NEW GRAPHICS CARD. NOW.

Downloaded Rocket Knight. Plugged my shiny new USB controller in. (Rocket Knight? With a keyboard? Blasphemy!) Restarted the computer to cement the system changes. Started up Rocket Knight. Watched the "Konami" screen load INCREDIBLY slow. Felt my heart sink.

I completely forgot about this dumb old computer's sucky graphics card. Not even a card really, it's integrated. I got this thing in 2007, and back then it might have been fairly good... but it cannot play games. (It's a GeForce 6150 LE, by the way. I don't play demanding games on the computer, so I've never had a reason to upgrade. This computer won't even play Bejeweled straight--gameplay is mainly all right, but that in-between levels swirly vortex thing? CRAWLS. Needless to say, flying all over the screen in Rocket Knight is FAR too demanding for my current specs.)

SO, I have to wait until Craig gets here. And then I have to beat him away from the 360 long enough to get some gameplay in. If I don't find a suitable card and buy it. And I'm wary about spending money right now because Mom just had to nab money for Verizon (finally) and Sprint. (She's paying me back next week. She's still not allowed to go back to work, also. I gripe about the money issue, but it's better they keep her out if her going back means possibly screwing her hand up worse than it is now.) Bank account is practically in tatters, and I still have the credit card, but I'd rather not use it.

Appears I need a PCI or PCIe card. I'm actually gonna take the cover off to see exactly what I have, and I'll work from there. I already have my eye on one. 

Seriously, 15 years. I'm playing that game.