Curse you, video game technology of 1988!

Two or three months ago I rediscovered an old friend, RBI Baseball for Nintendo. While my parents never allowed us to have a video game system growing up, plenty of my friends did, and I remember playing this particular game with my friend Jordan when I was nine or ten years old. He was a baseball fanatic and owned the game, while I had little baseball knowledge and only played when I could go to his house.

As a result, when we played, he beat me regularly with scores of 10-0.

Jordan and I grew apart, and I never managed to master RBI Baseball.

After getting my hands on a copy again, I was interested to see if my years of video-game practice over the past decade and a half were enough to result in me dominating the Tengen league.

After playing against the computer 20 or so times, I discovered that even the 25-year-old version of myself was still no good at this game.

I have yet to win.

And this is me using the American or National League teams against regular teams.

The frustration is growing. I made the mistake of playing a game last night during a break in studying. I was up 12-3 in the 4th, and things were looking good. Then I brought in a relief pitcher to replace my starter, who was suddenly unable to throw faster than 40 mph.

The reliever promptly gave up six runs in the fifth.

And then three more in the sixth. While my guys suddenly couldn't get a hit to save their lives.

I ended up losing, 13-12. Far from being relaxed and ready for another session of study, I was frustrated and ready to break something.

Moral of the story: sometimes old video games can be really, really hard to beat.

Here's a bonus Youtube clip of the game being played: