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DS

Looking Back: First Memories of the DS

Aaron and Dan's Memories: The DS launch party

by Aaron Kaluszka and Dan Wasielewski - February 25, 2011, 1:43 am EST

Rain couldn't wash away the memory of a lifetime.

A couple years before joining site staff, Aaron won Planet GameCube's unprecedented Big Trivia Contest, which sent Dan and him to Los Angeles for the Nintendo DS launch event. The prize was truly awesome, and had us visiting Hollywood and Universal City Studios, with limo rides in between. 

Our first DS experience ended up all wet, however, when a freak storm dumped rain on the launch event. We kept a photo log, which is detailed below. 

8:08 - Here's the EB Games at Universal City Walk where the big launch will be taking place at midnight. The black and white "Nintendo DS" wall is the backdrop for the emcee when they project her announcements on the big screen.

Our first glipse at a DS kiosk. This one features Spider-Man 2 on one side and Super Mario 64DS on the other. It's still early, so we have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe before returning to The Walk.

9:18 - There were two Nintendo vans outside EB Games headed up by the Nintendo Street Team. In each van, three GameCubes, each with Donkey Konga and four bongo controllers are set up in the back.

Hardrock Cafe's big neon guitar.

9:20 - Nintendo DS commercials and promotional videos play on the big screen all night leading up to the launch.

9:21 - King Kong at The Walk.

9:23 - This is the stage where the band is to perform. Which band? We don't know, and we'll never find out because the stage isn't covered and it's beginning to rain.

The emcee appears on the jumbotron.

9:25 - We are repeatedly reminded of the slightly suggestive DS marketing line: Touching is good.

9:26 - At EB Games, people wait in line not for their DSes, but for orange wristbands, which will allow them to purchase a Nintendo DS at midnight. 300 DSes were allocated, so it's a long line, probably the longest in the country.

9:27 - Others mill about around the store.

9:28 - People get to try out the DS. One guy here has a shirt with the original E3 DS design. We hope to have our turn at the kiosks soon.

Donkey Konga in the rain. This can't end well.

9:29 - Poor Shaq. His days of missing free throws in LA are over.

9:33 - A kid is interviewed as the first one in line for the DS launch. He had been there since 8:30am. Unfortunately for him, you were assigned a preorder number and could only get your unit when your number was called.

9:35 - Aaron, Dan, and Angelina, the GolinHarris representative who handled our trip. We also meet Planet GameCube's LA representative, Daniel Bloodworth, who isn't shown here, but who towers over even Dan Wasielewski.

9:41 - Aaron plays DS for the first time. The game: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005.

9:46 - Soaked by the rain, Dan tries Pictochat. Amazingly, the Nintendo DSes continued working after being drenched in water.

10:01 - We decide to seek shelter inside of the EB Games.

The 300-strong wall of DSes allocated to EB Games.

10:05 - We head to the back of the store where the Nintendo games are kept.

10:07 - Dan battles somebody in Metroid Prime: Hunters.

10:33 - Aaron's first Pictochat image was a "Nintendoods" logo, a spoof of the Nintendo DS double-screen logo.

10:36 - Aaron followed that up with a TMK logo. TMK stands for The Mushroom Kingdom, the Mario fansite that Dan and Aaron run. Someone posted back, "someone from TMK is here?" which was very cool to see. "Two people," Aaron replied, but then the person asked if there was anyone from N-sider forums around, and that was the end of the conversation.

10:39 - Aaron hopes for Donkey Konga DS as he shows off his double-stylus skills.

10:51 - The DS launch sign. Unfortunately, the music portion of the event was canceled due to the rain.

10:52 - After hours in the rain, they finally decide to cover the DSes.

10:58 - We headed back out to the Nintendo vans to play some Donkey Konga. Here's Aaron trying to slap and clap to "Pokémon Theme" and Dan to "Mario Bros. Theme." Unfortunately, the bongos did not fare as well in the rain as the DSes and began to short circuit.

11:17 - The Walk in The Rain.

Touching is still good. Inside EB Games, people receive their order numbers.

11:37 - EB closes down to gear up for the launch now about 20 minutes away, and people with wristbands wait in a "holding area" on the other side of the walkway. The main area is vacated and the final wait begins. A reporter and her cameraman interview people waiting, including the one young man who has been hanging around EB games since 8:30am.

11:50 - Aaron is interviewed for a report that will air on the local news. On the left in the Zelda T-shirt stands the guy who was there since 8:30am.

11:57 - The emcee announces the countdown and footage is shown on the jumbotron while everybody counts down.

The pyrotechnics go off as the count reaches zero.

11:58 - Happy DS Launch! (Yep, two minutes early.)

A creepy hand again reminds us that touching is good.

Streamers come down after the pyrotechnics.

12:00 - The 300 pre-orderers.  A kid is accosted by security while another man sings in the rain. Without the magical Nintendo DS wristband, you could not get into EB Games at launch.

12:03 - Sent to the EB entrance in groups of ten, the people with wristbands enter the store one at a time to buy their Nintendo DSes. The Nintendo Street Team was also on the scene.

12:04 - The first DS receiver leaves through the security gate (he's behind the pole). Sadly, though Aaron won a Nintendo DS as part of the contest, Nintendo failed to allocate one for him at the launch event, so would have to wait for them to ship him one. With nothing to play, we left shortly after.

Aaron received his DS back home, which required immediate replacement due to some issues that plagued the early units. He spent most of his early DS days playing the Super Mario 64 DS minigames. Not impressed by the early game line-up, Dan opted to wait until the launch of the DS Lite before purchasing one, though he borrowed his buddy's to play New Super Mario Bros.

Images

Talkback

TJ SpykeFebruary 21, 2011

Shouldn't it be six years (since it launched in December 2004)? Unless one of the years wasn't magical.

You could argue that the first year wasn't all that magical.

Bman87301February 21, 2011

Quote from: TJ

Shouldn't it be six years (since it launched in December 2004)? Unless one of the years wasn't magical.

Check your facts, the DS launched in November 2004, not December... unless you're referring to Japan.

TJ SpykeFebruary 21, 2011

You are right, I was  mixing up the North American and Japanese release dates. Still six years though.

You're right, it was an oversight that has now been corrected.

Kytim89February 21, 2011

I walked in the snow to get the original DS back in january of 2005.

TJ SpykeFebruary 21, 2011

Nothing special about my story. The DS was not a "must own" system like the Wii was and was easy to get. I just went the a GameStop in the mall on launch day to get the system, I only had enough money to get one game and chose Super Mario 64 DS. I didn't like the controls, but still enjoye it. Like Pedro though, I ended up spending more time on the mini-games and loved most of them.

Ian SaneFebruary 21, 2011

The DS made a VERY poor first impression on me.  The Virtual Boy is the only Nintendo system that made a worse one.

The DS launched with a re-release of an N64 game as its ONLY first party launch title.  And it also had a demo of the Metroid FPS I never wanted them to make that seemed to be designed specifically for people that didn't like Metroid.  It also had such a small amount of games that despite having a several month head start over the PSP, the PSP had more launch games than the DS had accumlated in total by that point.  The early touchscreen usage was also very embarassing and poorly implemented exposing the feature as a silly gimmick.  It was clear as day that Nintendo had no actually planned ideas of significance for it when they came up with it.

The DS's first year was just a complete and utter disaster.  The DS seemed like the sucker's system at first in that only a complete tool would buy one for the priviledge of buying Super Mario 64 again - only with shitty controls!  I never in a million years would have thought that it would become Nintendo's most successful system EVER.  It is an outright miracle the damn thing wasn't in bargain bins by the end of the first year.

Though thinking back I've never really been all that impressed with the DS at all.  It clearly improved after that first rocky year and it is certainly a perfectly acceptable system worthy of being successful.  But I don't really have any special memories of it.  There aren't any games for it that I would consider memorable favourites of mine.  On the GBA I loved Minish Cap and the Metroids.  But on the DS the Metroid and Zelda games are TERRIBLE.  NSMB felt off and it was NSMB Wii that really got it right.  The best DS games seem to be sequels to GBA games and as a result they tend to all blur together in my mind.  The system has tons of great games but seems to lack truly special games that would be remembered as absolute classics 20 years from now.  I think this is the result of an over-dependence on sequels and franchises.  We've got Pokemon and Castlevania and Advance Wars and Mario & Luigi and they're all great series but we don't have the groundbreaking early titles in those series that stood out because they were fresh and exciting.  You're getting well crafted games with tons of polish but with no real surprises.

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterFebruary 22, 2011

Haha, and here I thought I had to work hard in order to get a DS. That was a fun story, Karl! At least you got Mario Kart DS :)

TurdFurgyFebruary 22, 2011

You should have got a FREE DS out of that! An employee just chunked a game at your face!

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterFebruary 23, 2011

Today's story is great. I remember one of my friends got Sprung for sh*ts and giggles, and I thought it was hilarious. In fact we even joked that Ubisoft's representative in Brawl would have been the guy from Sprung, with his attacks being to hit on the female characters.

Here's the link if anyone hasn't read it yet:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25436

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorFebruary 23, 2011

I got my DS at midnight - I was the only one at my Walmart store in line to get one.  Kinda sad.  (This "Only one in line at midnight" was repeated for the DSi and DSiXL, although, by this time, I was at a different store.  I wonder if anyone will be there for the 3DS?)...

TJ SpykeFebruary 23, 2011

There wasn't much hype for the DS, and the DSi and DSi XL were just revisions (and thus not as much demand, especially for the XL). The 3DS, on the other hand, has been getting tons of publicity from fans and the press and I expect it to de in much more demand.

My first DS memory was playing Mario Kart on my brother's Phat and thinking I would go crosseyed from trying to watch 2 screens. Ended up holding off because I heard the Lite was coming and bought that on launch day.

TGMFebruary 25, 2011

Didn't pick up the DS on day 1, but you can be sure that I'll get myself a 3DS and Super Street Fighter IV 3D as soon as possible.

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterFebruary 25, 2011

Andy, Aaron both of your stories were great! The DS launch party, in particular, looked really fun!

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