January was usually a busy month at Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware. It wasn't until late in the month that the malls died. One exception to that trend was January 14 1996, at least it was in Milwaukee. We were used to having extremely slow business on Sundays during football season. The entire state of Wisconsin shuts down when the Packers play, anyone who's lived there can affirm that. On January 14th the Packers played the Cowboys for the NFC championship. The game wasn't until 3:30 but it didn't matter. The mall was empty by 2:00, no hyperbole here, truly empty except for employees. Thankfully Bayshore Mall was only open until 5:00 on Sundays. Those three hours were the among the most dull of my entire life. Glad I wasn't there for the Super Bowl in 1997 (for a number of reasons).

The Packers lost the NFC championship game to the Cowboys that year. A deep depression set over the entire city. The rest of the week we saw few customers. Those we did see were deeply depressed and not up for spending money on games. Look, I love football but it has zero emotional impact on me once the game is over. Again, if you don't believe this story, ask anyone who lived in Wisconsin at the time.

Needless to say, Troy Aikman Football was not a big seller at this location.

Approaching its eighth birthday, the Sega Genesis was a gaming geezer. Third party production of the hardware would continue well into the late 90s, at the time of this writing it's still being made in Brazil. However, for the most-part the system would see it's retail demise in 1996. Sega licensees largely abandoned the system in 1995, the few new titles were mainly '96 updates to sports franchises. I searched and searched for any Genesis game released after 1995 but couldn't find one. The closest I could find was Spiderman: Web of Fire for the 32X but I never remember seeing it on the shelf. I do remember Space Harrier for the 32X showing up around this time though, it seemed like something that should have been a launch title. The 32X and Sega CD selections vanished from existence before the Genesis. A lot of people owned a Genesis and were still prone to pick-up a $20 game from time to time. At our store Ms. Pac Man, then several years old, always sold several copies a week. The flood of emulated arcade classics hadn't appeared for the PlayStation just yet so gamers looking for a retro fix resorted to this arcade approximation. Heck, Ms Pac Man is one of the few games my wife likes so I'm sure the "buying something I can play with my girlfriend" factor was a big part of it too.

Nintendo, like Sega, focused their creative efforts on their latest system. In early 1996 there was a mad dash to get the Nintendo 64 (which a lot of people still called the "Ultra 64") ready for launch. New titles for the Super Nintendo also came to a screeching halt, the last release I recall being Super Mario RPG. The Super Nintendo, thanks in part to a then solid relationship with Square, was the dominant console for RPGs. For a soon-to-be-dead system the Super Mario RPG launch was treated like a major affair. We received a lot of signage and promotional t-shirts, there was a good deal of interest in it. The original price was in the $60-$70 range so it wasn't a huge seller but was still the top selling 16-bit game at the time. Super Mario World 2, with a similar high price tag, also sold well in the system's final days. The customers buying these games weren't hold-outs to the 32-bit era. Many, especially the Super Mario RPG buyers, had a PlayStation but still wanted these franchise games.

Some people see a movie that changes their life. Usually it's something like Schindler's List but for me it was Clerks. I rented it from the Blockbuster in the mall because I thought it was a comedy about working with the public. The couple of ads I saw made it appear that way at least. Yeah, the movie is very humorous but contains a weighty message about life.

I'll try to do this without spoiling the plot for those who haven't seen it.. the lead character is a twenty-nothing named Dante. He dropped out of college long ago and works at a convenience store. He labors under the illusion that his life is going great, that his job is important. By the end of the film Dante has a major epiphany where he finally comprehends exactly how pathetic his life is. This was like looking in a mirror for me. I realized that I was about 2-3 years away from turning into Dante and it was frightening. I knew I had to make some immediate changes and started planning what I needed to do.

If I was going to stop being a loser the first thing I had to do was go back to college. Not junior college but real college. It was a tad tricky. During the admission process I didn't mention going to junior college since my grades were awful. Instead I gave a story about working for a few years after high school to save money (even though I was close to penniless). My old ACT score was good enough to sneak into an average college. At 21, I was easily the oldest freshman on campus but it didn't matter to me one bit. I knew that I had to finally take things seriously and keep moving in a positive direction.

It goes without saying that I quit Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware. I didn't blame them for the situation I was in, I made all my own decisions. To move on in life I had to start fresh, symbolically at least. I still worked a crappy retail job (night manager at a crappy bookstore) to get by. It was one of these places that was open until 10:00 PM so I could balance it with class time easily.