Your face seems familiar
There's only 52 days left of 2019.
52 days from now, it will be 2020.
THE 2020.
You may recall that at the beginning of this year, I remarked that according to Vegas Stakes for the SNES (which has a sci-fi-themed casino called The 2020), it is about to be OFFICIALLY the future:
Now that "the future according to Vegas Stakes" is only a few weeks away - WAY closer than it ever was in my childhood - I've been nostalgic about Vegas Stakes (not just this casino and song, but the entire game and the entire soundtrack) MUCH more often than usual lately.
And I've been thinking... This game used to be my second-favorite SNES game (after Super Mario World), and there was a time it was probably my second- or third-favorite game of all time (after Super Mario World again and possibly Super Mario Bros.) I used to play it all the time. I was pretty obsessed with it for a while.
(Random fun fact, since I can't think of any better place to fit this into the entry: Vegas Stakes is actually the first time I had ever heard of Princess Daisy from Mario. I remember there was at least one screenshot of multiplayer mode in the manual, and the players were named Mr.MARIO, Mr.LUIGI, Ms.PEACH, and Ms.DAISY. I used to have no idea why the fourth player would be named Daisy - I figured Toad or Yoshi would be the obvious choice for a fourth Mario character.)
So it feels kind of weird to realize that eventually, I all but forgot about Vegas Stakes and it's now presumably been a very long time since I actually played it.
And it feels weird that Vegas Stakes, despite once being one of my favorite games, never made it into any of my crossovers (or anything I made that's not necessarily a crossover but involves multiple fandoms) over the years.
For instance, nothing from Vegas Stakes made it into ANY of the following:
- My userpics, or even my long list of ideas for possible userpics.
- PrtSc Land. In the time that I thought I would eventually get around to continuing, restarting, or remaking PrtSc Land someday, I had so many ideas for characters and fandoms to add in, including many out-of-left-field choices. But somehow, Vegas Stakes characters weren't among those ideas.
- Years later, when I played Tomodachi Life a lot, it was much the same as with PSL; although I put in many of my favorite characters and had an even longer list of characters I wanted to make Miis of that never made the cut, Vegas Stakes characters were, once again, not in the ideas list. (I think.)
In fact, somehow, in my entire time on LJ and DW, I think I've only mentioned Vegas Stakes in two entries prior to this one. Both being from this year.
I mean, it kind of makes sense that I'd almost forget about Vegas Stakes for a while. But it still feels weird that I'm suddenly thinking about this game more than usual lately. Especially for a completely random reason like "there's a casino in it called The 2020 and oh look, the year 2020 is almost here!"
Well... weird or not, I guess rediscovering Vegas Stakes this year is exactly what I'm going to do! I'm watching a Let's Play of it right now, and am probably gonna watch several more - it's interesting to see other people's takes on this game. And I'm thinking about actually playing it for the first time in years - in fact, I want to do so on New Year's Eve, so that I can set it up so that I enter The 2020 casino AND the actual year 2020 at the same time. :)
Thinking about this game a lot for (almost) the first time in years is also making me nostalgic for a second reason:
This game reminds me of my grandmother. I used to play it at her house, and I believe it was her favorite video game.
I miss her. I have so many fond memories of staying at her house, playing games there, etc.
She passed away when I was 11, and ever since then I have wished I could see her again.
Now that it's a week until what would have been her birthday and it is only 52 days until a year that is in the distant future according to her favorite game, I've been thinking about her even more than usual.
I wish she could have been there to see me start high school. And graduate from high school. And graduate from college. And start work. I think she'd be proud of how far I would come.
I often wonder if she would have liked any of the fandoms I got into after/shortly before her passing.
And I think I know why I've had so much trouble dealing with anxiety over the past decade or so:
My grandmother was one of the few people - possibly even the ONLY person, for a while - I felt that I could talk to about anything, including anything I'm worried about. I feel like I would be so much better off right now if she were still alive today, because then I could have talked to her about some of the Internet drama that's caused me stress over the years.
I considered listing all the things I wish I could have talked to her about in this entry, but I would feel like I'm rambling if I did that.
But you know what? If she were alive today and I could actually talk to her about these things, I don't think I would feel like I'm rambling. That's how comfortable I felt talking to her!
Does this entry make sense? I still feel weird about how I'm suddenly thinking about all of this more than usual lately...
52 days from now, it will be 2020.
THE 2020.
You may recall that at the beginning of this year, I remarked that according to Vegas Stakes for the SNES (which has a sci-fi-themed casino called The 2020), it is about to be OFFICIALLY the future:
Click to viewNow that "the future according to Vegas Stakes" is only a few weeks away - WAY closer than it ever was in my childhood - I've been nostalgic about Vegas Stakes (not just this casino and song, but the entire game and the entire soundtrack) MUCH more often than usual lately.
And I've been thinking... This game used to be my second-favorite SNES game (after Super Mario World), and there was a time it was probably my second- or third-favorite game of all time (after Super Mario World again and possibly Super Mario Bros.) I used to play it all the time. I was pretty obsessed with it for a while.
(Random fun fact, since I can't think of any better place to fit this into the entry: Vegas Stakes is actually the first time I had ever heard of Princess Daisy from Mario. I remember there was at least one screenshot of multiplayer mode in the manual, and the players were named Mr.MARIO, Mr.LUIGI, Ms.PEACH, and Ms.DAISY. I used to have no idea why the fourth player would be named Daisy - I figured Toad or Yoshi would be the obvious choice for a fourth Mario character.)
So it feels kind of weird to realize that eventually, I all but forgot about Vegas Stakes and it's now presumably been a very long time since I actually played it.
And it feels weird that Vegas Stakes, despite once being one of my favorite games, never made it into any of my crossovers (or anything I made that's not necessarily a crossover but involves multiple fandoms) over the years.
For instance, nothing from Vegas Stakes made it into ANY of the following:
- My userpics, or even my long list of ideas for possible userpics.
- PrtSc Land. In the time that I thought I would eventually get around to continuing, restarting, or remaking PrtSc Land someday, I had so many ideas for characters and fandoms to add in, including many out-of-left-field choices. But somehow, Vegas Stakes characters weren't among those ideas.
- Years later, when I played Tomodachi Life a lot, it was much the same as with PSL; although I put in many of my favorite characters and had an even longer list of characters I wanted to make Miis of that never made the cut, Vegas Stakes characters were, once again, not in the ideas list. (I think.)
In fact, somehow, in my entire time on LJ and DW, I think I've only mentioned Vegas Stakes in two entries prior to this one. Both being from this year.
I mean, it kind of makes sense that I'd almost forget about Vegas Stakes for a while. But it still feels weird that I'm suddenly thinking about this game more than usual lately. Especially for a completely random reason like "there's a casino in it called The 2020 and oh look, the year 2020 is almost here!"
Well... weird or not, I guess rediscovering Vegas Stakes this year is exactly what I'm going to do! I'm watching a Let's Play of it right now, and am probably gonna watch several more - it's interesting to see other people's takes on this game. And I'm thinking about actually playing it for the first time in years - in fact, I want to do so on New Year's Eve, so that I can set it up so that I enter The 2020 casino AND the actual year 2020 at the same time. :)
Thinking about this game a lot for (almost) the first time in years is also making me nostalgic for a second reason:
This game reminds me of my grandmother. I used to play it at her house, and I believe it was her favorite video game.
I miss her. I have so many fond memories of staying at her house, playing games there, etc.
She passed away when I was 11, and ever since then I have wished I could see her again.
Now that it's a week until what would have been her birthday and it is only 52 days until a year that is in the distant future according to her favorite game, I've been thinking about her even more than usual.
I wish she could have been there to see me start high school. And graduate from high school. And graduate from college. And start work. I think she'd be proud of how far I would come.
I often wonder if she would have liked any of the fandoms I got into after/shortly before her passing.
And I think I know why I've had so much trouble dealing with anxiety over the past decade or so:
My grandmother was one of the few people - possibly even the ONLY person, for a while - I felt that I could talk to about anything, including anything I'm worried about. I feel like I would be so much better off right now if she were still alive today, because then I could have talked to her about some of the Internet drama that's caused me stress over the years.
I considered listing all the things I wish I could have talked to her about in this entry, but I would feel like I'm rambling if I did that.
But you know what? If she were alive today and I could actually talk to her about these things, I don't think I would feel like I'm rambling. That's how comfortable I felt talking to her!
Does this entry make sense? I still feel weird about how I'm suddenly thinking about all of this more than usual lately...