The Nerd is in the mood to watch some nostalgic memories from his childhood. Thus, he decided to put in a VHS tape labeled "SNES-CD Unboxing and Secret of Mana". The tape starts playing, and the Nerd remembers that cold Christmas morning like it was yesterday.
His parents were filming that Christmas morning. The Nerd sees in the video his childhood home in suburban New Jersey, which he moved out of in the late 1990s. A wave of nostalgia crashed over the nerd as he sees the Nintendo Power posters that adorn the walls of Past Nerd's bedroom, and the toy Yoshi on his bookshelf.
The start of the tape depicts a 13-year-old Angry Video Game Nerd waking up thinking about what could be in that huge box by the Christmas tree. The snow outside continued falling at a brisk pace. "Last night I dreamt I played Secret of Mana with my friends James and April. The three of us were exploring a vast world, and hearing a full orchestra on my SNES." Past Nerd is wearing a set of Mario pajamas, and is greeted by Golbez, a black cat he named after a major character from Final Fantasy IV. Golbez meowed at the Nerd, who couldn't contain his excitement. "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal!" the Past Nerd told the cat. The run through the house is done in one continuous take, panning through the house and following the Nerd until the camera stopped at a Christmas tree decorated with ornaments.
"YYYYEEEESSSSS!" The Nerd shouted as he realized what's in the box. The nerd smiled as he recalled the issues of Nintendo Power talking about the collaboration between Nintendo and Sony known as the SNES-CD, which came out in the Spring of 1993. The Nerd picked one of the CD-sized presents, and opens it to find Secret of Mana. Of his three best friends, Mike had the Sega Genesis, while James and April had the cartridge SNES. Past Nerd foresaw several days of inviting his friends over to play this new epic adventure. The Nerd is already a huge fan of Square, and the 13-year-old Nerd looked like he couldn't wait to see how their first SNES-CD title looked and sounded.
"This game is gonna be fucking awesome!" Past Nerd says. A present shaped like a boxed Game Boy game is picked next. The Nerd smiled as he opened it to find The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. A Link to the Past is one of the coolest games of all time, and he took a brief glimpse at the game's manual, which explained the controls of the game.
A magazine-sized present is opened, and it's the newest issue of Nintendo Power. On the cover is artwork of the Simpsons family that looked right out of the animated show. The Nerd decides to look in the Game Watch section, and sees an ad for the next entry in the Final Fantasy franchise. Titled Final Fantasy VI, this game going to be so big it completely fills a 24 megabit/3 megabyte cartridge. This epic adventure will come out in October 1994. The article explains that Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III for cartridge SNES are actually Final Fantasy IV and V. "What the hell happened to II and III?" the Nerd asked, to no avail. Past Nerd will be busy playing games for a while.
Another SNES-CD jewel case is opened, and the game inside is Jurassic Park. The familiar logo that appears on the movie's poster is on the game's case. The Nerd hopes it's as awesome as the movie, but it looked unlikely.
The Nerd saves the biggest box for last. The Past Fuckin' Nerd let out a huge grin. "It's mine! The fucking coolest thing ever!" The box opened, and it's the Super Nintendo CD add-on. Also included in the box is the Hyper-Active Nintendo Data-Transfer System, which is an SNES cartridge that transfers data from the SNES hardware to the CD add-on, and has to be inserted to the cartridge slot when the CD add-on is in use. Included as a pack-in game is Super Mario World 2, the then-newest adventure for the greatest plumber of all time. Past Nerd decides the first game he plays of these new Christmas gifts is Link's Awakening for the Game Boy.
"Let's pop this fucker in!" The Nerd exclaimed, being greeted by the Game Boy's familiar four shades of green. The audio from the opening cutscene is heard as the camera pans over to the Game Boy, the screen showing lightning strike Link's ship.
The video abruptly jumps to gameplay footage of Secret of Mana, one of the best role-playing games of all time, and one that showed the full potential of the SNES-CD for epic storytelling. The gameplay footage is intercut with footage of Nerd, James and April playing the game. James is a brunette who doesn't wear glasses, while April is a blonde girl that James had a crush on.
The 2008 era Nerd pauses the tape at this moment. "It's really a miracle that I can play a game I got for Christmas 15 years ago on the newest Nintendo system with the same disc I had in 1993." The Present-Day Nerd looks at the SNES-CD shelf in his Nerd Room, which has lots of titles ranging from masterpieces to total abominations and everything in between.
"Honey, let's play a great game for once." The Nerd's wife Jennifer Morrison had come down to the Nerd Room for a visit. She swaps the CRT TV input to SNES, then begins a 2-player game of Final Fantasy VI on the cartridge-based SNES with the Nerd. The Nerd needed to replay this classic after reviewing a terrible Action RPG for the NES called Deadly Towers.
