Since you put out the call for camping stories, I thought mine might interest you.
My girlfriend got to the local Target at 7:30 for an 8AM opening, figuring that they had 72 units, and if they sold out before we got there, that would give us plenty of time to get in line for the 10 or 11 AM openings nearby. So we get in line, and we find out that we were #34, so naturally, we were excited. So we wait for 30 minutes, chat with other people in line, and all is well. The doors open at 8 AM, and
we're taken to a holding area outside the electronics department. We then get the bad news: They only have 3 games in stock, Super Monkey Ball, Rogue Leader, and
one other that I didn't hear. By the time that maybe 15 people have bought their systems, we get the word that not only are all the games sold out (except for a few copies of Rogue Leader that, apparently, nobody wanted), but they have no additional controllers and no memory cards. "But it comes with a demo disc," they said. We all know how much fun demo discs are. (In fact, come to think of it, my GC didn't come with a demo disc at all, but that's beside the point.) They did, however, make sure to have "gaming stools" available with each purchase. So I can't actually do anything with my GameCube, but at least I can sit while I'm not doing it.
(I'd really like someone to explain to me how you can have 72 systems, but not have enough copies of the games to at least let everyone who buys a system buy a game. Ditto for controllers and memory cards. It just doesn't make any sense at all to me; you'd think the Target would want to sell as much as it could.)
So, disappointed, but happy to at least have a system, we get breakfast and chat with some people outside a local Kay-Bee that doesn't open until 11 AM. We then decide to go to Best Buy, which opens at 10. We got in line behind #57, but numbers don't mean much to us now because we just want games. We end up waiting outside from about 9:45 to 10:30 as people are herded through the system. In the meantime, we get to hear a mother ask repeatedly when they would be done because they had tickets for Harry Potter at 11:15 (and, I must say, that's got to be the luckiest kid in the world right there), and a little boy nearly incite a riot by announcing that there were no more games in stock. Luckily, we did finally get inside and get all the stuff we wanted to get at the Target (controller, memory card, Luigi's Mansion, and Super Monkey Ball), except for Tony Hawk 3, which we could get elsewhere.
We did eventually go to Kay-Bee later that afternoon to pick up Tony Hawk, at about 3 PM, where we found one person getting the last GameCube. Why was he able to get one so late? Well, it seems that another gentleman had bought a Cube earlier that day, and was vetoed when he got home. The other gentleman happened to be in the store as the husband was returning the system, thereby making him a very lucky man.
Hope these little tidbits entertained you. I'm really enjoying your site and all the up-to-date coverage. Keep up the good work!
-Steve
Well my story begins at the mall, my friend tagged along so he could walk around and play at the arcade untill my useless shift of 3 hours was over. My younger brother (15) was workin the same shift as me at the pretzel shack. So my shift ended and I told my older brother who was giving my brother, my friend, and my self a ride home that I had to run down to Babbages, where I had my GCN and games preordered to buy some memory cards befor they ran out. I get in the store and the manager tells me that they were opening the store at midnight to all the people who made a preorder. I raced back to my brother and told him to go without me, I was staying untill midnight. My brother and friend stayed with me. We had a lot of time to kill... 4:00pm (8 to go). We decided to go to the arcade again and bought 3 hours of time on thier LAN and played Counter-Strike, some EverQuest and just hung out. 7:00pm our comps shut off and we have another 5 hours to go. I
start getting really tired and doubt myself in making it to midnight without passing out. But then I realized just how lucky and how long I have been waiting. I heard about Nintendo 'Dolphin' in 1998, and knew I MUST HAVE IT. 2001 hits, as well as about 6 name changes (Star Cube, NCube, Dolphin... and so on). In April stores here allowed $50 preorders and I put mine in number 51 of the 52 that they would recieve. I was so happy that day. Months go by as im putting 20, $50 there on my NGC and games for the launch date and on Halloween day I get a call from Babbages. They told me that they were probably only getting 45 NGCs for launch instead of the original 52 and they werent going to give one to me. I WAS PISSED. I went to Babbages again on the 16th of November and made it clear to them I wanted my game cube. It was being released on my birthday, it was my only gift, and it WAS the party. They made some calls and finally got the original 52 back. So, off of my tangent... We were prepared for the next 4 hours of waiting, but we had to
kill some time. We went into the book store and read up on some of the Onion books (Humorous news stories, GREAT BOOKS) for about an hour. 8:00pm we wander the mall up and down going into none of the stores, then 9:30 hits, the mall is CLOSED. We walked down next to Babbages and sat at the benches 5 yards from the store. There were maybe 50 people in the mall at that point, then a Security guard came by and told us that we had to leave the mall because they were closed. I explained to him my story about how we had been there so long, and we didnt have any coats or jackets and we would be way to cold if we had to go outside untill 11:45 wehn they opened the door again for Babbages. He told us we could stay at those benches as long as we stayed there and didn't screw around. We were genuinely thankful, we sat at those benches untill 11:15 when the guard let some more people in, and they started inching to the gate of Babbages. We all knew the first in line was rightfully mine and let me in the front withoug confrontation. All of the cubers were so happy just to be waiting, knowing that within 45 minutes it would all be done. We started the countdown at 11:26 (dont ask why) and we even did a little dance at the turn of each minute. 12:06 they open the gate a little late, and they allowed one person in the store at a time, starting with me. I got an Indigo NGC (I didnt take black because every single person in line had thier hearts set on it and I just counldnt deprive them of thier choice color; Plus I didnt care!) I got 2 memory cards, Wave Race and Luigi's Mansion. I had Super Monkey Ball and 3 more controllers at home. I was the first person in my county to get an NGC. My dad finally arrived to pick us up and took us home. We hooked it up and played untill we fell asleep (litterally) at about 3:30. SMB seemed to be the favorite for Multi-Player, but WR:BS was really cool on free roam. So that concludes my little (or OBSENELY HUGE) story, How I Got... My GameCube. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! :-)
Written by Bryan Kingsbury
Brother: Adam
Friend: Corey Hoose
Sup PlanetGameCube.com,
My name is Jon Hemming, and my story hails from my local E.B.. I never thought that at a little city like mine that there would be a story to tell, but then again we have Silicon Knights in town. =P Now, unfortunately, stores are pretty much forced to open at 11am-Noon. As well as there are NO 24hour stores, like Wal-Mart(both close at midnight), in my city.
My lucky ass was able to pre-order the GAMECUBE a little over a month ago, October 4 2001 to be exact, so i guess that's where this story really begins.
October 4, 2001 @ 2:51pm (According to the pre-order reciept)
Put a $100 down to pre-order my NINTENDO GAMECUBE. That covers the system(Mine is Jet, but of Course!!!), 2 game, memcard 59, and the Interact SuparPad(i know i spelt that wrong). However, I was able to get some specifics on what the Electronic Boutique was allocated in the was of goods.
36 NINTENDO GAMECUBE Systems (50/50 Split of System color)
0!!! 1st Party Controllers =(
72 Interact SuparPads
36 NINTENDO Mmeory Card 59
0!!! Third Party Memory Card
11 Wave Race: Blue Storm
36 Star Wars: Rogue Leader
14 Luigi's Mansion
36 Super Monkey Ball
And the rest was still up in the air, but this much i had written down.
I ended up being 4th on the list, but all the cube that had been allocated, were pre-purchased that day. Way to go NINTENDO!
November 18, 2000 @ 8:00am
Alarm rings .... SNOOZE!!!
November 18, 2000 @ 8:15am
Alarm rings .... SNOOZE damn you!!!!!!!
November 18, 2000 @ 8:45am
Wake with a bad head ache from the radio playing, then proceed to have a shower.
November 18, 2000 @ 9:15am
Have dounuts and coffee for breakfast while waiting in line at E.B.
At this time i'm first in line to pick up my cube.
November 18, 2000 @ 9:45am
Store manager arrives, and says "Uhhh, you know that all the GAMECUBEs have been pre-ordered already?!?!"
I'm like "YEAH, I'm one of them Dumbass!!!"
I just had to tell him that, he's kinda always a jerk.
November 18, 2000 @ 10:00am
More people show up, and i swear one of them mentioned working at Silicon Knights downtown St. Catharines.
But since all the stuff was pre-puchased, we hooked up for a game of Chess. Since there was a novelty sized chess board in front of E.B. ... convienient =D
November 18, 2000 @ 11:15am
I swear that each of the 36 people that pre-ordered a GAMECUBE was waiting there in line, and a few that were gunna get rejected at the counter.
We decided to spend the next 45min having a beer at the local bar in the mall.
November 18, 2000 @ 11:58am and 3 b33rz later
E.B. Opens it's doors and starts calling the pre-sell list by what order you had pre-pruchased in. Sweet!
They had gotten more software than they had expected, which is good =D
36 copies of the main launch titles, and 52 copies of Tony Hawk 3. Now what the hell are they gunna do with 52 copies of THPS3???? I don't know.
But we had fun, and i really wanna know if that guy was from Silicon Knights or not. 'Cuz that would have TOTALLY made my day.
Now that that story is over with, Anyone wanna help me in Rogue Leader??
Jon Hemming
My Nintendo GameCube launch day story all started in a small town in North Carolina. I have been highly anticipating the GameCube since Nintendo announced they were developing a next-gen system.. and I often searched on Google looking for leaked information and new specs. In my search I found PlanetN2000 (Planet GameCube), ign, and many others.. some which aren't around today to cover this joyous event.
As you can see, I was extremely eager for the arrival of the GameCube. I reserved my system at the closest Babbages as soon as they announced they were taking pre-orders.. back in April.
Just a week ago I was informed by my Babbages that GameCube would go on sale at midnight for all those who have reserved one. I was like "Awesome! I'll be there!"
Being 16 with no car is rough.. so I convinced my friend to drive me there so I could get my Cube as soon as it went on sale. We arrived at the mall at 11:30. We were the second ones there, behind some dude and his girlfriend. The mall was closed, but the manager let us in and we sat down on a bench in front of Babbages, awaiting midnight. A few minutes after we were inside, people started arriving.. A large line of people with pre-order slips formed, as we squirmed on the bench while occassionally glancing at our watches. The manager took our names, wrote down the color of our choice, and gave everyone a free copy of Game Informer magazine! She then took a few pics of us, and a few more people arrived. Then, the hour finally arrived! It was officially November 18th! After 2 years of waiting, I was about to become the owner of Nintendo's newest home console.. Of course, the employees were first to be able to buy GameCube. A small delay, which felt like a half hour. Then, the names of the first two in line (me and the other dude) were called, and we were let inside the store to the 2 registers. There, a very hardcore Nintendo fan employee packaged up my GameCube items >> Indigo GameCube, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Star Wars Rogue Leader, and an S-Video cable<< I had already purchased a mem card 59 at Wal-Mart the previous day, just in case. As I signed the receipt slips saying I had picked up my item, we discussed Shiggy's choice for Zelda on GCN, both agreeing that the game looks awesome and how highly we anticipated it. Then he handed me the large Babbages bag and I walked out the door with a "Thanks man!" As I walked out where my friend was waiting, we saw the line of people had increased more so, with about 5 more standing there. They had ran out of benches, and even provided couches for the customers, which were also full. We walked out the mall and hurried along to the car, while I was screaming my victory chants. Er, at least saying "Yessss!!"
~Link
