My Greatest Regret from my Trip to Japan

I still can't believe I didn't pull the trigger on this one. I had a chance to buy the REAL Super Mario Bros. 2 for Game Boy Advance for just $20 and I didn't because I thought that it might not work on my American system. If anyone can still get this for me somehow, I would be eternally grateful (I am going to try searching myself as well). As most of you know, the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was extremely different from any other game in the series. This was because it was rushed into production for America and was essentially a slightly altered copy of a game called Doki Doki Panic. Yes, I am a Nintendo nerd, which is why I am so fascinated by:

"Unfortunately, the ZIF connector was not truly zero insertion force. When a user inserted the cartridge into the NES, the force of pressing the cartridge down and into place bent the contact pins slightly, as well as pressing the cartridge's ROM board back into the cartridge itself. Repeated insertion and removal of cartridges caused the pins to wear out relatively quickly, and the ZIF design proved far more prone to interference by dirt and dust than an industry-standard card edge connector. Exacerbating the problem was Nintendo's choice of materials; the slot connector that the cartridge was actually inserted into was made of a cheap alloy that was highly prone to corrosion."

And this (which explains a lot about my problems before I got my NES fixed):

"The bending problem with the NES's design was also increased by the release of the popular Game Genie add-on; this add-on's purpose was to enable "cheat" or "patch" codes to various games. Attaching the Game Genie device to a NES cartridge meant that the front-loading mechanism would be bent while playing, and the Game Genie's retention mechanism (a triangular piece of plastic) made the device difficult to remove as well. Continual use of the Game Genie device could warp the loading mechanism's pins to such a degree that the NES would not function without a Game Genie present." (Both from here.)

Oh, and this is an incredible story from The Onion. As is this.