Game Boy Thieves: The Terrible & Ironic Tale of How I Got Mugged
Some of you may have already heard about this via Twitter, but I thought I should post here anyway in order to share all of the hilarious & depressing details of the wacky, ironic misadventure I had this afternoon.
As many of you know, I write music on the Game Boy using a wonderful program called Little Sound DJ (commonly known as LSDJ). LSDJ is a cartridge that turns the Game Boy into an audio sequencer and live performance tool using the GB’s 8-bit soundchip. When you write music on LSDJ, all of the data is saved to the cartridge, and the only way of backing up or transferring that data is with a special Transfer Tool that’s even harder to find than the cartridge itself. A friend of mine from Cincinnati recently came across a Game Boy Transferer, and sent it to me in the mail so that I could backup my music data. Great! 
My buddy contacts me to let me know that the package was delivered. Unfortunately, the postal workers in my neighborhood are borderline-retarded, so instead I’m told that the package is waiting for me at the post office. Fine. I’ll just walk to the post office after I get out of my meeting today. I pass by my apartment door on the way to the post office, considering if I should drop my bag off before I go. I decide against it. “It will only take 5 minutes, and it’s only 2 PM,” I think to myself.
So here I am on my way to get the Transferer, which will finally allow me to backup my Game Boy data. It will be a relief, since I’ll no longer have to worry about my cartridge data corrupting/erasing. Suddenly, I feel body weight pressing onto my back and a moment later, I’m on the floor. Two gentlemen are pinning me to the ground and one takes my messenger bag. The other one punches me in the face (a wimpy-ass punch, I might add) and then both men flee. I don’t see either of their faces. Shit, that sucked. At least nothing of value was in my bag. Then a cold dagger of realization stabs me in the gut — My Game Boy *and* my copy of LSDJ were in that bag …and all of the save data for my music was on that LSDJ cartridge - The data I was JUST about to back-up using the thing I was GETTING from the post office!
But that’s not even the best part. Just wait until you read the Atlas-Is-Fontaine-Twist Ending:
I call the cops. They show up and can’t do anything, obviously. The perps are long gone, and it wouldn’t matter anyway because I never saw their faces — “Two black guys, about 6 ft tall” is probably not the most helpful description for cops in Bed-Stuy. Defeated, I give up on my journey to the post office and walk home. I’ll get the package tomorrow when I have someone to walk with me, preferably someone who carries a weapon.
[b]FINALE:[/b]
I walk in the door and go up to my room… Take a motherfucking GUESS as to what is currently lying on my bed… That’s right — THE GODDAMN PACKAGE CONTAINING THE TRANSFER TOOL! I swear to Christ, it’s like someone scripted this shit.
So now all of my data is lost, as well as my Game Boy and LSDJ cartridge, and this ALL could have been avoided if I had just chosen to walk in the door to my apartment! I would have seen that damn package, not gotten mugged, and had myself a nice LSDJ backup party whilst sipping raspberry ginger ale. Goddamn it.
There is an upside to this story however: Fortunately for me, my buddy from Cincinnati sent me not only the transfer tool, but an extra Flash cartridge as well. That means that despite my old data being lost, I can at least flash a ROM of LSDJ onto the cart and continue to make music in the interim.
So that’s the whole long story. Looking at all of this in retrospect, I’m now sitting in my chair, chortling rather heartily as I type this. I hope it gave you a laugh as well. I’d like to thank my parents and the Internet for giving me a sense of humor — Without it, I’d be a lot worse off in situations like this. Thanks for reading!
=Zen
