On this date in 1999, kids and parents flooded stores in search of popular video games—with Pokémon, Nintendo titles, and PlayStation hits topping holiday wish lists.

Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:

By Cole Short

The Forum

People packed the aisles. Carts inched forward. Cash registers chimed relentlessly.

And hundreds of shoppers squeezed past one another in pursuit of the perfect holiday gift.

It was enough to make you want to strangle someone.

“How do you choke them? How do you choke them?” 6-year-old Damien Keith asked out loud.

“Press the A button,” responded a passer-by.

Kneeling before a giant nine-screen display, Keith hopped, skipped, jumped and choked his way to a new high score on Mario Party, a Nintendo 64 game on display at Best Buy in

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