I still remember it like it was yesterday.The glass counters that I could just barely peek over, the old guns scattered throughout the counter, and the pile of gray cartridges shoved off to one corner. It was the day I got my first NES cartridge.

Long before the litany of businesses that have come and gone at the end of the street I grew up on, there stood a rather sad little pawnshop. They had the usual fare: old guitars, various weapons, and a slew of televisions. What caught my eye that fateful evening, however, was that pile of NES cartridges unceremoniously strewn in a forgotten corner.

I knew what they were because my brother had an NES, but it was just that. His NES. My mother came over and saw me standing there, just tall enough to see the games, and had the grungy clerk come over and show them to me.

Of course, they were just plain cartridges with no boxes or manuals. I was making my selection based off of cover art alone. I can’t remember any of the other games because I was simply mesmerized by Castlevania. Simon Belmont’s whip stretched clear off the label as he stood before Dracula’s castle, the hilt of his sword glistening in the moonlight.

The castle itself rose up out of the ground like a medieval fortress, crouching on a rocky crag. But the pièce de résistance was Dracula’s laughing grimace in the sky, looking down at Simon with glittering eyes. It scared me, and I had to have it.

My mother purchased the game and we went home so I could finally play it. It was thrilling seeing the same castle standing before me in glorious black pixels. Simon approached the gate and we were off, whipping our way to Dracula himself.  As expected, I died within minutes.

Fortunately, death didn’t faze me, and I ended up spending the better part of my younger years attempting to finish the game with my brother before we ever laid eyes on Dracula. It has its warts and by today’s standards may be seen as lacking, but we adapted to the strange jump trajectory and frustrating medusa heads and powered on.

The game remains one of my favorite games of all time, and I still feel that sense of awe and fear every time I hear that opening music. There may have been much more competent entries in the series since that initial outing, but to me there is only one Castlevania. We eventually picked up the second game in the series hoping for the same kind of amazing experience, but that’s quite another story altogether.