed again, to show a view of several planets, and the Vic Viper roared by overhead, descending toward the nearest one. At the same time, the Gradius III logo faded in. With a flash it solidified, and a short heroic-sounding theme played.

At this point I almost had to force my mouth to close. What I had just seen was amazing. Chris handed me the controller, and, despite the slight trembling in my hands, I pressed START... and the rest is history. I knew at that point that I had to get a SNES, if for no other reason to own Gradius III. Sure enough, when I finally did get a SNES almost a year later, Gradius III was one of the first three games I bought for it, along with Super Castlevania IV and Contra III: The Alien Wars (told you I was a huge Konami fan). Until mid-'04, when unfortunately I had to sell off my collection, I still had my SNES and my original copy of Gradius III, which was and always will be my favorite SNES game of all time.

* * *

How's that? A little long, I know.

[Lady Jaye]

I dunno if it's too long, but it's certainly captivating. You brought me back to those days of discovering a game for the first time...

Unfortunately, I don't have any lore to submit with the post 8-bit era (I have much better stories about the 2600, the NES and the SMS than the later consoles, but maybe that's because I was 15 when the SNES came out and that was a time when I was a very, very casual gamer).

[Dire 51]

I dunno if it's too long, but it's certainly captivating. You brought me back to those days of discovering a game for the first time...

Thanks! It's a feeling I've had much less frequently as time goes on...

I've got similar stories about the Genesis and Turbo, but I didn't want to post those yet. Besides, wasn't the Turbo covered in the first guide?