Supposed signs of approval

My Dad decided to rent a Sega Saturn from Blockbuster. I think we were due to rent a PlayStation, but there were none in stock to rent, so we went for a Saturn instead: along with a copy of Virtua Fighter 1 and Sega rally. I don't think neither of us were expecting the Saturn to have the effect on us that it did. We'd sit up until all hours of the morning playing Sega rally: trying to best our times and tackle the horrid Lakeside track, only to fail miserably. Wake up early in the morning and rounds on Virtua Fighter 1: in awe at how cool the game looked. Stupid I know. Considering the characters looked like they were built from lego and the backgrounds were mere JPEG's of the kind you can set as wallpapers in Windows.

It was a turning point for my Dad and I, because he never approved of my gaming. Yet when we rented the Saturn, none of that seemed to matter. It was from this moment I decided I wanted a Sega Saturn for Christmas. Too bad I didn't get one. Guess I spoke too soon about turning points.

I stewed over not having a Saturn for years, as many of the games I loved at the time were releasing for it. I used to hit an arcade after school every day and spend all of my pocket money going rounds on Fighting Vipers, X-Men: Children of the atom, Last Bronx and occassionally Virtua Fighter 2 - games that all released on the Saturn. Sure, some of the ports were ghetto ports. But they at the very least played the same.

I always held resentment towards my Dad for not getting me a Sega Saturn. I felt like he was denying me something I really wanted purely because of how he felt about me gaming. It backfired anyway, because the PlayStation he got me instead got played to death and had me plunge further into the depths of gaming; despite buying me the PlayStation with no games and no money to go buy one. Ha!

As much as an arsehole my Dad was in regards to my gaming back then, I'll forever remember that weekend he rented the Sega Saturn. We grew so close over the course of those 2 days and we had fun. It was a glimpse that the father who approved of my gaming was in there somewhere and that he wasn't so bad after all. It was ironic, because he rocked at Sega rally and could work Akira in Virtua Fighter like no one's business.