My parents bought IX for my birthday about 5 or 6 years ago I think. I thought, "What the hell is this," thinking it was like some crappy game that one of my friends had, so I never played it and left it to gather dust in a drawer. Then, near christmas that year, I was bored, and looking through this drawer to see what games I had, and just to see what it was like, I tried it. Sufficed to say, I loved it and regret not seeing the light sooner. Showed it to another friend, he thought it was cool too, and he went and got VIII and VII (which I then bought off him three years later ).