It was 2003, around July or August. I had a GBA at the time and had bought the port of Donkey Kong Country on GBA, and was very very disappointed at how badly done it was. I missed the SNES and wanted one back, but at this point, we were in deep financial trouble and i was too young to get any sort of a job (already had one for mom, but that was rent money I guess). I had read an issue of EGM about a year or two prior about emulators (funny I know) but i never figured it out. So I finally starting doing my research on emulators and roms. It took a while for me to figure the stuff out, but i finally managed to find a copy of SNES9X and Donkey Kong Country. I wasn't sure what i was doing and didn't realize that i HAD gotten a rom, but it booted. I fell out of my chair, literally. Couldn't believe i was playing SNES games on a PC. Maybe that was noobish, and it was, but all this was new to me. What followed was a gradual climb to my current knowledge, which is now considerable. That was 7 years ago, but i'll never forget how happy i was at being able to play these games again. I was never able to get a real SNES again, and mom finding out I could pirate all these games was pretty funny. She wouldn't let me buy many games anymore, at least not ones i could pirate.