Today I made the annual pilgrimage to my local game store to pick up my newly released copy of Madden NFL 2004. I was trading in something like six games at the time, as my intention was to buy a network adapter for my PlayStation 2 as well. Sadly for me, Game were out of network adapters, so I decided on Madden and a new controller instead.
The guy goes through the process of opening each game, checking the disk and instructions, before he finally gets to Madden 2003. The disk isn’t in there – and I know straight away that it’s still sitting in my PS2, as I’d been playing it the night before and just had a brain failure when I picked up the case in the morning.
“Oh no… schoolboy error!” I admit “the disk is still in my PlayStation. Sorry about that, I’ll just take it back.”
“That’s why we check – you get people trying to pull a fast one… oh.. hold on – there’s a disk in here anyway, tucked into the instruction book.” Mr Exceptionally Cheerful Game store Assistant discovers – “Hey, it’s a Wallace and Gromit DVD – lucky you didn’t trade that in by accident, I can see you’re a big fan!!”
For a brief second I didn’t get what he was on about, until I glanced down to dicover that, yes, I had thrown on a Wallace and Gromit t-shirt that morning. Not because I’m a big, huge fan, but because it was the first t-shirt I came to that didn’t look like it needed ironed. Honest.
Rather than spare my embarrassment, Mr Game store assistant and his assembled colleagues were unable to conceal their mirth. It’s good fortune that the trade-in’s came to the exact value of my new game and controller. This meant I could sign the trade-in book quickly and get the hell outta there!