My family had an NES when I was growing up and my dad liked it too. Weβd go to thrift stores and grab random cartridges some weekends. One of the games was called Lolo and it was like 99 floors. You were a little blue guy, Lolo. Utterly harmless and trying to navigate the many traps and trials of the tower.
As a family weβd been working through the levels, slowly ascending the tower together and every so often the game would give a code to skip to an upper floor and lock in our progress.
One day it was just my dad and I at home. I was in trouble for some childish misdeed and supposed to be staying in my room, but my dad was playing Lolo so I snuck out of my room to watch. I moved soundlessly over the squeaky wooden hallway and posted to behind the couch where I could still see the TV. Weβd been stuck on a specific floor and we knew it was the one that would drop a code so we could skip back to this level. He was at it for a while.
I watched him do a risky maneuver, thinking to myself that it was a pretty ballsy strategy as he only had one life left.
But to our mutual surprise it worked; he succeeded in clearing the floor. In his euphoria he jumped up and whooped, running to my room, so full of joy he needed to share the moment with me. I froze and watched him run down the hall. He looked into my room then looked around in puzzlement, finally spotting me behind the couch.
We stared at each other. I waited to see if I was in more trouble but instead he exclaimed, βYou saw me! I did it!β
I jumped up to celebrate with him and we recommenced playing together, excited to see the new level heβd revealed. My earlier misdeed and the sin of sneaking away from the first punishment were both washed away in jubilation. He was just too happy heβd been witnessed.
