The devourer of time was unleashed.

I've done a terrible thing...

I found a working ROM for Puzzle Quest 2. What's worse is that I shared this knowledge with those I love and care about most.

Didn't we learn from the first time this happened?

The Nintendo DS's awoken from a long slumber. Ready to endure the punishment. The anguish and despair caused by that cursed game. It could drive a man mad.

The game hates you. It knows you have to play on it's terms. You're only able to do what the game allows you, where as the game can do whatever it wants. You'll match those gems, not because you want to, but because you have to. There are no other available moves. You need that color in order to survive. You need to make this move so the game can't make that move. While you're not entirely sure what move it is the game is going to make, you just know you don't want it to make it.

But none of that matters, it never matters, because you'll win eventually. Having no penalty for losing means there's no reason to not try again. So no matter how demoralizing or frequent your failures are, you can always fail again, and again, until the game decides it's your turn to win.

The worst part about all of it. Is that once you start playing, you'll keep playing. "Just one more puzzle" you'll tell yourself and others. You're lying. You'll finish that puzzle, but wait! There's a treasure chest for you to open! Puzzle for your rewards!

Hours will pass, and you won't know it. If you manage to turn the game off, it'll still be there... in your mind. You can feel the puzzles. Not as an experience itself, you don't picture the puzzles or re-live previous encounters or imagine and plan for the puzzles to be. Instead you just yearn for more puzzles. It's a feeling similar to hunger.

You'll be playing Puzzle Quest in the presence of others, it is a hand-held system after all. If you can play literally anywhere, why not do so?

Someone will ask you.

"Hey, how's Puzzle Quest treating you?"

You'll respond.

"Good."

You're lying. You'll also realize that a significant amount of time has passed since you last checked, and that those were the only spoken words you've heard from anyone in recent memory.

Sometimes you'll be randomly surprised by the mere existence of those around you; sometimes your presence will be a surprise to those around you, even if you've been within proximity of each other the whole time. Puzzle Quest has its way of taking you to a different place without moving you.


Even right now, I'm beginning to think about how all the time spent writing this post could have been spent playing Puzzle Quest 2.

A problem that shall soon be corrected.