Fall, 1995
After filling out mountains of paperwork and going through rigorous rounds of interviews, I had done it... I would begin my career as a coder for Nintendo Co. Ltd.
It had been a dream of mine to work with such a legendary company that was monumental in my life, as their games made me want to pursue a career in the field.
While we were still a large name in the scene, our company rivals were always eager to give us fierce competition.
Sony was the new face on the block, they released their own console after a botched deal with Nintendo some time prior to my arrival. The PS1 had catapulted their company into the video game sphere with full force.
Our old rivals at SEGA were still around, but they were waning. Their newest console, the Sega Saturn, was a flop with international markets. It intentionally preformed very well when it first launched in my homeland back at 1994, even outselling the PS1 for a while
However... Due to numerous company decisions and marketing, it was quickly shredded in the competition. SEGA had to scramble to do something, anything to make a profit. Especially with us gearing up to launch our next console quite soon. I had been quite excited to work on games for it myself at some point.
Rumor had it that SEGA's desperation resorted to them using something far more malicious then their rather dogged advertisements. Something that was more under the table with how it presented itself. Nobody exactly knew what it was at the time, however.

But that was something to worry for the future, as I thought to myself at the time. Our current console was still the Super Famicom, the Ultra 64 as it was called had still some more time to be fully develop. The current console was drawing to a close, and as so a swan song of games were being prepared for it as a send off.
I was enlisted into one of these projects myself after spending some time with the company, that project being dubbed Super Kid Icarus.
That's when I ran into... it.
After booting up my computer to start my work once being assigned to the project, I was greeted by a pop-up. Containing none other then Sonic the Hedgehog.
Even thought I knew it was him, he wasn't the same Sonic I've seen countless times in media.
He was slender, tall, and devoid of most color. Wearing a cap that resembled Mario's, but with the insignia of ES on it. It was the only thing of his that was colored, being a bright red.
His eyes was the most striking thing of all to me. They were completely different to the ones Sonic had before. It resembled more of a cat's eyes, as it stared blankly at me.
The message itself was quite peculiar as well. It said...
"A new face has appeared, and a new game can be played! I do hope for your sake those pig bosses of yours at Nintendo aren't easily swayed."
The prompted asked "Do you accept your fate?", with the only options being yes or no. I couldn't close out the damn thing no matter how hard I tried.
At first I thought this was nothing more then a joke, as I was the newbie in the team after all. Wanting to play along and against my better judgement, I clicked yes.

It disappeared from my screen, seemingly vanishing completely. After waiting for a couple of minutes, nothing really happened. Confused, I quietly began my work on the project regardless.
For a brief period of time, all was well. I did tell my coworkers what I had seen, but they thought I was trying to crack a joke or had some sort of mental issues. None of them had ever encountered anything like that. It didn't help that I wasn't able to replicate it either.
I had shaken off the incident as nothing more then a weird prank, but things quickly escalated. I first noticed a week afterwards that the cursor when left idle was twitching, subtly yet unmistakably. It put me on edge.
Then one day, my entire computer's language changed. And it kept doing this consistently every single day afterwards. I had to change it back to my native tounge everytime, which was a hassle.
Either the person behind this "prank" has a sick sense of humor in which he gets off at inconveniencing people, or I had stumbled upon something I shouldn't have.
Again, I tried to show this to anyone that I could. My coworkers, my boss, anyone I could get my hands on. But everytime I did, things seemingly were normal without any issues. Causing me to get reprimanded for it...
As annoying as this thing was, it didn't stop me. Progress was going steady, and the game was beginning to be advertised. I made damn sure to put my skills to use.
But that accursed hedgehog would not cease. It stepped up its game and knew the way to interfere was to sabotage our project.

It had now began to open and move around my files. As the game was being worked on using assembly code like most Super Famicom games, it would go in and replace it with junk code. Sprinkled in said code was it trying to taunt me.
That bastard had doubled my work, and my bosses had noticed. They always singled me out for particularly struggling to keep pace with everyone else.
It was only then, that he decided to push it to the limit.
He had gone from altering code to flatout deleting it. Days of progress kept being reseted over and over, which only exasperated the issues I had before.
What have I done to deserve this? Did someone on the team hate me? Why has this thing tormenting me with such malice?
The worst part is that I couldn't say a single thing about it, and he knew it too. He used it too his advantage whenever he could.
It continued like this for the next agonizing 6 months. A constant cycle of my work being erased and it taunting me for my work disappearing right before my eyes.
It all came to a boiling point

May 3rd, 1996
4:33pm
Even with all of these conditions and torture, I had to give it everything I had. I cannot let this thing win, I got to work with Nintendo! The same company that inspired me to pursue this job!
That's when all hell broke loose
Suddenly my computer started to slow down IMMENSELY, and I tried to figure out what the issue was.
There weren't many other programs running, and the ones that were didn't cause anything like this before. I had gone to check my files, and that's when I saw it...
All of my hard work was slowly disappearing infront of my eyes. There was no alert notifying me, no warning. Months of effort was being destroyed.
I scroll up, only to be met with that same damn face I saw all that time ago. He stared at me with a sinister joy, the face of a man who knew he had gotten away with murder and watched as someone else took the fall.
My screen was starting to flicker, it had created a text file and started to laugh at me, laugh at the doom it had brought upon my job. Finally, my computer crashed completely.
I had lost
Everything
Somehow, he had managed to also delete any backups of my work as well. Meaning that it all was truly lost.
I was called into the boss's office, and was absolutely chewed out by him. All of these issues were my fault, and my fault alone. Not some hedgehog virus crap.
I was let go of my dream job. The one I had spent a majority of my life preparing for. The game I had worked so hard on never came to fruition either. It was quietly canned.
I couldn't talk to any of my peers either, they wouldn't even look at the same direction as me. Because I was the sole reason this all happened.

It's been years now, but it still haunts me everyday.
I can barely get out of bed in the morning, because I have no idea if he will return to make things even worse.
No other careers I have taken over the years filled that hoke in my heart either.
All of the chances and opportunities that life gave to me were snatched in the blink of an eye.
He is still out there, somewhere. I was not the first person he sabotaged, and I fear that he will live on longer then I can.
All I wanted was to make games
All I wanted was to make people happy
All I wanted was to get the payoff from life that I have waited for years
But now, those opportunities passed me by. I am left with nothing but regret and bitterness.
Was that so wrong?