NiGHTS into dreams...

The earliest days of this memory are rather hazy, so I can’t pinpoint the exact year. I want to say it was 1996 when I was thirteen, but I’m not entirely certain. All I can recall is my family and I were at a Target store, doing some shopping, and I eventually made my way to the electronics department. I couldn’t get or play the latest and greatest, but that didn’t stop me from checking out the demos in the video game sections of stores like Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, Best Buy and Media Play whilst the latter was still around. Sometimes I’d play a demo, but generally was forced to watch from a distance whilst other kids, usually boys aged seven to fifteen, hogged the kiosks. It was disappointing at times, but it was how things went at home too, so I just fell into the usual routine of watching others play.

This time, whilst at Target, I saw a demo for a colourful game I’d never seen before. It looked like the character was… flying. No, not on an aeroplane or spacecraft or the like, but the person’s body was floating far above ground, racing through coloured rings in the sky, performing all kinds of spectacular aerial acrobatics the player commanded.

I was mesmerised.

Thankfully, the kid playing the demo left after a while, and I found myself holding a strange black controller that resembled a Sega Genesis controller and guiding the actions of this, er… purple-robed character. They sure looked bizarre, like a jester, in a way, but their manoeuvres through the skies were nothing to sneeze at. The gameplay was surprisingly confusing, and the time limit quickly wore down. I couldn’t figure out what to do once the purple character turned into what looked like a kid and just ran round the ground, so I regrettably left it. However, before I stepped away from the demo station, I learnt the name of the game:

NiGHTS into dreams…

Complete with the ellipsis, even. I didn’t know what system it was on – it was rather advanced for the Genesis – but the game stayed in my mind for a while afterwards. As time passed, I soon forgot all about it for a decade. Sometime around 2006, I stumbled across pictures of the game online and remembered playing a bit of the demo a long time ago. I quickly found out the purple character’s name was NiGHTS, and they were a species called Nightmaren. Even more surprising to learn was the fact the game was developed by Sonic Team. No wonder the game was so amazing, if the same team who worked on the first three Sonic games made this one.

I also discovered the game was only available on the Sega Saturn. I hadn’t heard of the console before then, which was also discouraging because even as an adult, I wouldn’t be able to afford the game or system. I was working part-time at a fast-food restaurant and didn’t get paid much. However, that couldn’t stop me from using the power of the internet to collect pictures and screenshots, and it certainly never stopped me from drawing several pieces of fanart, as I was wont to do during that time. I absolutely loved NiGHTS into dreams… and dearly wished I could play the game for myself.

A few years later, a friend told me about a Game Boy Advance ROM of a NiGHTS game was online for people to play called NiGHTS into dreams… ~Score Attack~. It came with the games Phantasy Star Online and Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg on GameCube. Rather self-explanatory, the game has NiGHTS flying around Nightopia, collecting blue chips and flying through rings to collect enough points to keep the timer going. Once the timer hits zero, the game is over. It was a simplistic game, but it was the only way to play anything with NiGHTS in it for me. And it was free, who could argue with that? I downloaded the ROM, played the game for hours and had so much fun with it. Sure, it was just the one level with one basic mission, so to speak, but it was NiGHTS and I was hooked.

Fast forward another eleven years to 2017. I was thirty-four and living in Pennsylvania, working two jobs and finishing my stay at college thirty miles away. I frequented the local used video game store and had become a serious collector by then. One day, I went to the store and saw a loose disc of the game I was unable to play for so long: NiGHTS into dreams… for Sega Saturn. It was a little more than I’d wanted to pay, especially when it was just the disc by itself, so I left it. I thought about the game for many hours afterwards, mentally kicking myself for leaving it behind. Who knew when I’d come across another copy of the game? Sure, I didn’t own a Saturn, but someday I would, and I’d have the game in hand when that day came. I went back the following morning and bought the game, thankful no one else had bought it in the meantime.

I was incredibly happy to finally have the game at long last, even though I couldn’t play it. They didn’t even have a Saturn at the store for purchase or playability. But again, it didn’t matter; I had the game, which was the most important. I looked forward to the day I’d buy my own Saturn and finally play the game.

That day came just over a year later.

May 2018, I lived in Oklahoma with my mom and sister, and I worked part-time as a rep for a marketing company. The job was thankless and often gruelling, but I got a pay cheque every week and could pay bills and buy things for myself, namely video games. I’d found a used video game store in the next town over, and although it was in one of the busiest parts of the city, I went there on occasion to buy games and consoles when money allowed.

That day, I traded in several games I had no interest in keeping and received a good bit of credit. I used it to cover half the cost of a Sega Saturn. I got some free demo games with it, along with some racing game just so I could say I got a boxed game as well. I eagerly took the console home, anxious to pop in my NiGHTS game and play it.

Unfortunately, the disc wouldn’t spin whenever I turned it on. I tried and tried and tried, but it was the same thing: the disc was immobile. I was so disappointed. I returned to the store the next day with the console and explained the problem. The owner apologised, saying he’d tested the console himself and it had worked; he had no idea why it wasn’t working now. He swapped it out for another Saturn, though this was a different model, and even gave me a small discount on an Action Replay that enables the Saturn to play games from other regions.

I returned home with the replacement console and Action Replay (and a Game Boy copy of R-Type), plugged in the console, popped in the NiGHTS disc and hoped for the best as I pressed the button to turn on the console.

It played perfectly the first time. I was astounded as I watched the opening cinema and heard the sweeping orchestral score playing in the background. After more than twenty years, I finally owned the game and the console, and could play NiGHTS into dreams… whenever I wanted.

I had tears in my eyes as I began playing.