Well, this is both my introduction post and my entry to the Mega Man 9 contest.

I’d like to start by saying hi to everyone on my return to the Capcom message boards after an 8 year hiatus on my part, back then they were still the Capcom BBS and posts from Dr. Cossack for Interordi or M Sipher from King Weasel were all too common.

My story with Mega Man started a long time ago in 1989 when I was but 4 years old, my Mom took me to the mall one day and in this mall they had a Nintendo kiosk with several TVs where you could just walk up and try Nintendo games for free. Each TV had several games hooked up to it and all you had to do was press a button to change the current game as I approached one of these TVs I started pressing the Start button as fast as I could so I could start playing, and what I saw next is a sight I will never forget: a line up of 6 little robots each named like what I then assumed to be super-villain names. As I chose the pudgy Bomb Man for looking the most harmless and played through the level I had the most fun I had ever had playing a video game, I was hooked. After that I made my parents very well aware of my desire to have that game, but being so expensive video games came to me usually on my birthday or Christmas, and so I waited for the jolly man in red to bring me that game I desired so… but what I discovered under the tree was something I never expected: Santa didn’t bring me Mega Man, he got me Mega Man 2!

I was ecstatic, I could barely believe my eyes and needless to say I was the happiest kid in the world; and as time passed my love of that game made me a complete and obsessed follower of the Mega Man series and its spin-offs Mega Man X, Zero and ZX and Legends. Throughout the years I have bought nearly every Mega Man released here on the US. And here’s the proof:

I never got any of the SNES games because I was never able to buy a SNES (my parents bought me a Genesis and decided my side on the 16-bit war) and so I rented and played the Mega Man X and Mega Man 7 games on a friends SNES, the Game Boy games are on the same boat as my first GB was the Game Boy Pocket and by then the games were really hard to find (I’m still waiting for that Mega Man Mania collection originally for the GBA and then the DS). And as for the other NES games, I was never able to obtain Mega Man 1, but did get 3-6. Sadly they were all lost during a move along with some of my toys and I never saw them again. Only Mega Man 2 survived because he was placed in another box along with my NES. Luckily I have been able to “recover” these games with the release of the PS2 collections.

As you can see I have followed Mega Man though most of my life and we have both aged together and now I see him more as my close friend and companion, as he has been with since kindergarten, though college and now in my adult life with the release of Mega Man 9.

Along with the games, all these years I have supported Mega Man with the purchase of any product bearing his image; the following is some of the stuff I’ve been able to gather:

I even got those MS-DOS versions of Mega Man 1 & 3, featuring completely different Robot Masters like Volt Man and Dyna Man, even alternate versions of Oil Man, Torch Man and Wave Man.

This is why I want one of the Mega Man 9 Press Kits, because it would be a perfect addition to my ever-growing collection of all things Mega Man. A name, a game and a series that has become an integral part of my life, and I would not have it any other way.

Thanks for your attention, I’ll see ya’ll around.

Love to all,

Emmanuel Del Rio.