{"id":10670,"date":"2024-06-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/?p=10670"},"modified":"2024-06-03T20:27:39","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T01:27:39","slug":"history-of-te-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torrentialequilibrium.net\/?p=10670","title":{"rendered":"History of TE: 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Did you know that June 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Mega Man Battle Network 4<\/strong>? Well I did. Or at least, I had a hunch, since for whatever reason my brain has been laser-focused on memories of playing that particular game – despite the fact that I didn’t really like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I’m not here to type a retrospective about MMBN4. No, sir. I already did that almost a decade ago<\/a>, and haven’t revisited the game since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I want to just rattle off a few interesting points about 2004. It was a big year for me! Lots happened! Firstly, there was the MMBN4 release. That was big, but not for the reason you think! See, I played the Japanese ROM for a while before the NA version came out (there was a six-month delay), and because it’s an RPG, the fact that I couldn’t read Japanese was kind of a big deal. So I started trying to tech myself katakana. It obviously didn’t really take, but I was able to learn enough to read some text in the game, and I still remember a handful of the characters to this day! I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that the best part of MMBN4 is that it made me engage in self-improvement, in some tiny way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I also remember the day that I (and my brother) bought our copies of MMNB4 (he Red Sun version, and I Blue Moon version). My whole family was out for dinner, which was kind of a rare occasion back then, and the two of us left the table to venture from store to store to find copies of the game. Future Shop (remember Future Shop?) didn’t have it. Best Buy didn’t have it. Superstore didn’t have it. But Wal-Mart did! I don’t know why this evening is one of my core memories, but it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there were many other milestones for me in 2004. Firstly: it was the year that I graduated high school. And by extension of that, it was also my last “real” summer vacations, and also the year that I got my first “real” job. Remember back when I worked at Tim Horton’s<\/a>? Those days seem so long ago now… But I don’t look back on them that fondly. Yes, there are a few moments that I hold dear to my heart, but overall it was a crappy job and I would never, ever go back there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some other things that happened that year that I don’t feel the need to go into a great deal of detail on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n