Passing the Night with Cliffhanger: A SNES Adventure in an RV

It was pitch black outside.  As if the world around us had fallen into an endless void.  A darkness unlike anything I have ever seen. As we sat in the dimly lit RV, I couldn't help but feel a sense of boredom and restlessness. We had been stuck inside for hours, unable to venture outside due to the threat from nearby grizzly bears. There was fresh bear scat found just that afternoon, not 500 feet from basecamp.  

And with nothing to do, I was starting to feel like I might go stir-crazy.  No cellular reception, no television or radio signal.  We were in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.  That was then that I remembered the SNES emulator I had installed on my laptop and that I had brought with me a hard drive with a bunch of old roms that I dumped along on the trip.  I had packed it away thinking that I might have a chance to play a few games during the long drives but given we were trapped inside until daylight I figured that now was as good a time as any to break it out.

I rummaged through the luggage until I found the hard drive, and then I set my laptop on the small table in the center of the RV. As the screen flickered to life, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and nostalgia. It had been years since I had played this old system, and I had forgotten how much fun it could be.

We selected Cliffhanger to play, an odd choice I know, but regardless we settled in to play. The game is a classic side-scroller, with fast-paced action and challenging obstacles. As I navigated the character through the snowy mountain landscape, I found myself getting lost in the subpar gameplay, but a cold beer and good friends can turn a bad videogame into an enjoyable time and the hours seemed to fly by as we played, and before I knew it, everyone was ready to hit the sack and dream of their own adventures as Sylvester Stallone; the bare knuckled grizzly hunter. 

The next morning, I packed up the drive containing all those classic 16-bit memories and prepared to hit the road, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the distraction that the game had provided. The night had been long and fright with danger, but thanks to the magic of Cliffhanger, it had passed by quickly and enjoyably.