Let me start by saying, I wasn’t a huge fan of Sonic or anything. But rather a fan of retro games in general.
I’m sorry, I haven’t given my name yet. My name is Ash. I collect retro games, I have the entirety of Mega Man, Mario and my collection continues to grow.
I make sure to become as immersed as the retro period and by that, I bought all of the game consoles, I wasn’t born during these games releases as I was born in the 2000’s but I didn’t care about that.
I had almost all of the retro or classic Sonic The Hedgehog games and I was only missing Sonic CD. Some game titles were hard to come by, especially since the ones you want are the old versions, sure I can get them on my smartphones. But whats the fun in that?
I like to go back to a period where everything is so foreign to me, so… raw.
And so that’s why I ordered the so called cd off of Amazon. I have Amazon Prime so same day delivery was to be expected.
To pass the time I decided to play some Sonic 2, I was extremely good at this game and I always adored the mechanics.
I played for a solid five hours, when my doorbell rang, I was sure it was the Amazon worker. I took my package and wrote my name down on the clipboard.
Once I took the package which was a box, I opened the box and the lone cd for the game.
Sonic CD was on this plain store bought CD. I was suspicious of this CD as this CD looked similarly to a regular CD you’d burn pictures or music on, I was pretty sure this CD wouldn’t work in the Sega CD console and so I put it in my computer.
My suspicions were proven to be correct though, as the moment I placed the CD in my PC.
Once it was put in my PC, a blue hedgehog icon with black scleras and red pupils. It was labeled Ascension.
Confused; I thought initially it was supposed to be Sonic CD, but must’ve been mistaken. So I continued playing.
I doubled clicked on the icon, the game loaded up, there was no SEGA intro, which made me believe that this was a fan game or something else that someone got together, there was no game menu rather it cut to the game.
A black screen popped up, a small black screen with no rememberable qualities.
Then, tiny text appeared on the screen, the game looked to be made like a typical Dating Simulator with a fancy text box with text using a typewriter effect, alongside the clicking for the dismissal of the box and text for the messages.
“Hello?”
The box texts out, thinking that this game was a dating simulator I tried to click or press a button to dismiss it, but the game wouldn’t budge. I was confused and I believed that the game was broken until I let out a scoff.
“Is this game I bought broken?” I asked, to no one in particular.
Then the game started back up.
“That’s rude, I am not broken.” The text resumed. My eyes widened.
“Wait, did you jus–”
“Respond to you? Yeah, I did. Are you Riley?”
Who was Riley? I was confused. I sighed.
“No, I apologize. I am not Riley. I am Ash.” I responded.
“…”
“O-Oh, where is Riley?”
“I don’t know who Riley is, I bought this game thinking it was Sonic CD and now here I am.” I explained.
“Oh…”
I felt bad for them, as an attempt to distract them, I decided to ask their name.
“Hey, uh. Since you know my name, do you by any chance have a name I could refer to you as?” I asked.
“I don’t have a name, I usually go by the programmings name for me. ASCENSION.”
“Hmm… How about I give you a name?” I offered.
“Oh, sure. I don’t mind.”
I smiled and thought for awhile.
“How about the name Sol? It means Sunshine.” I said, the text pauses for a bit before starting back up.
“I… I love that name!” The text said, then the name Sol attached itself to the text box.
Sol was pretty happy about their name. And I hoped that Sol had any insights to where this game came from.
“Sol, do you know who owned this game last? You mentioned a Riley.” I pointed out. The textbox fades out alongside the name.
I began to get nervous, the textbox returned with the name.
“Riley was my first owner, he told me I was in good hands, he logged on to see me and the two of us would play and talk. I have a fear of being alone.” Sol said.
“Oh, what happened?”
“He left me. I felt him say goodbye and took my disc out of his pc monitor and… I don’t know what happened next as if I’m not connected to a computer source or any other electronic my memories and things I know is no longer sentient at all.” Sol explained.
“But judging about what you told me, I’m sure Riley didn’t mean me any harm. Would you be kind as to check in from time to time?” Sol asked.
“Of course.” I said, Sol seemed pretty sweet and I’d do whatever they need.
I told Sol I was going to bed, and I’ll see them soon. With that being said, I closed my laptop after Sol exited out of the program.
I’m sorry that this isn’t too much, but I will update you all about Sol sooner or later, see you all next time.