To Michelle, January 20, 1989, would be forever remembered as the day of the strangest request she'd ever made. That morning, she called all her friends who she thought might be able to help, and they agreed to stop by her apartment later that day.

They arrived one by one, filing into the cramped living room, where Michelle had set up a few bowls of chips on a coffee table. Some people stopped to look at the room's most notable feature: a TurboTime arcade cabinet standing in the back corner. It no longer functioned, and Michelle seemed well aware of this; over the screen, she'd taped a piece of notebook paper with the message "For show. Do not play." But strangely enough, the machine was still plugged in.

Once they were all gathered, Michelle decided it was time to stand between that machine and the television and get everyone's attention. "Um, excuse me?" she said, causing the murmur to die down a little.

But not enough, so she tried again. "Hello? Guys?"

Her close friend Laura, who had seen that she was trying to say something, shouted "SHUT UP!" That wiped out the conversation completely.

"Thanks," Michelle said before addressing the crowd. "So…"

One of the less patient members of the group asked, "Well? What is it?"

Michelle hesitated, trying to find the right way to put this. "I'm glad you all could make it on such short notice, and on Super Bowl weekend, too. Anyway, I have a favor to ask you all."

"We know! What's the favor?" the same impatient person asked.

"See, that's the thing," Michelle replied. "It's kind of hard to explain, or hard to explain in a way you'll believe. So if you're not in the mood for long stories, you should probably head out."

Surprisingly, no one left, not even that voice from the back of the crowd.

"Alright, if they say so," the hostess whispered. Then, louder, she continued talking to her audience. "You've seen my TurboTime cabinet, right?" She gestured toward the gaming device on her left, in case there was anyone in the room who hadn't noticed it.

And, apparently, everyone had at some point, because they all nodded.

"Well, people ask me about it all the time. Like, 'Why did you even buy that thing if it doesn't work?' And I've always told people that, first of all, the arcade was gonna get rid of it anyway, and second, arcade cabinets in your living room look really cool. Both of those things are true, but I've been…leaving out something. A pretty big thing, actually." She had her guests' full attention now. It wasn't every day someone revealed a secret about a video game.

Michelle continued, more confident now. "And, yeah, I could give you the short version, but I think these little guys' story deserves proper treatment."

The guests glanced at each other, as if someone in the room had any idea what that meant. "Little guys"? Who on EARTH could she be talking about?

"Oh, one more thing. If you can't keep a secret, you should DEFINITELY head out."