Ratchet and Clank 3: the Copy

Teh puustah
Hi, my name is Matthew but call me Mat. I've always been a fan of the Ratchet and Clank series. Ever since I was young, I've been playing those games.

About 3 years ago, I got my hands on a copy of Ratchet and Clank 3 for the Playstation 2. My friend, let's call him Frank, gave me a copy of the game. He said he was done playing it. Like any other fanboy, I immediately popped the disc in my Playstation 2 and started playing the game.

At first, the game looked normal. No troubles, no glitches, everything worked out perfectly. When you finish the game, there is a so called 'challenge mode'. This mode allows you to upgrade your weapons even more and you can play the game again without starting all over.

So, after I defeated Dr. Nefarious, I entered the 'challenge mode'. This is when things started to get weird. The game played the intro cutscene like normal. But then, instead of playing the first level, Veldin, I spawned on Starship Phoenix, but not just the normal Starship Phoenix, but the Red Version, when Starship Phoenix was under attack. I was confused that the game spawned me on Starship Phoenix. I walked throught the level as normal. There was nothing wrong, untill I came to the cockpit. Qwark's monkey, who normally runs around the cockpit, was frozen. He just stood there, with a blank expression on his face. I was so creeped out by this, I shut off my Playstation 2.

After I shut off my Playstation 2, I immediately called my friend Frank. I asked him if he ever had problems with the game. It was quiet for about five seconds. I said: 'Frank, dude. Are you still there?' 'Yes I'm here!' he said. I asked him again if he had any problems with the game. Agian, it was quiet. I shouted: 'Frank, answer me!' Then, my heart skipped a beat, he hung up. I was terrified. Why didn't he anwser?

The next day, after school, started up the game again. But when I selected my save-file, the screen turned white. This lasted for about 10 seconds. After that, the game finally started up. Only to see a glitched out Ratchet. His face was missing, only his eyes were visible. His legs were missing to, leaving a really creepy walking animation. I said to myself: 'What the f***?!' When I said that, the camera turned to his face. I was so scared, I wanted to turn the game off and throw the game away, but I was paralyzed. I couldn't move. Ratchet's face started to come back; his mouth first, then his ears and then his face. What the hell was happening? He started to talk: 'Help me, help me.' He wasn't shouting, he was very calm, it almost looked like he was just casually talking. 'Help you with what?!' I yelled. After I yelled that he said: 'Why?'. This is when things got creepy. His face got messed up. His jaw turned inside his head, his eyes moved up to his ears, and his face turned all grey and dark. I screamed, but there was nothing to hear. I when his face got messed up. The screen turned black, and words started appearing on the screen. 'YOUR TURN'. I felt a burning pain on my face. My eyes felt as is they go pushed out of my head. My ears felt as if they got pulled out. I smashed myself in the head with my controller, knocking myself out.

I woke up after 45 minutes. My screen was black. I looked out my Playstation 2, there was a burning hole at the top of my Playstion. Then words appeared on my screen: 'Thank you for playing, this copy is made by: 666.' Again, I yelled: 'What the f***?!' That was very stupid of me to say. The game spawned me at Koros Command Centre. Words started appearing on my screen again: 'That wasn't very smart of you to say, but I'm not heartless. If you win this battle, I'll leave you alone, but if you lose, you will suffer.' When the game started up, I couldn't believe what I saw. In front of Ratchet stood Qwark. He wasn't the normal Qwark though. This was a messed up Qwark. His face was complete twisted around. His mouth was wide open, he had razor sharp teeth, his eyes were missing, there were just holes in the places where his eyes should be. His suit was all grey, and filthy. I pressed 'triangle' to get my weapons, but my inventory was empty. The only thing I had was my wrench. I had to beat him, with my wrench. I threw my wrench as fast as I could. I tried to defeat him by throwing my wrench, run, throw, run, throw, and so on. Qwark was strong though, he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Every move he made was a critical hit, he even had a move where he threw a kind of force shield to me, so I couldn't move.

He was almost dead, so as Ratchet, only one more hit and I would be dead. I was to scared to try to defeat him. So, I ran. Text appeared on the screen: 'You're not going anywhere'. He threw his force-shield at me. I panicked. I pressed all the buttons so fast, my fingers started to hurt. But then, Ratchet did a really cool animation and somehow, he threw the force-shield ball back at Qwark. A loud scream came out of my television. Qwark fell to the ground and died.

I've done it. I've defeated Evil Qwark once and for all. I felt relief running through my body. I was saved.

I got rid of my Playstation 2 and all my games. Up to this day, I still don't know what happened. Looking back on it, it was a really extraodinary situation. One that will hopefully, never happen again.