game genie was amazing! still remember the commercial where the tv screen exploded.. i got a cd burner for Xmas in 1998, next step was a mod chip for my ps1. soldering it in was such a high risk, high reward project for a 14 year old. from buying the chip online with my parents credit card to buying the soldering iron and solder at radio shack with lawn mowing money, to disassembling the ps1 and following the directions ever so carefully. that first boot up was nerve racking. for the remainder of the ps1 era my friend and I would rent games, burn them, swap with each other and by the end we both had 200+ titles to choose from..a magical time indeed!

i remember figuring out that i had one of the lucky early-model dreamcasts that didn't require mod chips. coincided with the brief period where you could find pretty much anything on megaupload. i'm sure all of my burned games have disintegrated by now but i had an awesome collection of games back then :)

That was how I felt following the guides to hack DirecTV for the first time.