Pirated Log

Before reading this story please realize that these events are from two perspectives, anything after 15th June 1990 is from the father's point of view and anything before is from the son's point of view. This is pure fiction.

Pirated Log

15th June 1990

By the time we found him, my son was already cowering in the corner, screaming and pointing at us. He had gone; consumed by whatever it was that had drawn him away from his family, his friends, his life. When the police took him away from me one friendly officer told me that there is no one to blame and handed me a book that he had been clutching in his room. It was covered in blood and scratches, and had "log" written on the cover.

1st July 1990

No matter how hard I tried to resist, how hard I tried to stop myself: my curiosity was peaked and I had to read what he had written, maybe it would tell me what he was doing. I sat down on his bed and opened the first page and saw a collage of photos and article clippings from 'Nintendo Power'. This continued for several pages until there was a page that once again just said Log...

30th April 1989

Today it finally came, my very own Gameboy. After months of waiting it came, I don't care if everything is in Japanese, the amount of things I had to do to get this it was worth it. It came with a port of  Tetris and a load of booklets in Japanese. I can't wait to play this.

3rd May 1989

The same guy that got the Gameboy for me told me that he could get me more games for it...for cheap! I couldn't believe it I ordered as much as I could, I even sold loads of my old stuff just so I had some cash. I can't wait!

10th May 1989

The games came today, they didn't come in boxes like the Gameboy,  they were just blank gray cartridges with black stickers on the front with Japanese text on it. I had no way of telling the games apart, or what they were. It wasn't until I loaded up them up then I realized that they were FUCKING PIRATED GAMES. I am so pissed off, I wanted to throw the god damn thing out the window but then I remembered how much money I have spent on it. Fuck it I can't be bothered it with imports anymore, it's a god damn rip off.

1st June 1989

I have been playing the games and even after everything, they are still great games, but my dad won't leave me alone and keeps saying I need to get out of my room, but if I spent my money on this stuff I am going to fucking play them.

There is this one game that I have been playing a lot it's similar to The Legend of Zelda,  but everything is a lot more...vivid and realistic, I can't understand any of the text or what I'm doing but for some reason I can't put it down. I can't leave it alone. I just need to play it.

2nd June 1989

Today I was sat in school and all I could think about was the game, at break and lunch I went on one of the library computers and tried to find out something about the game; Surprise Surprise I found nothing.

Instead I decided to take out a Japanese to English dictionary to figure out what it was I was doing and what the game was about.

1st of July 1990

The next page was entitled 'Translations' and was simply clippings from the dictionary and mad scribbles of things from the game he had translated.

8th June 1989

I have spent the whole week translating things from the game into this, turns out the game is called "Escape to the Oblivion" and you play as a man called Taurus and you have to make your way through a world through...changing the environment by falling unconscious in one world and waking up in another that is slightly different. The more I translate the more confused I get, this game is much better quality than the other games that I have played and seems to change each time I play it...

10th June 1989

The other day when I said that the game changes, today the sounds changed so much that it's not bleeps or bloops anymore and actually sounds more like real life. Too much like real life. When I went to kill an enemy something absolutely terrifying happened...it screamed, and a box popped up with it begging for me to put it out of its misery.

11th June 1989

Despite what happened, I still really wanted to play the game, not for fun, just to see what else would happen and today the unbelievable happened, I powered up the game and it was so clear it was like a photograph, like I was actually there looking down on the world. However at this exact moment my dad walked in and gave me another earful on how I am wasting my time and tried to take my Gameboy away from me. But I didn't let him...I...kicked him and punched him until he stumbled out of my room and I barricaded the door so I could finally be left alone.

13th June 1989

I've been in my room for a solid two days now and the game continues to 'improve', everything is so realistic now, so much so that it's like everything is happening in my room right below me. When Taurus is in the 'real world' everything is 'normal' but when he is in the oblivion world everything is much darker and scarier. It's in this state that I feel like everything is trying to get me, the sounds are like a beating drum in my head that is slowly getting louder and louder and faster and faster all inside my head. It hurts so much but I can't stop it...I can't reach the button to change the world back, there is something inside my head that stops me from pressing it and voice that tells me to keep playing.

14th June 1989

The game...is talking...to me...I need...to...stop...I need to stay... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play... I need to play...

1st of July 1990

I need to play is repeated for several pages over and over again, I can't believe what my son had done to himself, I can't believe that I let this happen, I just can't...

15th June 1989

I can't leave, I'm afraid of who is out there, I only survive by whatever the game provides me...I need to keep playing otherwise...I might die...I can't stop...Help me...

1st of July 1990

My god, my poor boy, he was delusional, WHY DIDN'T I HELP HIM?! I stood up and looked around the room it was so dirty, I looked in the corner where we found him and saw...the...Gameboy. It still had the game inside it. I just picked up the Gameboy and all of its games and threw them away. I wanted to leave his room as it was before everything happened. My boy is gone and there is nothing that I can do to bring him back.