This reminds me of two things: a close call and a great loss.
First, I wanted to play Mario Tennis on my N64, but it said that due corrpution, yada, yada, yada. I was so far in it, too. I left it alone for a week after trying it out a few times. Since then, my brothers has played a couple times and it was fine. I envy him, but I have not tried it since then. Too busy on Paper Mario, Sonic Heroes, and Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2.
Second. I had to say good-bye to my SNES about 6-7 years ago. My brothers were fighting each other to see who would play next. My father got angry and took the SNES and trashed it against the floor. I never saw it again. However, last August, my mother forced me to give up Nintendo DS (I bought my own since then, first console I both with my own money) for someone's SNES. I'm happy that I got it, but I'm disappointed that he couldn't find his library of 23 games to add with the console.
My heart goes out to all games and systems that have met such a terrible fate.