Student Loans and Retro Gaming for the Original Xbox (Part 1)
I arrived at the University of Arkansas in 2009 with a thousand dollars in my bank account and five thousand dollars in debt from a couple of Stafford loans. I majored in creative writing and primarily wrote poetry. I almost never thought about jobs. By graduation, I was almost $20,000 in debt and the prospect of repaying all that was intimidating.
I come from a single-parent, working-and-poverty class background, so when I imagined repaying my student loans, I assumed I would be sacrificing everything to make payments and depriving myself of even vital purchases. With the help of a stable job, a master’s degree, and a patient wife, however, I’ve managed to avoid this doomsday scenario. As I begin repaying my student loans this year, I plan to write a series of retro gaming/student loan articles to remind both myself and others in the same situation that there is often no reason to put your life on hold because of student loans.
In fact, the financial constraints of repaying student loans allowed me to entirely rethink my entertainment options.
I started retro gaming for the original Xbox in August 2016 after graduating from a master’s program and found it to be good, cheap fun. The Xbox was released in 2001 in North America as Microsoft’s first attempt at producing a video game console. The system is a little over fifteen years old, which makes it far too old to be state-of-the-art technology and also a few years too young to induce universal nostalgia. Because of this, I am able to pick up games that cost less than my lunch at work. This also means I can gamble on games that sound interesting even if they only received mediocre reviews. All the Xbox games about voodoo dolls, or time-altering cats, or Roman gladiator chariot races may not have been a wise purchase for $50 back in 2003, but they’re a safe bet at $3-$10 in 2017.
Here are the games I picked up in December 2016 and January 2017:
SSX3 for $4.99 from Gamer’s Paradise KC. The simple trick mechanics make you feel like a god by the end of a long afternoon. This is still some of the most satisfying button mashing of the past fifteen years.
Circus Maximus for $9.99 from Vintage Stock KC. Basically, you are a generically-rendered Roman chariot racer surrounded by other generically-rendered Roman chariot racers — and no matter how fast you are, it is always necessary to flail your axe around in the direction of the other chariot racers. In other words, this is a great, sloppy game.
XIII for $1.45 from Half Price Books- Kansas City.
Dragon’s Lair 3D for $9.99 from Vintage Stock KC. I never thought I could find happiness in being killed seventeen times by boulders rolling around parabolas straight out of a trippy 1970’s geometry textbook. However, I did find happiness in that 1970’s trippy geometry textbook, partially because the graphics are gorgeous.
State of Emergency for $2.99 from Gamer’s Paradise KC.
BMX XXX for $5.00 from Gamer’s Paradise KC. When I was thirteen and this game was released, riding around on a bicycle until you earned access to a thirty-second video of a stripper sounded like a great idea. Now it doesn’t, but I have the game anyway.
Psychonauts for $12.50 from eBay. I placed the winning bid on this game on Christmas Eve while my wife and I were people-watching at an outlet mall. We weren’t shopping, although a couple days later we discovered just how cheap Christmas chocolate is on or after December 26th. I’m serious: post-Christmas Christmas candy is basically free. Jump. On. It.
Anyway, Psychonauts came to me via wisconsinner13 from Brownsville, Wisconsin. While $12.50 isn’t a huge steal, it is certainly less than I see it for in stores. When I first picked up an Xbox as a teenager, a game like Psychonauts would not have interested me. Back then, I wanted to play games that made me feel powerful. I wanted to build a baseball dynasty by 4 a.m. in MVP Baseball 2004, or score thirty thousand points by button mashing in the air in SSX 3.
To get things done in Psychonauts, you have to use every ability and every brain (yes, brain) you can find. If you want to find a milkman in Psychonauts, you’ll have to invade someone’s brain. If you want to convince someone they’re not Napoleon? Yup, invade their brain. Sections of Psychonauts may overstay their welcome, but around the corner there’s always another glorious brain…I mean, world… I mean, brain world…around the corner.
Here are some games I almost grabbed and might still get:
- A loose disk of Shenmue II along with the bonus DVD from diddy50_1999 for $1 and about $3 shipping on eBay. In the description: “Shenmue 2 for the original Xbox. Comes with Bonus DVD movie. Comes in generic gamestop case, missing manual. Disc has odd watermarking dots on it but should play without problem. Haven’t played it in years but it worked when played in this condition (was like it when purchased). The dvd is in better shape but has a little corner on it the same way. If you have any questions please ask.” Even though diddy50_1999 seems all but certain the disk will work, I’m not as sure. Honestly, I might pick this one up regardless. It’s this kind of escape into the backwoods of capitalism that makes retro gaming so fun.
- This month I learned that, at least in theory, CeX will sell you the only rare original Xbox game, Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, for twenty cents. It probably will never happen, because someone would have to actually part with their copy of Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis for exactly $0.01 for it to actually be available. Do you think CeX is offering this just because they like the eternally-lingering prospect of chaos? It’s the only imaginable possibility.
How much I paid on my student loans:
This month I emptied a little more than $5,000 out of my checking account to wipe clean a couple of Stafford loans with high interest rates. I was hoarding that money for years after working odd jobs around the university (most notably as an overnight security guard). I viewed that money as a rainy day fund, even though I knew I was just holding onto it for the government to take it back. While I won’t be able to make big, lump-sum payments like this every month, it was satisfying to do it this time. I hope to be almost debt-free by the end of 2017 and I guess I’m beginning this series of articles in part to keep myself accountable for living up to that lofty goal.
Xbox Games on my radar to pick up:
Halo and Halo 2 (duh)
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Fusion Frenzy
Shenmue II
Def Jam Fight for NY
Star Wars Battlefront
Godzilla - Destroy All Monsters
