Author's Note: This is something I did mainly for fun (An inspiration of some episodes I watched on a videogame show called "Icons"). Some of you might be confused with my descriptions (Which I'm having a problem trying to clear up, but it's getting better nontheless). I just thought it would be fun to try and take a bit of videogame history and turn it into a story from a different perspective (Which some of you might not be happy with once you start reading it, but you'll see why in my OOC...if you even get to it).

1 – Adjusting to New Environments

We gamers have heard it before: in magazines, TV, and the Internet; all calling this form of digital entertainment "the gaming world'. But what if there really was such a world? A world where video game characters lived a like, whether they where heroes or villains, living creatures or inanimate objects that move according to commands from a controller. If such a world existed, would it exist like the real world, only more adventurous?

Maybe the world we talk about does exist, just not in the same galaxy we live in. We may not have seen it, or even believe it exists, but if it did, there would be one question on our minds, how would the gaming world function if it had the same environment as us? The gaming world depends on popularity of our world in order to survive. If people were to stop playing video games and soon forgot what made them so popular, it would take a toll on the world that was created by how many have loved the challenge of picking up a controller and playing a video game.

The Videogame World had existed long after the rise of computer technology. Like the earth itself, the world changed according to evolution. First, Pong paddles and balls roamed the world, then space ships flew around it, blasting aliens and asteroids that try to destroy the world.

A gigantic Island soon formed on the blue world that the space ships were fighting to protect. After many years passed, the giant Island began to split into two, one in the form of an arcade machine, another in the form of an Apple II computer. Since videogame characters could remember, these were their homes, called "Arcade Island" and "Computer Island". The videogame characters that now existed on the Islands lived like we do on modern day earth. Races are determined by the companies they were made from and, as the arcade grew in America, more heroes and villains began to form around Arcade Island. It was overwhelming at first, but everyone soon adapted to the growing population.

Computer Island, on the other hand, remained non-existent to those of Arcade Island. Once the Islands split, it soon disappeared from existence, never to be seen for many years. Taking the Island's place is that of an Atari2600 joystick-like Island, called "Console Island".

Co-Existing with Console Island allowed them to gain access to Arcade Island's gaming resources and worked to turn it into a immigrant Island much like that of the U.S. No one knew the problems that existed on Console Island that only the inhabitants there would adjust to with little to no reason for protest...

- - -

"Run for your lives! It's coming!" cried a voice. The ground began to shake as heroes and villains stopped what they were doing and looked around to see the sky turn pitch black. A cloud of darkness hit the ground around them, turning it into baron wasteland. The cloud began to grow, expanding the size of the baron wasteland. Heroes and villains were hit with the cloud and vanished as the island became more and more lifeless. The oceans surrounding it created deadly tidal waves that swept heroes and villains out to sea where they soon disappeared. The scene of destruction continued to get worse until everything went black.

Mario's eyes shot open as he gasped and shot up in his bed, breathing heavily. It was the fifth time this week he had been having the same nightmare. His brother, Luigi, shuddered on the superstition of reoccurring nightmares being a sign of something bad coming in the near future, but Mario didn't believe in crazy stuff like that. But as the nightmares continued to haunt him every night, he began to wonder if disaster will strike in the near future.

Mario decided to get up and walk around the neighborhood for a while. When he slipped out of his top bunk, he noticed the bottom was vacant. Luigi may have gone off into the kitchen to check for food in the fridge. Being a bit of a better cook than Mario, Luigi has a habit of making sure there were enough ingredients in the fridge to make a decent meal. He then looked at the dresser drawer beside his bunk. Inside one of the drawers is a special item he planned to give to the love of his life, Pauline.

For the past year since he could remember, Mario had been going out of his way to reach Donkey Kong and the girl that was meant to be his girlfriend. At first, it was all part of a daily routine thanks to the people who wanted to play their game. But as more players began to pile into the arcades on earth, a real relationship began to grow between the "unlikely" hero and the damsel in distress. Mario had sworn he'd propose to Pauline when he got the chance. He had gathered enough coins from his rampage through the sewers with Luigi to buy the most valuable ring on the market. Now it was left to when Donkey Kong wasn't busy trying to kidnap Pauline to get down on one knee, show the ring and pop the question.

Before Mario had a chance to head for the kitchen to join his brother for a less-than-decent breakfast, there was a knock on the door of their house. The red and blue plumber walked to the door and opened it to see Pauline on his welcome mat with a rolled up newspaper under her arm.

"Mario, did you see the news?" she asked, practically excited, "You remember when the Console Island appeared half a year ago? We're being invited to that Island to check out the games that had been transferred from the arcade to every home console outside our world!"

"Wow! That's wonderful!" Mario said, almost bouncing with joy, "We'll be able to raise more popularity with the gamers at home!"

Donkey Kong lands behind Pauline, his impact on the porch almost knocking Mario to the floor, Donkey Kong Jr. sitting on his shoulder.

"Hey! How's it going, my annoying rival?" he grunts, "Heard the news from my cozy little tree house in the jungle! And...!" he adds by throwing his arms around both Mario and Pauline and pulling them towards his chest, "In celebration of our success outside the gaming world, I'm treating you both to an all out, catch-'em-as-they-come party at the Fast Food joint once we get to Console Island!" he jiggles Mario's shoulder, "Just make sure you don't catch the purple pickles by mistake. I heard eating five of them is VERY unhealthy!"

"Well..." Mario was about to answer, but then noticed Luigi almost hiding in the shadows of the kitchen before disappearing behind it with a depressed look on his face. Pauline noticed too and turned to Donkey Kong, trying to smile.

"Actually," she said, "I'm not a very big fan of junk food. And Mario has been pondering about going on a low calorie diet. So...why don't you and DK Jr. go ahead without us. When we're up to it, we'll join you." Donkey Kong seemed confused, but then shrugged.

"You're loss," he released Mario and Pauline, then looks at DK Jr., talking in a sensei-like accent, "Come, my son. It is time I teach you the fine arts of swallowing 15 flying hamburgers in one sitting." DK Jr. grunts and claps his hands as the two walked away. Mario and Pauline watched them go before heading for the kitchen, seeing Luigi sitting at the table, resting his head on his hands.

"Luigi, are you feeling okay?" Pauline asked. Luigi just looked at her, then the checker patterned cloth covering the table.

"Oh...no worries," he said, then mumbled, "Just ignore the second player soon to be forgotten..."

"Hey, don't say stuff like that!" Mario said.

"You know it's true! You had two sequels (Even if the second game had you being the villain)! I'm just some meaningless clone who pops up and pushes you around for points!"

"Oh, Luigi," Pauline said, walking closer to the green plumber and placing a hand on his shoulder, "Don't obsess over this. Before you were born, I always thought that I was just some pawn for Mario to have a reason to pursue Donkey Kong. But when I saw him for the first time, I began to think differently."

Mario walked to the other side of Luigi and placed a hand on his other shoulder, "Yeah. Just think, bro. If you and Pauline become just as popular as me, Donkey Kong and all the other arcade characters on earth, you might get your own arcade game where you get to do something heroic." Luigi looked at Mario.

"How can you be sure how many people have actually pumped in quarters and hit the second button to play me?"

"Cheer up, Luigi. You'll get your chance. Who knows, you might just become more popular than me."

"You...You think so?"

"Trust me. Have I ever let you down before?" Luigi tried to smile and eyes the checkered tablecloth again.

- - -

A plane flew over the ocean later that day. Mario looked out the window the minute the sandy shores of an Island came into view.

"Whoa, is that Console Island?" he asked in awe. Pauline looked out the window next the one Mario was looking out of, seeing more of the Island pouring into its transparent view.

"Wow, it's just as big as Arcade Island," she said in awe, "I can't wait to see what's kind of people populate this place!" she then looked at Mario, "It's too bad Luigi didn't want to come with us."

"I know," Mario looked at Pauline, "I tried persuading him last night, but he insisted that he stay behind and keep an eye on the house. He probably thinks we wouldn't like our new home and return to Arcade Island." He put his hand on the back of Pauline's shoulder, "Don't worry. He has enough money to book a plane to this Island once we settle in and he feels ready to come live with us."

"It's just that...I feel so bad for him missing out on the fun of being on an Island that controls home console games."

"I'm pretty sure Console Island is just as enjoyable as Arcade Island. A little less crowded, but still just as exciting. Luigi wouldn't miss much when he moves here."

Once the plane landed in the state of Atari2600, Mario and Pauline quickly left the station. The city they entered was full of towers with stick-figured sprites popping from window to window, some turning into arrows and flags, and random numbers that changed every minute. Billboard monitors presented rock bands and other shows in the form of 4-bit pixels. The sky was mostly black with multi-colored, pixilated and flashing asteroids flying overhead and triangular spaceships flying around and blasting them into smaller asteroids as well as violet red aliens moving around with different spaceships moving back and forth while shooting the aliens closing in on their defense shields.

"Yep, just like home," Mario said. As if on cue, a pixilated chunk of rock from one of the asteroids hits the ground in front of him, almost causing him to jump back, startled.

"Hmm..." Pauline muttered in worry, "I don't know. I've never seen any asteroid debris fall on the streets of Arcade Island before. Do you think the government of this Island has enough finances to build a forcefield that protects us from random invasions?"

"It's a wonder anyone still lives here with this much destruction going around. Let alone keep the city the way it is for this long."

"Well...let's keep looking," Pauline said, looking around, "I'm sure there are some things around here that make people want to move here, besides the fact that there's more room to move around."

The couple passed by some windows with TV monitors covering the view of inside of the appliance store. A camera stood in the middle of the wall of TVs, catching the view of anyone who walks past it and presenting it on the monitors in the form of 4-bit sprites. Mario stops and looks at one of the screens, seeing his 4-bit reflection looking right back at him. Pauline soon stops and look at herself on the TV screen.

"Hmm... The cameras in this city aren't like the ones back on Arcade Island," Mario mumbled.

"Well, I heard that this Island is still in development, so I'm sure everything would look better in time," Pauline said, "In the meantime, let's look around and see where we can find the building where our games are being developed."

"I demand to see the pixel responsible for this mess!" screamed a voice. Both Mario and Pauline looked at each other, then around the somewhat crowded city.

"That sounded like Pac-Man," Mario said. The couple then looked behind them to see Pac-Man being held back by Donkey Kong with Ms. Pac-Man standing behind him, shaking her head with her hands on her mouth as a pink, pixilated pig laid on the ground in a fetal position, shaking like a leaf. The two ran across the street in time to see Pac-Man break free from Donkey Kong's mighty grip and walk over to the trembling pig.

"You better tell me where that joke of a designer is before I...!" Pac-Man attempted to raise his red-gloved fist when Mario got in front of him and pushed him back some more. The pig quickly got up and zoomed off, squealing in a mix of long sounding beeps.

"Whoa, whoa!" Mario wailed, "Why so red, yellow guy? You're acting like that pig embarrassed you in front of the entire city."

"I don't think he's the only one who feels embarrassed," Pauline said. Mario and Donkey Kong turned to see her run up to them with three boxes, "I just went to the video game store beside us..." she hands two of the games to Mario and Donkey Kong, "You're not going to like what Atari did to our games."

Mario looked at the box, seeing what could have been Pac-Man's arcade sprite, only severely deformed with dashes and squares surrounding a blue background.

"This can't be the home console version of one of the most played arcade games in America!" he nearly wailed.

"Forget that," Donkey Kong cried, "this game is completely whacked! I bet the controls on this game are worse than those movie games I've been playing a week ago! It's like Atari was making these games just to get publicity."

"It's not just Atari," Pauline said, looking at the game in her hand, "It's like every company that comes into the game industry with little to no knowledge of creating games are going after popular titles and turning them into console games, expecting people to buy them."

"I don't wanna get famous off a crappy game that has our name on it!" Donkey Kong complained, throwing his arms around like a typical, wild ape.

"Aren't there any games on this Island that doesn't suck on all levels?" Mario asked.

"Well..." Pauline said, reaching behind her, "I did happen to come across some games from the import section of the video game store." She brings three more games out and handed two of them to Mario and Donkey Kong, "The owner said they came from ColecoVision Isle. He said the games from this state try to make the console games as close to the arcades as their memory space can carry them. And Intelevision Isle has games with better graphics than what Atari has made in the past. I'm pretty sure one of these two would have a better environment for us than where we are right now."

Another asteroid chunk hit the ground near Donkey Kong, causing him to jump.

"Oh..." Donkey Kong groaned, eyeing the floor, "But I don't feel comfortable moving here! What if those isles follow in Atari's footsteps?"

"But Arcade Island is getting too crowded," Mario said, "It's hard enough trying to find a job with this many people flooding around it. Luigi's lucky to still hold onto his job as an actual plumber, despite the lack of phone calls we've been getting nowadays. It's time we move somewhere with a little more room. Hey, I know." He looked at Donkey Kong, "Since Console Island has more space that Arcade Island, we can build our own isle."

"Our own isle?" Pauline asked, "Are you sure we can do that?"

"Sure. Gather enough money, find some uninhabited land and in little to no time at all, we'll have an isle that only allows good games to thrive like normal people."

"You think this isle will have enough money to protect us from falling asteroids and alien carcasses?" Donkey Kong asked.

"Of course. Our isle is going to be so much of a hit we'll have more money than we know what to do with. Who knows? Maybe the other Isles will have enough inspiration to do something about their environment."

"But to build an isle as big as Atari would involve a lot of money," Pauline said, "And we barely had enough to invest in a house. We'll have to get three paying jobs to be as rich as a king!"

"Don't worry, Pauline. A little saving up on the coins we have and soon we'll be the answer to all of this Islands problems."

- - -

Settling into Console Island wasn't as simple as they had expected. With the lack of force fields protecting Atari's cities from being blown to the ground by random invasions, Mario, Pauline and Donkey Kong were having problems feeling safe in their new houses.

To make matters worse, more cities began to populate Console Island with nothing but terrible games plaguing the environment and increasing chances of destruction upon the isles. The Island was soon becoming just as crowded as Arcade Island. People began to go on strike, demanding that the bad games be taken care of before something terrible happens.

"Crowded again," Donkey Kong grunts, slamming the newspaper on the table and almost breaking it in half, "I'm surprised we have enough food to last us months with the money we have left over!" DK Jr. ran around the kitchen, chasing a plastic barrel the size of a bouncing ball.

"It's not that hard," Mario said, stirring the meat sauce into a pot full of pasta, "We're at least getting enough to run down to the store every week to buy mid-day snacks."

"That's easy for you to say. You're a plumber! A simple phone call will have you coming back here with a bag of coins!"

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Mario said taking a spoon full of sauce and sticking it in his mouth for a taste test, "I haven't gotten any phone calls concerning busted pipes for three weeks." He picks up a saltshaker and sprinkles a couple of dots into the pot, "Maybe it's time to renew my ad for plumbing service."

"What'll we do now?" Donkey Kong complained, "I don't want my son becoming the next victim of a wild asteroid chunk! Hasn't Atari issued that forcefield yet?"

"I know," Mario placed the salt shaker on the counter, reached into his overalls and took out the black box, opening it to reveal the proposal ring inside, "I was hoping to propose to Pauline when I have enough coins to afford a wedding ceremony."

"Whoa, you had that thing for so long?" Donkey Kong asked, "Why didn't you show it to her before we went broke?"

"If you had stopped dropping in on us for your usual routine of kidnapping Pauline and making me jump your barrels, I might have," Mario said with a stern look. Donkey Kong almost sunk behind the table.

"Oh yea...my bad..."

Suddenly, the doors flew open. Mario quickly shut the box, dropped it back in his overalls and turned to see Pauline standing behind the doorframe, almost out of breath.

"Pac-Man just organized a private meeting in the caves outside the city," she gasped, "I think he's the mastermind behind these protests."

"What?" Mario said, almost dropping his wooden spoon, "that's insane! He'll get kicked off the Island."

"What should we do?" Donkey Kong asked.

"Let's go see what's going and see if we can't calm him down before things get worse."

- - -

A crowd of arcade immigrants flooded the cave outside the city limits, cursing and screaming at the Island's lack of knowledge over the bad games that were flooding the city. Mario, Pauline and Donkey Kong were in the front of the crowd, looking at the fists going up and down around them, seeming a bit unsure of whether they should join the bandwagon or keep their traps shut.

After a while, Pac-Man made his way to the podium in the center of the makeshift stage hanging three feet in the air.

"People of Arcade Island!" He said through a microphone loud enough to fill the cave, "We have gathered here today to discuss issues of the bad games polluting the city we were meant to call home." He threw his hands on the podium and moved closer to the mic, "This Island is starting to show its similarities to Arcade Island, one of the many reasons we have immigrated to this Island. But it isn't being flooded with games that would keep people from leaving the arcades late at night. The person in charge of Atari is making a joke out of the games our developers have worked so hard to make a smash hit by letting these poor excuses for home console games live in our homes and steal our jobs!" he began hitting the podium, "We will not stand for this! It is time that we Arcade characters march to the palace of Atari and demand they do something about this catastrophe before we are driven out of our jobs by these lousy pieces of filth!"

Mario, Pauline and Donkey Kong eyed each other in worry.

- - -

Back at home late in the evening, everyone sat around the table, eating their dinner in silence. Donkey Kong, who would usually swallow his banana bunches without even chewing them, just sat in his chair, rubbing the tip of an already peeled banana along the top of his lips. DK Jr., being the usual, clueless, but fun-loving son of his father, dropped the banana peels on the floor before stepping on them, causing him to slip and fall on his back.

"We have to do something," Donkey Kong muttered, getting the others' attention.

"Donkey Kong, we swore we wouldn't talk about this," Pauline said. Donkey Kong threw his fists in the air and slammed them on the table, breaking it in half. Luckily, she and Mario grabbed their plates before the halved furniture caved into a heap of wood and tablecloths.

"Talk nothing!" he roared, "We've been sitting around here for months with no jobs and barely any money to keep us from going hungry and the rooms lit up during the night!"

"Give it time," Mario said, "I know this Island is starting to become overcrowded with bad games, but that doesn't mean we should go parading around the city, forcing Atari to do something and risk getting our butts kicked off the Island."

"We've given them time to fix this problem! We've given them time to make this Island as comfortable as Arcade Island! Enough time to muster up enough money to build a flipping forcefield and they're still sitting around like they don't give a hoot what happens to those who live here!" he jumped onto his chair, "Well I'm not going to stand around and expect some miracle to show up and kick Atari in the brain until they get their act together and clear up the garbage walking around our streets and taking our jobs with nothing on their minds but what they do in the games!" with that, he leaps off his chair, scoops up DK Jr. in his arms and heads for the door.

"Don't do this, Donkey Kong!" Pauline cried, "I'm sure there are other ways we can fix this problem without giving the people of this Island an excuse to deport us back to Arcade Island!" Donkey Kong stops and lowers his head, shaking it.

"Arcade Island," he muttered, then snorts, "Luigi must be the luckiest member of your family to want to stay behind. At least there, we weren't weeks away from declaring bankruptcy. Plus, any invasions outside our planet were easily avoidable by the shield surrounding it. I miss the fun of the people who flood the arcades to see us battle for control our own goals."

"Yeah..." Pauline mumbled, looking at the plate sitting in her lap, "Maybe...maybe we're just not ready to live the life of a home console environment." She looked at Donkey Kong, "We still have enough money to book a trip back to Arcade Island. If we start packing after dinner, we might be able to catch a plane back home early the next morning."

"What's the use? We're just going to return home to the same Island that will just as quickly strip us of our jobs and bring us closer to being out in the streets, begging for spare change. It's like, no matter where we go, we'll just end up running into the same problem. If the earth is as less crowded as this place, I would have conjured up a portal to that world and make a living in the jungles, eating fruits like a real gorilla without someone coming along and locking me in a cage, forcing my son to come and rescue me while trying to avoid alligators with climbing capabilities." Donkey Kong shook his head again and slammed his foot on the ground, "No! Someone has to put a stop to this! I will not have my son growing up to accept the popularity of our games made by retards who couldn't draw a stick figure to use in a game that's so easy to play, a child with crippling arthritis could pick up a controller and beat in five seconds!"

"But Donkey Kong...!" Pauline attempted to get up and run to the giant ape, but by the time she picked up her plate, he was out the door. She sighed and sat back down, scratching the top of her pasta with her fork. "Is this really what we've been reduced to? Crowded cities, lost jobs and now the pollution of bad games? Would fighting Atari's lack of commitment really help reduce the problems that are keeping us from having our house torn down for money?"

"Don't even go there!" Mario nearly wailed, "We'll find a way to make things better. We don't need to join a strike in order to clear up the problems that are giving us more of a reason to run and hide. We just need to find something that will help keep this state from turning into the slums of a bad city." He looked at the plate now sitting in his lap, "Maybe I should give Luigi a call. He should have some money to help keep us going until I can re-submit my ad for plumbing service."

"You're probably right. We'll give him a call tomorrow. I'm pretty sure he's exhausted since he had to go solo with the plumbing." Pauline began twirling a small ball of spaghetti onto her fork, "It just feels like ever since you two aren't working together for a while your business is slowly growing stale."

"I guess I was so use to working with Luigi, I didn't know what it was like wearing yourself out after a day's work." Mario began playing with the last meatball on his pasta, "I just hope he's doing a better job than we are..."

OOC: Just to let some of you Atari fans know, I'm not really trying to bash the company. I own a ColecoVision with an Atari2600 attachment, and I had some games that were fun to play (Aside from Indiana Jones and MASH, one had bad controls the other didn't have any buttons for me to use the flippin' whip, so I gave up on that game). I also had a CD that had all Atari2600 games (Including the ill-fated E.T. game that I did try, but couldn't figure out why I was falling into holes and stuff), but now it's missing. So yes, I do know what Atari's been doing in the past (Through some episodes of G4TechTV's Icon episodes and my dad who knew more about "the crash" than what I heard so far), so I have a somewhat good excuse to badger Atari's bad reputation in the past.

Next Chapter: As our world begins to slowly lose interest in the Gaming World, controversy between Arcade Immigrants and the inhabitants of Console Island began to increase. Fed up with the lack of commitment from Atari2600, Pac-Man and his bandwagon of angry characters battled for the right to get the mayors of Atari to wise up and give their citizens the respect they deserve. Meanwhile, a forgotten Island overhears the controversy and plots to put an end to the Gaming World once and for all. Is this really going to be the end of video games as we know it? Or will everyone realize their mistakes and clean up their act before the worst comes?