It was in the days of yore, when I was at a friend's playing Eggerland Mystery on his MSX. It was the last game of a long, long night of playing (we had played the likes of Knightmare, Vampire Killer and Salamander earlier). I thought it would be a nice chill-out title to end the night.

I was wrong.

After romping through several levels, I got stumped in a particularly difficult one. Or, it might have been the excess of pizza and cola, plus playing for almost 12 hours straight, who knows? My friend at this point was fast asleep on the ground, and I was transfixed by this complicated solution...

The sun was rising in the horizon when I thought I had it all figured out. In the game, you have to collect a number of frames while avoiding monsters and hazards before opening up the level exit. I labored, blocking some enemies and dodging others. I felt good, confident! But, before getting the last frame, I forgot about one last little dragon in my way. He blasted me one square away from the last frame, with the characteristic fiery sound effect I got so used to during that night.

It was so sudden, and I was so unaware of it, that I had probably the worst jumpscare of my whole life. I shrieked and leaped in the chain, hitting my knees in the bench that held the game, making everything come tumbling down in a blaze of glory. The poor MSX hit the ground badly, sidaways, and a weird burnt plastic smell permeated the room.

I actually managed to grab the monitor before it fell down, so there was a small victory. My friend woke up with the ruckus, almost having a heart attack in the process.

The MSX laid dead in the ground, with a nice diagonal crack on its casing.

Yeah...