If you've ever had a bout of existential ennui brought on by a fear of your own mortality, this piece of news might transcend it: a superfan of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES, known in Japan as the Super Famicom), first released in the early '90s, has not turned his console off for 20 years for fear of losing his data replay, i.e., his player saves.
The actual game loaded in the Famicom is Umihara Kawase, which features a 19-year-old schoolgirl named Kawase Umihara; the player navigates through linked levels that are mostly set in variated water-dominated worlds, which tout both seawater and freshwater mutants.
Listed under the name Wanikun (and the handle @UMIHARAKawase) on Twitter, the Japanese gamer and Famicom superfan tweeted out a picture of the gaming device, which has been churning the midnight oil (or rather, blaring the red power button) for roughly 180,000 hours to date.
— Wanikun (@UMIHARAKawase) September 30, 2015
According to Twitter's auto-translate feature, the text in the tweet reads:
"Incidentally, more than 20 years of SFC left turn is the first #海腹川背, working hours are considered 180000 time topped that. Power down and replay data will be lost. Maybe [sic]"
Rocket News 24, which initially picked up the story from the Japanese site IT News, has a less literal translation with a little more finesse:
"Incidentally, I'm pretty sure my first generation Umihara Kawase, which has been on in the SNES for over 20 years, has been in operation for over 180,000 hours. If the power is tuned off, I'll lose all my replay data. Probably."
Some, however, are skeptical of the veracity of the gamer's assertion. Over on Reddit, user Kamaria expressed doubt, bringing simple logistics to the forefront to make a valid point:
Indeed, the Japanese gamer did admit to unplugging the game once due to a relocation from one residence to another. Luckily, the Super Famicom's battery kept all data intact during its big move.
As the quote from the seminal bildungsroman The Sandlot goes, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Well, legends or Super NES, that is.
Via: Rocket News 24
