High Score Girl 1999 (Magyar és English)

Round 14. English version.

Armagon Arcade, Shibuya, February 25th. 1999.

The venue itself was only one of many arcades in the Shibuya. However, today there was a huge crowd in front of the entrance waiting for entry. Makoto, Namie and Daniel were granted the privilege of getting away with this procedure by showing the purple cards to the security guards. There were already plenty of NES consoles inside, including a copy of the NWC.

On stage were the cartridge for the first three places in the competition. Even the golden one. Daniel looked closer at the prizes. It was already suspicious, even though they all seemed original to the surface. There are 92 of the grey cartridge, and 20 of the gold one, if the information is accurate. On top of the greys are mini switches and series of numbers. „I don't understand something, Daniel. Why are you taking part in it when it came to the two of us doing this?" ask Makoto. „Increasing our chances of making money. Three gray and one gold cartridge for the first three place. If we divide the prizes into three, we need three people to grab them all." Daniel whispered in her ear so no one would hear. Of course, that was a lie, because the real reason was shocking to everybody. He search for the entire event yesterday, and found out another suspicius thing. The organizers weren't working for Nintendo. Of course, it may be directed by a private individual, but it will only raise further questions. Furthermore, one of the original Tournament winners of the competition was contacted by e-mail and asked about the look of the grey cartridge. He gave Daniel a photo, only problem is the terrible quality, and all he could do was narrow down the basics. However, the gold cartridge was the most conspicuous. It looked like it had a different label on it, but it was thoroughly scraped off and taped to the NWC's sticker. And he couldn't find any sources on the original, no matter where he was going on the net, not even on the American web sites.

Daniel didn't have time to think about it, because the competition organizer, a man in a splinter suit, spoke into the microphone. „Welcome to the second annual shibuyan Nintendo World Championship competition created by our host, George Hoffman. Or should I say... me?" The crowd applauded him. Daniel looks familiar with this guy from four years ago. He's met so many pompous bourgeois bladders, he can't remember all his names. He listened suspiciously to the sequel. „Each player has three tries on selected NES consoles. Your best result will be automatically recorded and four of them will play in the final for the three places on this stage!" Exclaimed Geroge and waited for the applause to sit down. He continued afterwards. „The rules are unchanged from the original. So, are you ready? Then we'll have a party on the whistle!" The contestants went to the consoles, they were assigned and waited for the signal. Daniel sighed when he grabbed the controller. „It's really an egoistic bladder." Daniel said that inside. Maybe because of that, but he couldn't let go of the fact that there was butter behind his ears. When the whistle started, the race between the partipicant has began. Daniel has now diverted his attention to the game. Six minutes and twenty-one seconds. That's how long it's been to fight the games. Super Mario Bros was do it fast as possible because it was the least points. In the case of Rad Racer, he kept to the car in outside lane to avoid hitting anothers and pushing the gas to the ground. In tetris, he constantly used quick placement plus soft drop and tried to clear the four rows at once, i.e. Tetris, which he could do twice. When the machine signaled stop, Daniel watched the screen. To his greatest shock, the end result of Namie was immediately 3 million point just for the first try. He wondered a little that Yaguchi could inherit his knowledge of the game from his mother? While thinking on that, his opponent poked him that he was coming in the second round.

It took an hour and a half to get all the data into the computer. Makoto fell on one of the chairs as if he'd run two kilometers. „I don't know how my sister and her boyfriend can do this for hours?" She grumbled while Namie sat beside him. „Darling! You don't know anything about gamers adapting skills, do you?" Daniel asked cynically. „If you ever call me that again, I'll kick your liver right off!" „ Enough fighting! I don't care if the honeymoon's over. For now, think about the reality of the prices." Said Namie silently, which stops the fighting beetwen Daniel and Makoto. „ I'm more suspicious of the golden cartridge, than the others. As I recall, these games are made in America. Correct me if I am wrong, but what is a cartridge of a similar color is The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link." „Oh, yeah! How could I forget that? I even played with it." „Because you're old and you didn't take the Cavington." said Makoto, cynically, but Daniel did not respond to that. He was beginning to suspect they were dealing with a con man. „Ladies and gentlemen! Be kind enough to go here and see who will be the four people, who will face off for the winning prizes!" George's voice come out loud to the speakers. All three went to the stage with a sigh. Daniel didn't listen to what the guy was talking about.He was just looking at the digital scoreboard. He didn't make it to best four, but Makoto and Namie did. But at this point, he didn't care. He thinks about the Tournament. He was thinking about George and how he knew him. Did his father tell you about it? And come to think of it, these cartridges seem of. Just like the American copycat NES... „Oh, shit." Daniel groans. Daniel already remembered this George guy. He was a con man who made money by stealing others. He's had enough and it's time for him to make his move. If he's robbing the bourgeois vermin, Daniel wouldn't care, but this is honest players who've been hard-trained and paid the entrance fee. All he had to do was think about Makoto and Namie. He went straight to the audio desk and took out the spare microphone. He turned it on and jumped up on the stage with a cool move. „I've had enough of this charade, George Hoffman. or should I call you by your other aliases?"

At this point, george's face was shocked for 30 seconds, but quickly turned into a poker face. „Wait a minute, wait a minute! You're out and you've got the nerve to accuse me? Who are you? It doesn't matter, though. Security! Get him out of here." He cried out in command. „My name is Sir Daniel Michael Fortesque, if you wanna know that badly." That's when the ice-truck feelong ran through George. With his hand, he told the guards to stop. „ Well, if it isn't young Fortesque. I didn't know you liked to play. Is that the only reason you're here?" He said, forcing peace upon himself. „None of your busniess, slime ball. I'm more interested in whether the cartrids are real or not. It took some time to fall, but i know it! Everything in the case is a fake!" The crowd looked confused at the two on stage. Daniel saw that he needed to express his opinion now. „ The location of the numbers and switches on the gray cartridges is not correct! I saw photos of the real ones, and they don't quite match what I saw here!" „ It means nothing. Since there are more than ninety pieces that are out there. reply George, but he knew, this is not over. „ You're correct. More specifically, there are 92 pieces released by Nintendo under Official conditions. However, the Golden cartridge is definitely the sequel of The Legend of Zelda." „How do you know that? I bought this at auction for $ 100,000." „Then I'll bet half million dollars, if I can get the Golden NWC tape and put on the NES here. If I'm right, The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link tittle show up! If that happens, you'll give everyone back their entry fee and apologize to them. If you cancel, you're already labeled a liar. „This... is..." „Outrageus?" Asked Daniel in a sarcastic tone, then countinued. „What part is piss you off? I'm right or you don't know anything about video games? You want to rob the people who prepared you honorably, they paid the high entry fee in hope that in exchange for their excellent performance they could get their hands on a video game relic. Instead, they only get a stash, which at best is worth 10 yen?" After the crowd hear Daniel's sentence he was constantly chanted to George accept Daniel's offer.Even if doubt was not the cause, curiosity overcame them. No one saw what was on the gold cartridge.

George gave in to the urge and opened the showcase with the key. Daniel took out the gold cartridge without question and hurried to the nearest NES. He grabbed the NWC copy cassette and put it on the floor. Then, he put the gold one in and turned it on after half a second of hesitation. As he looked at the projector, all his suspicions were confirmed. The display also showed the tittle screen of the games, that mentioned so many times: The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. The the crowd was outraged and took daniel's side. „ Ladies and Gentlemens. We could see that this lice wanted to trick you and had fun with your money, naivety, and your times as well. If there was honor in this liar, asshole for once in a lifetime, he would return the money. But for sure, right now, at this moment, someone will surely decide to report it to Nintendo. If no one else want to do thos, I will do it!" George was completely destroyed. He knew that company would sue his ass for forging their names. „Please, don't do this! I'm sorry. I'll do anything..." Daniel approached George with confidence. „Realy? Then you will now give back everyone for their entry fee and an additional 20,000 yen as compensation. By the way, shove this shitty clone cartridges up your ass! It fits there, along with your credibility." Daniel went back to the sound desk and looked back at George there. It's time to give him the last warning. „One more thing. If I see you lurking around here again, I will use real action instead of threats."

It's a fact that George Hoffman was trying to cheat people out of money, but thanks to Daniel, for once, he played fair. He gave everyone their entry fees back and the compensation too. By the time they all got to it their money, it was late in the afternoon. The Limo picked up Namie, Makoto and Daniel half an hour after the end. They didn't feel like winners at the moment, but at least they weren't robbed.