Mew

 In September 2006, I lived in the Dayton area of Ohio. I attended a community college in Dayton and lived with my sister in a townhouse roughly thirty minutes away in a neighbouring town. My brother had recently moved out to live with a friend, and my parents were forty-five minutes south of us in a Cincinnati suburb. My memory of the time is admittedly quite hazy, but I believe my video game systems still only consisted of my Nintendo 64 and cobalt Game Boy Advance SP. I loved playing Pokémon games on the GBA, and my N64 got minimal use. The selection of games I’d had were rather small, too, but as a part-timer, I couldn’t exactly afford to go out and buy the latest and greatest stuff. Besides, I was content with the games I’d had, especially since I’d bought Pokémon Emerald brand-new the previous year and was having a blast with it.

When I learnt about Toys R Us having a special promotion for Pokémon, I was interested. I don’t recall how I’d found out about it, but the stores were giving away an “event” Mew to people who had the latest Pokémon games. At the time, FireRed and LeafGreen had released prior to Emerald, but I didn’t own either game. The promotional signage seemed to primarily advertise getting Mew for the Kanto remakes, so I’d hoped I could get one for my Emerald game. Further research into it revealed one could get it for Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen or Emerald. I was relieved. Out of those games, I only had Pokémon Emerald.

On the day in question, I took my GBA SP with me as I drove to Toys R Us. I normally never take my games or systems out of the house unless I’m going on a road trip with the family, so this was a bit unusual to me. Nevertheless, I went to the toy store and made my way to the video game section. There was already a bit of a line, so I stood at the end of the line and waited.

There were people of varying ages ahead of me, ranging from little kids to adults in their twenties or so. At the time, I was twenty-three, so I didn’t think anything of it. What struck me as odd was the fact they were all guys. No girls or AFAB (assigned female at birth) people like me at all. I didn’t realise I was transgender at the time, so it was rather uncomfortable to realise I was the only girl there. This was 2006, where were the girl gamers I’d heard about? Apparently not at Toys R Us getting an event Mew.

We were previously instructed to catch a Pokémon that we’d be willing to trade. I figured everyone would go for the “throwaway” Pokémon, like Wurmple or Taillow. I believe I went with the latter, though I felt guilty at catching a Pokémon for the sole purpose of trading it. When the event began at noon, the employee in charge of the event had a GBA SP and a cable, ready for the first person. I’d wondered how the event would work, and now I could see: the Pokémon caught for the event would be traded for the event Mew. The employee had a special cartridge of the game that was full of event Mews.

When it was my turn, I connected my end of the cable to my SP and did as I was told. I’d never been to one of these things before, so it was entirely new to me. Thankfully, the process was simple: have the trainer at the Pokémon Centre in the trading area, go to the correct NPC as one would for a cable-linked trade, then select the Taillow I’d caught for the trade. The employee selected the event Mew to send to me.

Within moments, I had a level 10 Mew in my party. I thanked the employee as I saved my game, disconnected the cable and left the store. I was excited to have my very first event Pokémon in my party, especially one as awesome as Mew. No GameSharks or other illegitimate means of getting legendary Pokémon, this one was the bona-fide real thing. As real as Pokémon get, anyway.

I didn’t realise till many years later that it was the only non-online distribution of event Pokémon I’d ever participated in. Although the next iteration of games was on the Nintendo DS, I did not obtain one for many years to come - both the handheld and any applicable games - and by then, most of the distribution of event Pokémon was done via WiFi. The days of manually connecting two physical handhelds to get event Pokémon was in the past.

Currently, the event Mew sits in Pokémon Bank on my New 3DS XL. Its level is 52, meaning I’d used it in my Pokémon Emerald game for quite some time; unfortunately, I don’t have any memory of doing so. Nevertheless, I’m glad I was able to get it off my Emerald game so I can use it in whichever game I want. For now, however, I’ll leave it in Pokémon Bank, along with several other event Pokémon I’ve obtained over the years. 

Final Fantasy IV

This memory will have to start out sadly, I’m afraid. In August 2015, my dad, who’d just turned fifty-nine, suddenly passed away in a hospital in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He’d died from a pulmonary embolism – that is to say, blood clots in his heart and lungs. I was a half hour’s drive away at home, sound asleep, when he passed. I never got to say goodbye to him. My relationship with my dad was poor, as it is with all family members, but I never wanted this to happen. But it did.

The reason why I’m mentioning this is because we’d moved to Pennsylvania in December 2010 for my dad’s job. The only reason we were in that state was for his job. When he passed away, my mom, sister and I (brother stayed in Ohio; he’d recently married) had no reason to stay. That October, my mom moved to Arkansas to be closer to her family, and my sister and I stayed behind so we could finish our schooling. I was in college for the third time and was doing quite well for once.

My sister and I didn’t have jobs that paid well enough to support ourselves – come to think of it, my sister wasn’t even working at the time since she was living on campus two hours away – so I used my “inheritance” (a small share of the life insurance money my mom collected) to pay for the move and the first six months’ rent for an apartment on the other side of town. I was able to keep a little bit of the money to treat myself, which I used to buy a new (cheap) computer, a used Playstation 3, a used PSP and later, a new TV. All of these were quite low-cost and weren’t all purchased at once.

Backing up to discuss the living arrangement, whilst I was able to sign the lease for the apartment and such, I had to wait two weeks before moving in, presumably because they were having the place cleaned and ready for moving in. However, I couldn’t stay in the townhouse I’d lived in with my family. Where could I go?

The answer: a hotel.

Indeed, the first two weeks of November 2015 were spent living in a hotel about twenty minutes away from where my sister and I would soon live. During this time, I’d purchased the PS3 and PSP and was looking into games to play for each system. My knowledge of games for either one was essentially non-existent, so it was like a shot in the dark trying to figure out what games were available and if I’d enjoy them.

Eventually, I learnt a few Final Fantasy games were on the PSP besides Crisis Core (which I later bought). Two of them were ports of Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy IV. The latter was a “complete collection”, which included an “interlude” and sequel game. I looked up the prices of both games on eBay and saw the prices were rather steep; at least, more than I wanted to pay. Since the “Buy It Now” option was out of the question, I decided to check the auction listings to see if the prices were reasonable there.

Now, I’m not a competitive person by any means, and I normally stay away from eBay’s auctions. However, occasionally, I’d manage to find something good there for a low price and win it because I was the only bidder. I’d hoped to do the same with these games but wasn’t so fortunate. With Final Fantasy II, I found an auction with a low price and only two or three bidders. I decided to try my hand at bidding, so I placed a bid, as well as a maximum bid. I did the same with Final Fantasy IV: bid, set a maximum bid. I left both alone, knowing if I checked on them, I’d get anxious about it and probably terribly upset when I lost the auction. Leaving the listings alone until after the bidding ended would keep my mental health in check.

Funnily enough, I forgot about them until I received emails about the listings after they’d ended. I suppose between the stress of school and work, combined with the stress of living in a hotel (believe me, that’s not fun by any means), it had slipped my mind. To my amazement, I won both auctions. I had to see for myself how many bids were placed and headed to eBay. Final Fantasy II was won with seven bids, which was interesting to me since I didn’t hit the maximum bid on it.

How many bids were placed for Final Fantasy IV?

Eighteen.

I was stunned. Apparently, someone had tried to get into a bidding war with me at the last minute and failed to bid high enough before the auction ended. Even more surprising was the fact I still didn’t hit my maximum bid; I paid less for the game than I’d planned.

Although the games came from different sellers, I received them on the same day. I could receive mail at the hotel, so long as I informed them of incoming mail and included my room number in the address. It ended up being a pain, though, because the hotel owner checked the mailbox only once a day in the morning, so mail could sit in the box for nearly an entire day with no one able to get it.

When I got my games, I was incredibly happy and excited to have them, and played them both right away. When my sister and I travelled to Arkansas at the end of November to celebrate Thanksgiving with our mom, I brought my PSP and Final Fantasy IV with me to play during the flights. I never beat the game, but I sure enjoyed playing it a lot during that time, and I always love telling the story of how I won it on eBay with eighteen bids.