so i'm becoming a bit of nintendo ds geek →[More:]Not the good kind of geek that hacks it and makes one's own games, but the lesser kind of geek that considers design flaws museum-worthy cultural artifacts.

So I picked up a used copy of Lego Star Wars II, knowing nothing about its sordid history. The first few levels were fun, but then the bugs started to overwhelm -- graphics problems (e.g., backgrounds turning to plain white), characters vanishing into the walls and falling off of non-existent cliffs, characters getting stuck behind or under objects or re-materializing after dying on the wrong side of cliffs and thus immediately falling to their deaths . . .

And I started getting pretty pissed. So I decided I'd trade it in for something else, but then I did some reading on the game. Apparently, I'm the proud owner of the very first release, a release which caused quite an uproar in the ds community, back in '06. Later versions fixed the bugs, but the very first version was apparently rushed to the stores before it was complete.

Suddenly, I realized I was playing not so much a buggy game but a "cultural" artifact. One day, these 1st gen editions, with their beautiful glitches, will be selling for good money, just like rare recordings, bootlegs, and studio outtakes . . .

Oh dear.