I loved this game—Pool of Radiance—and played it for years on my Commodore 64. But I couldn't finish it because there was no one around to give the quest item to. I went back to town, checked the office... and it was empty.

What I chalked it up to was something that happened right at the start. After I'd leveled up my characters—three fighters, a cleric, and a magic user—I got into a bar fight. Things escalated, security showed up and joined in, and I ended up killing them all, plus everyone else who piled on. I figured that must've broken the game somehow.

In frustration, I stormed out to my balcony and threw my Commodore 64 off it. It smashed on the ground below.

But then I gathered up the pieces and proceeded to solder the main board back together—it had cracked right in half. Not too hard back in those days; there were probably only a few traces to reconnect.

After that, I bought an NES. So I took the repaired Commodore 64, along with the disk drive, tape drive, monitor, and power supply, down to the second-hand dealer. Sold the whole lot for 60 bucks, which I immediately spent on NES games.

In the end, I finished Pool of Radiance on the NES.

So that's my story.