My palms won’t stop sweating, beads of moisture dripping down the buttons of my controller. My grip hasn’t changed in nearly an hour, but I refuse to let my wetted hands kill my focus. I try to regulate my breath—inhale, slowly, exhale—but I have the jitters. Don’t choke, I mumble to myself.It’s a warm May night in Toronto, and I’m hunched over my computer, clicking away at a Sega Genesis controller and trying to make personal history. On my screen, a pixelated blue hedgehog zooms through loops and hops from platform to …
