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"Martin had a dream..."

Five score years ago, a great Englishman, in whose symbolic shadow we stand designed the Electronic Counting Machine. This momentous event came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Gamers who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Gamer is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Gamer is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Gamer lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Gamer is still languishing in the corners of a Gaming society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our Gaming Forum to cash a cheque. When the architects of our Gaming Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Source Code and the declaration of Next Gen, they were signing a promissory note to which every Gamer was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all Gamers would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that the Gaming Industry has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of consoles are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, the Industry has given the Gaming people a bad cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this cheque -- a cheque that will give us upon demand the riches of gaming and the security of gameplay. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind Gamers of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of console wars to the sunlit path of gaming justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of Gamers. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of gaming injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Gamer. This sweltering summer of the Gamer's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 2001 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Gamer needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in the Industy until the Gamer is granted his gameplay rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new console wars slanging match which has engulfed the Gaming community must not lead us to distrust of all Sega users, for many of our Sega brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of gaming rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the pleasures of Shenmue and the streets of MSR. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Gamer's basic mobility is from a smaller EA Sports game to a sequel. We can never be satisfied as long as a Nintendo Gamer cannot play Sonic and a PS2 Gamer believes he has no decent Code Veronica title. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow genres. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of rival brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Pembroke, go back to London, go back to Bristol, go back to Bridgwater, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Gaming dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all Gamers are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Tokyo the sons of former Sony gamers and the sons of former Sega workers will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Special Reserve, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my kids will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the make of their console but by the content of their software.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the Corporation of Sony, whose executives’ lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little Sega boys and Nintendo girls will be able to join hands with little Sony boys and XBox girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to my PSX. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to play together, to struggle together, to go to arcades together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My Gaming, 'tis of thee, sweet land of Shenmue, of thee I sing. Where MSR cars got fried, land of the Gamer’s pride, from every mountainside, let Gaming ring."

And if Gamers are to be a united nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Japan. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Washington. Let freedom ring from the heightening developer’s towers in Newcastle!
Let freedom ring from the Core Design offices!
Let freedom ring from the Silicon Valley of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Rare offices in Harlow!
Let freedom ring from Gaming Retail Websites!
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Special Reserve Forums. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Sega men and Sony men, Zelda-ers and Final Fantasists, Gran Turismo-ers and Sega Rallyers, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Gamer spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

(Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jnr., campaigner for equal rights and great software for all gamers, whatever the colour of their console.)

Well he still got it wrong :P

Actually Armstrong delivered an entire speach before he landed on the moon, however we only regularly recall the last sentence!

Neil Armstrong doesn't deserve a tribute. He was given one sentence to say and he got it wrong :)

One small Handheld Console, One Giant leap for Nintendo!

A tribute to Neil Armstrong and the Nintendo GameBoyAdvance.

or suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous software prices.....

To play or not to play,
That is the Question,
Whether tis nobler to play Sega or Nintendo,
....

We are not crazy PS2 fighting americans.

"I have never had s****l relations with that console"

Tribute to Bill Clinton....

All the world ’s a program,
And all the Nintendo's and Sega's merely programmers. 1
They have their zeros and their ones;
And one may in his time produce many games,
To be this good takes ages. At first the young,
Original and inspiring games are produced.
And then complacent, with his market
And shining blue hedgehog, creeping like snail
Unwittingly to doom. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad
Left his mistress Nintendo. Like a soldier Sony,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard;
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation (pop!)
The others in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so Nintendo comes of age. The Gamecube shifts
2 000 000 units in an hour.
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful gamers, well saved, from Sony to large
For All Sonys youth; and big market share,
cannot save its poor software, green screens
And crackles in its sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
In childishness Sony nears oblivion,
Sans Console, sans joypad, sans memory card, sans everything.

A tribute to William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

(Dan2K1 holds hands up in congratulations)

Excellent post - made me think!

What game will you choose? Go for Dune 3 mate - its superb (well, it will be)