When Joe O'Connell wants something, he chases it with tireless dedication - this is a man who spent five years playing Pokemon to get a shiny variation of Mewtwo.
Ordinarily, there's a 1 in 4,096 chance of finding this specific Pokemon variant out in the wild, but O'Connell increased his chances by grinding the same thing for half a decade.
In Pokemon Leaf Green and Heart Gold, O'Connell repeatedly went into battle against the same Mewtwo located at Cerulean Cave, resetting the game every time it didn't turn up shiny.
He got this down to such an art that he could enter battle, reset the game and re-enter battle in 18 seconds. Over 500 hours of game time later, shiny Mewtwo was his.
O'Connell could have hacked the game to make the legendary Pokemonappear, of course, but he says that would feel "uncool".
"After I caught him and managed to stop my hands from shaking enough to dial her number, I phoned my girlfriend - who was on holiday at the time - to let her know," he told Kotaku of the special moment.
"Whilst she was disappointed she hadn't been there to see me pee my pants, I think she was hugely relieved it was all over."
We could do with people like O'Connell working in SETI.
