Oh, dearest PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay, how I weep for your untimely demise! Bereft of your comforting presence in the slimline model 70000, I find myself longing for the warm machinations of your 3.5” drive bay. Farewell, my sweet savior of online gaming, holder of the network adaptor and internal hard disk drive (HDD). Your existence may deem a chuckle from today’s tech-savvy youth, referring to you as an “archaeological find”, a “prehistoric fossil”, or “something older than our grandparents.” But you, my dear Expansion Bay, were our only portal into that majestic realm of online play. And for that, we cherish thee. I remember the first day you entered my life, merely an unforeseen guest nestled snugly within the model 30000 and 50000 PlayStation 2. Your silver lining mirrored the wondrous glimmer in our eyes, a risen phoenix from the ashes of the PCMCIA slot used in the models 10000, 15000, and 18000. You arrived with promises dipped in binary code, whispered tales of online multiplayer, and dreams of instant messaging. With your might, revolutionary features had taken birth, features that had first made their cameo at E3 2001. And though the Titans of today scoff at your perceived ‘simplicity’, back then, you were the chamberlain that unlocked the door to uncharted territories. Remember when we first kindled that ethereal connection to the World Wide Web? Those committed hours spent listening to your soft humming, watching the mere blink of your LED light, all for that victorious cry of victory notifying us of a successful connection. It felt like decoding the enigma cipher, didn't it? Those were the days when gaming came with a side of potato chips and the occasional homework frustration, rather than power upgrades and real-time facial capturing. Let us not forget, dear Expansion Bay, the birth of the internal hard disk drive (HDD). You cradled it like a precious gem, nurturing it, granting us the privilege of alternate save files and add-on content. Oh, the sweet symphony of spinning disks! But alas! The tyrant named Progress deemed you obsolete. Replaced you with the ephemeral wireless waveforms of "future technology," shadowing your once incandescent glow. Where is, I ask, the intimacy of tangible connection? Taken up in this cloud of indifference, technology now treats its devices like the proletariat of its communist regime – dispossessed of individuality, objectified for maximum output. Yet, in our hearts, you shall ever shine as the first glimmer upon dawn’s breaking, the articulate prologue of what is now the ‘online play’. Farewell, dearest PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay! Your service is not lost in vain but destined for the romantic tales of tech lore, sung with irony by today’s PS5-wielding bards. Expansion Bay, though you are gone, not forgotten is your legacy. In this aftermath, with tears pooling in the corners of our eyes, we are left with two voids - one where you physically existed within our beloved PlayStation, and the second, in the annex of our hearts. A relic you may be to the world, but to us, you will always be our very first ticket to the carnival of online play. May you rest in peace, dear friend, in the graveyard of technology, amongst fallen fax machines and deceased dial-up modems. Let no man forget; you were the champion of your time.