It's Been Awhile

The Animal Crossing game that I bought for Charlotte didn't come with an official Nintendo memory card, but I had an aftermarket card that we could use.

I kept an eye on eBay, and it wasn't long before we had an Animal Crossing memory card and a manual to boot.

The cool part about getting a second memory card is that Char could help me start my own game of Animal Crossing. Then she could put my memory card into the GameCube's second slot and take the Animal Crossing train to visit my town. Charlotte learned about this by reading the guidebook.

I named my town Smakdown, and Char likes to come over to talk to the different characters who live there. She also makes fun of my barely furnished house.

I have since picked up a few more GameCube games, but I don't want to mess up our Animal Crossing memory cards. So, I bought another secondhand memory card at Jay's CD and Hobby. 

Guess what? The previous owner also played Animal Crossing, and his game information was still stored on the card. I deleted all of his other game info, but I left his town of Malibu intact.

I tested "Jack's" game before showing it to Char, and it worked. Malibu is covered in weeds, and while I walked Jack around town, most of the characters weren't very nice to him. They said things like, "Who are you?" and "I'm sorry, but I don't recognize you." 

One animal commented, "Where have you been for the last 144 months? Do you hibernate?" Kody said something similar.

So did Freya.

The 144 is spaced differently, and it looks like an accurate number generated by the game's internal clock feature.

144 months? That means Jack hasn't played Animal Crossing in 12 years. No wonder the characters acted like they had been abandoned. I'm guessing Jack now lives in an actual apartment. Instead of paying Tom Nook, he pays real bills.

I don't know if it is weird to continue Jack's game more than a decade after it was forgotten, but when I dropped Charlotte off at school today, the last thing she said to me was, "I can't wait to visit Malibu tonight!"

Looks like we have some virtual weeding to do.