When I was young my parents would not let me get DDR: Konamix. They wouldn’t even let me buy it to play with a controller. Nevermind that I’m at the arcade with all of my arcade friends multiple times a week.

I was at my local tiny game store hanging out as I usually did all the time, and the guy working there (I was maybe 12, he was like 24) EXCITEDLY asked “HEY I got my preorder of Konamix, do you wanna play?!” And I was SOOOOO ELATED to try. I told him about my parents and not letting me get the game, and he was like “yo that’s horrible, I am so sorry!”

I played there for about an hour, until he got off work. As I was getting on my bike, I hear

“RAI!”

“Yes?”

“This is yours.”

Like a movie with a sports guy handing over his jersey to an eager fan, he hands me his brand new copy of Konamix. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me. I told him he can’t do that, it’s his preorder, and he said “it’s okay, I can get another one; you can’t.”

My parents were PISSED (and they knew I didn’t buy it, I couldn’t afford 40USD at that time)… but they ended up buying me a shitty Madkatz pad so I could play at home. I probably put it 400 hours.

Thank you, video game store dude. I hope you’re doing amazing now.