Today may mark the debut of the Wii but it's not necessarily been a year for everyone who's gotten one so far. Some Wii owners preordered in advance (like ) while others had to hunt for months in order to track down a system. We spoke with a few people from around the Joystiq network about their experience with snagging the year's most hotly-desired console -- and we'd love to hear your stories as well. Reminisce with these fine bloggers and then let us know how you got yours. Was it a heroic effort or were you one of the lucky ones to secure your little white box early? Since we're going to be celebrating everything Wii this week -- even more so than usual! -- we might as well start at the beginning. Kyle Orland. Rather than kicking off with a more traditional pre-order story we thought we would revisit something a little different. Back in January -- two months after the Wii's initial release -- Joystiq's Kyle Orland shared not his story but the story of. Paige spent a morning in the cold driving with her mother from store to store suffering through 30-degree weather and people who tried to cut in line. Even then (did we mention this was January?!) stores were handing out tickets and facing lines that were double the size of their shipments. The Wii craze was in full effect and we'll bet that many consumers will be seeing the same thing over the holidays. "Apparently she.. hadn't gotten out of the house until 8. I had told her the night before that this should be plenty early enough to get a place in line for a 10 a m store opening. I was wrong. By the time they hit Circuit City at 8:15 a m. there were already 20 customers lined up for the 16 Wiis indicated by a sign on the front door. What's worse a surly line-goer told them the nearby Best Buy had over 50 people in line for only 20 systems. Figuring the short Circuit City line held better odds than the reportedly overflowing Best Buy line they stuck around until 8:30 a m when an employee gave out exactly 16 Wii vouchers just enough to leave my mom and sister out in the cold. Desperate the pair decided to swing by Toys 'R' Us (which was closed with no signs of life or Wiis) and a nearby Gamestop (where the lights and a neon "Open" sign were on but no employees responded to my sister's pounding on the door). This was the story my sister was recounting as they rolled towards the fifth and final store on their list another Gamestop. As the minivan approached the parking lot. Paige cut her story short in mid-sentence. "Oh crap there's a line," she said. "and there's a sign on the door and the first word on it is 'Wii.' I'll call you back."Fifteen minutes later. I was pleased to hear from Paige that the store had 17 systems and that she had signed an unofficial sign-in sheet for the eighth one...."Chris Powell.
"I was actually the first person in America to buy a Wii when it officially went on sale. You see. I'm in the Air Force and am stationed on Guam which is a U. S territory and is about 14 hours ahead of EST. There's a saying that Guam is where America's day begins since it's the territory/state that's furthest ahead of all time zones. On the night leading up to launch. I was the first person in line at the midnight launch at Gamestop and am therefore technically the first person in the United States to have purchased a Wii. As soon as I bought it. I took it home and filmed several videos where I posted them at the Cheap Ass Gamer forums showing people the menu screen and how the VC worked and such."
Chris Chester. "I managed to avoid almost all of the hustle and bustle that most gamers had to subject themselves to in order to get their hands on that precious white cargo. Instead of wrangling pre-orders or waiting in line at a big box retailer. I tapped a secret connection... I'd like to say I met a contact in a clandestine location and was passed my Wii in an unmarked briefcase by a nondescript man in a trenchcoat and sunglasses. The reality is that I just worked for the Entertainment Software Association at the time and our contact at Nintendo offered us access to the official supply. Gave her my credit card and shipping info and my Wii showed up a few days after launch no muss no fuss. I guess that'll cost me some gamer cred."And of course the Joystiq crew put together all their own stories which you can find thanks to the helpful search function.
Got mine the week before Christmas. Camped out at Best Buy for 10 hours. Signed the unofficial sign-in sheet when I got there which the store honored. I had a blast. The people that actually camped were all very friendly and courteous. Conversation was great amongst all of us though we tended to cluster in small individual groups. I got Wii 13 of 16. There was no trouble until about an hour before opening when the people who just got there were told they weren't getting one. They got angry at US. Us campers put forth an effort to get one. These people showing up that close to opening didn't deserve one.
I love telling the story of how I got my Wii. So having heard all the pre-order BS. I say that won't be me. I proceed to trade in my X-Box and Gamecube along with games and accesories for credit at Game Crazy where I assumed I would have an easier time there well after I have given up all my video game possesions and weeks of calling I get the bad news they had already filled their pre-orders. I proceed to ask why was I not made aware of this as I traded all my stuff in with the hopes of it being replaced with a shiny new Wii. Well seems I'm SOL. Fast foward to Sunday. November 19th and my Aunt and Uncle in law call to tell me they got one and are coming over to let me check it out. I set it up it's awesome and I am even more sad that I did not get one but happy I can play it at my in-laws whenever. They then tell me they have to go feed their dogs and I begin packing up the Wii. I hand it over and they hand it back and say Merry Christmas. I nearly cried not because I got the Wii but the genuine nature of the gesture touched me. They had gotten two Wii's one from Wal-Mart standing outside freezing and another that morning from Sams Club (where my Wii came from). Needless to say my Gamecrazy credit went to buying stuff for Uncle Ray but I also snagged an extra Wiimote,Nunchuck. Zelda and a points card. I have not looked back since and have had no issue with my system.
After play by brothers at Christmas dinner I wanted one. I shopped around for a couple of weeks and had to learn the shipping days for each store. After learning shipping times and days at each of my local stores I would stop in a couple of hours before but others had the same idea and that still didn't work. Then one day I stopped at my local GameStop and they already sold out from that days shipment before it even came in. Right next door was our local Best Buy and they didn't have a guaranteed shipping time or day so I wasn't even going their since the last time I was told it would be about a month before they got another shipment. My wife suggested going their anyway to give it a try. Sure enough the same UPS truck that had just left GameStop went right next door and I was the first to get one of the 3 in that shipment.
My parents got me a Target gift card for Christmas to pay for the Wii because they didn't believe me when I told them they should pre-order it well in advance. So everyday after Christmas I drove around to every store I could think of camping out in the mornings or just getting information. So about a week later my girl friend calls me with information. Turns out my boss told all of her friends to keep an eye out for a Wii. So some lady she knew has a daughter that works near a Target in my hometown. This guy comes in to where she works and announces that they have Wii's at Target. She calls her mom her mom calls my boss my boss calls my friend my friend calls my girlfriend and she calls me. Needless to say. I dropped everything I was doing and drove like a bat out of hell to get there. When I got there there were still 4-5 Wii's left. Nobody knew.. it was beautiful.
A few weeks after the Wii released. I was still calling retailers every day to see which ones were getting shipments and when. One day I got a bit lucky and called the Meijer store by my house. They said they had 2 in stock and 1 other person had called already so I should hurry. When I got to the store I was so pissed because they told me that just after I called another person called and asked them to hold it for them. I was extremely upset because I told them that they always tell me their policy is not to hold items like that. Luckily one of the electronics department employees agreed with me and said that they would give the person 15 minutes and if they did not show up the Wii was mine. By this time there was only 1 Wii left so I had no choice but to wait. That was the longest 15 minutes... Ever! Another person came up and asked about Wii's but we quickly realized it wasn't the person who requested the hold. Right at the 15 minute mark I went to the counter and said "it's been 15 minutes by my watch" and sure enough they sold me the Wii. As I was leaving the store I was watching people coming in the front doors and just as I was leaving I saw a couple guys in a big hurry and practically running to the electronics department. I wonder how long it took them to get one after that... The funny thing about all this is that even after I got my Wii that day. I wasn't allowed to open it yet... It was a xmas present. This made that 15 minutes that I had to wait at the store seem like an eternity since I had at that point. 20 days to wait. UGH!!But.. it was still nice just knowing I had mine.
I waited Nov 18th at 2PM. I planned on going at 7PM but after seeing a few people already in line. I couldn't take the chance and stayed all through the night near Best Buy (My mom was a little ticked at the fact that I was waiting all night for a video game system but she got over it). We all had DS's and PSPs at the ready ate pizza joked about the PS3 problems (both the system itself and the waiting-in-line arguments). The line was super-friendly so we were able to save each other's spots when we needed to run a few small errands. Of course we all had a hard time coping the late night weather (I used to camp in the cold but still...) and it seemed as if time is almost slowing down making the 18 1/2 hour wait an absolute hell. In the end it was all worth it at 9PM when the doors finally open (I was the 10th person in line out of a good 50 people. I think...). Got the system and a 2000 point card for later use in the shop. I thought I had enough for Zelda but I remembered I brought an import game for my brother's birthday (JUMP Superstars for the DS) so I had to wait till later. Overall it was well worth it. If it wasn't for that. I wouldn't be able to get the Wii until months later...
No pre-order for me. Just not that smart. I guess. I live in the great state of Alabama. Back in Sept. '96 when the 64 came out. I didn't get one launch day. Stores remained sold out through the holidays and I didn't end up finding one until March '97. When the Gamecube came out. I didn't want to have a repeat. So on November 17th. 2001 I headed out and went to the Wal-Mart in Sylacauga (it was the closest Wal-Mart to me at the time and with Sylacauga not being that large of a town and Birmingham just right up the road. I figured my chances of getting a Cube would be higher there than anywhere else). I was successful. Got a Gamecube memory card and Rogue Squadron 2. Fast forward to last year. Wanted to get a Wii. Wanted to get one launch night if possible. So what to do. In the intervening 6 years I had gotten married and moved closer to Birmingham and further away from Sylacauga. But I thought the old Sylacauga Wal-Mart came through for me with the Gamecube maybe it will again for the Wii. So on the 18th the wife and loaded up and headed to the Sylacauga Wal-Mart. We picked up a friend along the way and got to the store about 9:15. First we headed to the electronics department to see if there was any activity though I doubted there would be. And indeed there wasn't. It seemed like a regular night. This wasn't too suprising since my previous experience with the GameCube led to suspect that the action was taking place over in Lay Away (where it had 6 years before). We head over and sure enough there's a line. I end up 17th my friend ends up 18th and my wife who was standing in for another friend of ours was 20th... and they had 20 Wii's. We got a Wii a nunchuck and Zelda. I hadn't been planning on getting Zelda but the word in the line was the game was going to be hard to find. They only had 19 copies but a person further up in line chose to pass on getting a copy. So I went ahead and picked it up. Glad I did. Came home hooked it up and the rest is history. Well.. almost. My Wii ended up being one of the ones that got the 110213 error code after connecting to WiiConnect24. So I had to replace it. Nintendo's advance replacement program is an amazingly wonderful thing.
My better half wanted to get me one because I was obsessing over it since it's release. We were at a Walmart asking about the Fraggles S.2 box (which they had sold out of the like...2 copies they had way before we'd gotten there) when she popped the question ("when's the next shipment?"). We happened to luck out of an employee who had an early announcement of them having 25 of them on April 1st. So a week goes by and I go through all the symptoms of withdrawl.... scary picture that. Then I get to wallyworld and wait for midnight... from about 8 p m.. Smart move though seeing as how the line started building behind me a mere 30 minutes later. It got so long that they moved us over to the (now defunct) layaway dept. There was a large group of "we were here first" folk who were like.. well after that guy (me) the rest was kind of cut and dried till I walked up the line to the front.... no WAY everyone who waited ended up with one. I even nudged the GF and said I should sell mine to the back of the line people for a huge mark-up she gave me the look that said " you do and I'll make you regret it" and damned if I don't still love them both. ;)
It was really fun grabbing a Wii on launch - these stories are really taking me back ;) Here's mine:This was the first console I got on day 1. My roommate and I had been dying to get the Wii since it was first announced. We were going to get it at Walmart after hearing that they were letting the line form inside - a huge plus in November! Unfortunately there were already 30 people there at 7PM five hours before it would be sold. So we walked past all of the fans went to the groceries and grabbed supplies. Long story short we ended up driving around until we found a Toys R Us with no one in line. We parked the car near the door set up our stuff and got back in. We took turns sleeping making sure no one stole our spots. We had food drinks and blankets since I wasn't keeping the heat running more than ten minutes at a time with gas at $2.50+. Several cars drove past but no one really got into line until 6AM three hours before release. We took turns getting coffee and taking bathroom breaks until 9 when we were the first two to get the console at the store. My other roommate had to do the same scenario but in February to get his! Needless to say it was well worth the uncomfortable evening in the car. Though at one point when I was curled up half on the back seat and half in the trunk freezing. I didn't think it would be.
The morning of preorders I woke up at with a gnarled confused look on my face thinking "Why am I not waking to the blaring electronic buzz of my alarm clock?"You see. I didn't have to work that day and had originally planned to run down to my local Gamestop around 8am and get in line to secure myself a piece of that wonderful white hardware with unlimited possibilities but my plans however changed instantly the moment I passed a leisurely glance toward my alarm clock and saw not the warm red glow of it's digital readout as I had expected but a cold black emptiness that woke me up faster than any coffee could. I scrambled out of bed feeling around for my glasses because I had fallen asleep with them on again (during a late night Hal Hartley marathon). I dropped clumsily into my computer chair and came face to face with the current time and the realization that I was waking up much later than I'd expected. I didn't mean to scream as loud as I did waking up not only my girlfriend but my upstairs neighbor as well it was a gut reaction. Of all the days to have my alarm clock unplugged!I quickly explained the situation to my girlfriend as I was getting dressed and begged her to hurry and get her clothes on as well we had no time to lose. She remained optimistic reasoning that we lived by at least 7 video game stores and that's not including places like walmart and best buy - surely there had to be some pre-order slots available somewhere. I'll admit that she almost had me convinced but that little gamer inside me the part that checks platform sales charts and reads gaming blogs - he knew better. Cut to 15 minutes later we're driving past gamestop on Mall road and there's a line out the door. I don't even bother to stop as that's the most popular one in town and would be the first one filled. The same for funcoland. EB and Gamecrazy no one had a single pre-order left or they weren't offering them to begin with. I felt doomed to wander the desperate wasteland of unprepared non-preorderers - that haphazard mob of unhip parents and clueless late-adopters or just unlucky gamers who had to work and couldn't pay off a friend or just simply came too late. No. I couldn't be one of those people. I wouldn't have it that way. I would find a pre-order. And so we took things to a new level. We went covert. Amanda drove and I called a friend on the telephone (one who has no interest in console gaming) and had her do a search on all the video game store within a 50 mile radius. I'd call each one and inquire about preorders. Then when there was one available we'd bee-line it and end of story or so I thought.2 hours later we'd reached the end of the list with not a single preorder within a 50 mile radius. We'd gone as far north as Cincinnati and still nothing. My girlfriend had to be at work in an hour and we had exhausted every possibility we were sitting in the middle of Cincinnati with no pre-order voucher in sight and two huge frowns on our faces. I had been defeated. The Ebayers had one this time. In a final effort. I called my friend and had her run a search for game stores withing a 30 mile radius of where we were in cincinati.5 stores in on the list we hit paydirt. A quaint little EB who had recently opened a few weeks earlier had one preorder left. Apparently not many people knew about the store so it hadn't been bombarded the way the others had. He couldn't hold the preorder for us but the store was empty and no one was in the mini-mall parking lot the store owner explained so we had a good chance of picking it up if we hurried. The place was 20 minutes away we made it there in 10. I honestly thought I was going to die in a traffic accident for a Wii and although Amanda wasn't as excited about owning the system as I was she had made it her personal mission to find one and so drove relentlessly. As we pulled into the parking lot my eyes locked with a 30 year old man sitting impatiently at a redlight 20 feet away. He had his turn signal pointing toward my preorder and had been staring greedily at the small shop before our eyes met. He was no nintendo fan. One word came to mind. Ebay. The look on his face told me he was there for the same product but not for the same reason. Imagine my surprise when he ran the redlight to turn in to the mini-mall parking lot. Imagine my further surprise when I felt my own hand opening the door to the car before Amanda had even come to a stop!I hopped out of the moving vehicle and tried my best to run to keep up with the moving pavement underneath me. She hadn't been going that fast just parking lot speed but it was surprisingly disorienting and I almost fell on my face. When I got to the counter I could hardly breath but I managed to get out the words "One... Wii... Preorder... Please...". The Evil Ebayer (or at least I like to imagine he was) didn't even bother coming in. He must have called the store after me and known there was only one left. He flipped me the bird and drove off.
I didn't pre-order or camp out because I wanted to get the Japanese version. Then I figured I could always get some kind of FreeLoader eventually so I acted on the rumor that was all over the internet: Gamestop was going to have Wiis in stock on Black Friday. I could never confirm if that was true or not but I was like #3 in line and they did not have them in stock. After that despite numerous Sunday circular ads stating you could camp out at Best Buy or Circuit City. I didn't care anymore. Finally. I went to Japan in May of this year (2007) and found one in Shinjuku.
This isn't what happened to me but it's a good story I heard about back when it happened. One of the stores had a line of about 20 people in it. The first 5 or so in line were bragging about how much money they'd make on ebay and were generally being rude to the few people behind them who actually wanted to play the system. As the shop was closing up an employee told them that they'd only be getting 5 in and everyone should go home. Well the 6th guy in line (not one of the ebayers) who had made friends with the wii wanters that weren't 1-5 took down the phone numbers of the people behind saying "just in case i'll let you know."The first 5 guys mocked the guy alot through the couple hours he had to wait cause he was "dumb" and "not getting one" but he kept saying he was there in case they got extra or one of the guys cards didn't go through. About an hour before opening the shop employee confirmed that only 5 were coming in and the 6th guy said "alright i guess it's safe for me to run get some coffee if you'll save my spot" and offered to bring the other guys coffee back from starbucks. He took down their requests and headed out to starbucks which was next to a walgreens picked up the coffee and a bit of laxative and brought it back. After half an hour everyone but 6 was squirming and about to cry. They all ran off and 6 called up 4 of the nice guys in line behind them and told them to hurry their asses off to get their wiis.
I got mine last December. The Nintendo World store in NYC was selling Wiis every morning. I got there at about 6:30AM and was the second to last person to get one. My favorite part was coming up with snappy answers for the morons who had to ask what we were on line for; and I say they were morons because they only asked at the beginning of the line where you could see the big glowing Nintendo store with big glowing Wii signs. My 3 top snappy answers for "duh. What's the line for?"3. Free Skull tatoos.2. Free Goat Flu vaccinations1. Only worked because we were right around the corner from one of those morning shows with the crowd of housewives waving&screaming outside the window behind the hosts. They just happened to have started screaming right after I told some dumb tourist that we were on line for "Free euthanasia."after the screaming stopped I continued:"See it's allot of fun get on line."
I really didn't expect the Wii to attract as much attention at launch as it did. I went to my local 24-hour Wal-Mart at a little past 9 the night before and asked a drone if they were going to be selling them at midnight. She said yes but they'd already handed out vouchers for all 27 Wiis they were getting and I was out of luck. I left there and drove by Toys'R'Us. Already closed. 20 people in lawn chairs and sleeping bags. I drove by Target. It was like a tailgate party easily 40-50 people with someone's pickup truck blaring loud music. I went home and went to bed. The next morning. I ordered one of the first Wiis to be posted on ebay with the receipt and the seller's name in the picture. It was worth the $320 plus shipping to get a Wii and Zelda without waiting outside all night with the chance I still wouldn't get one. I wasn't so lucky when it became clear I had to get another one for my nieces for xmas and I paid a good deal more in early December but nowhere near the $500 some people were apparently paying. If Nintendo hadn't been able to fix my Wii for me and refused to replace it for some reason. I'd be doing the same right now. But they did (good thing I ordered one that included the receipt good thing it died a week and a half before it went out of warranty.)
Got mine on launch day. I'm also from Alabama and can tell you that one thing that the the No. 12 commenter. Wedge from Sylacauga doesn't mention is that November 18th of last year was the date of the Alabama and Auburn game the "Iron Bowl". Which is a holiday bigger than Christmas in this state. I somewhat used this fact to my advantage that day as I knew that most people in rural areas would most likely be partial to see the game in full on TV before heading out to potentially line up for a Wii. After I watched throughout the most of the third quarter and Auburn was sure to win (War Eagle!). I headed out to the local Wal-Mart. To my slight surprise there were already around eight in line near the designated area outside of the customer service department. They had around twenty in stock so I was good. What wasn't to my surprise is that around a half hour after the football game was over herds of people showed up to wait in line for a Wii. Many were turned away due to the mass of the line and I was duly thankful for planning ahead. Six hours later. I had my Wii and Twilight Princess. I somewhat dreaded the wait but it was worth it. Everyone in line had a DS which passed the time greatly. A year later. I still have the same system about six more games and haven't had the first problem yet. Good times.
I was promised a Wii for Christmas but my family couldn't get their hands on one. Instead. I got a "Good for one Wii as soon as you can find one" card. I then spent every weekend looking at all the local stores got up early every day during spring break to look for Wiis and finally managed to snag a Wii at the local Target after being tipped off by a great salesman who saw me come in every day. He said they were coming in on Sunday at 8:00 so I showed up at 6:00 and was number 13 of 24. Ridiculous how crazy they were even back in late February. And I still haven't seen them on shelves.
stood in line at best buy for like 15 hours by stood in line i mean signed the unofficial sheet went inside and played GH2 until it closed then came out and listened to comedy CDs around a space heater witjh my friends then my friend who was parked in his RV at the end of the lot brought out his 360 and we played cod2 pretty srange night.. anyways.. the food and energy drinks we consumed got to me about opening time so i had to run out of line to use the bathroom luckily for me the people behind me were courteous and let me back in line. Tha day i bought my wii red steel and fire emblem path of radience for cube since my cube burned out the day before that game launched anyways the next day i picked up TP and trauma center and began my wii career which now spans 2 remotes 2 nunchuks a classic remote. 14 wii games. 6 GCN games and 15 VC games. Im Liiving large.
Launch day was also on the first day of Deer season so I didn't get home til around 7PM showered and called up some friends and my mom drove us to wal-mart. (My car was in the shop) Well my mother was there earlier and they said they weren't going to hand out tickets but I guess they did and they were already sold out at 8:20. Went home and called a another wal-mart two spots open but the place was 40 minutes away. (Should of just went there first) So we didn't go. Me wanting this thing more than anything started searching online and had 4 tabs open at midnight to see if the sites would be updated no luck went to bed. Woke up at 5AM and went to a local store they were getting one Wii six came and one of the employees came out and told they only had one lost my chance there. Went home checked Circut City com and what do you know they had a Wii Bundle for sale came with a Wii. Red Steel. Zelda. Rayman and another remote. Petty much yelled for my mother to get the credit card and we ordered it online. (I ended up paying her back FYI. I'm not a spoiled shit) Finally a week later when I got home from school that big white box of awesome was on the table and that night I had about 10 people over who were obsessed with Wii Sports. Most awesome thing I've bought to date yet.
I went to a wal-mart supercenter (so they were open 24-7) the night the ps3 was gonna launch (two days before wii launched) to start waiting in line they said wii lines wouldn't start till the next day so I called the next morning and they said there was already two guys in line. I was like OH CRAP and went down there straight away and was third in line waited in line that weekend with really cool people we saved each others spots if we felt like browsing the store. I even managed to get laid during the time I was waiting that weekend don't ask....
I waited a few hours on November 19th looking and refreshing the order page on Amazon com with thousands of other people not knowing when they would actually offer them for sale.. eventually i gave up and just went to sleep. then my bestfriend called me at like 10 in the morning and asked me if i got it and i said " no i gave up waiting" wanting to know what time they actually put it up for sale i picked up my laptop and went back to the site it wasn't available yet i refreshed one time then all of a sudden it was available i instantly clicked "1-click order" and placed my order about 30 seconds later the site said "Out Of Stock".... been loving it since...
I've actually gave a generic idea of what happened when I first got it on the 1 year anniversary post... But I never get tired of saying it. Realize at this point. I gave up on console video games. I was sick and tired of them. PC MMOs seemed more helpful creatively than a single console game.. which all they would do is improve on graphics and faster gameplay. *yawn*So when it came close to the launch of the "Wii" which I was barely aware that it existed for the previous months. I had no care for it really. It seemed like an awkward machine but my girlfriend was really excited to get one. To this day I'm not sure what drew her into the extremely vague reviews of the system. But when she wants something. I'll at least give it a shot. So off we wandered.. searching and searching for the game. I was a bit surprised at how many places were sold-out of these systems!But I stupidly thought "Meh there'll be some stocked tomorrow." and I tried to convince my girlfriend that too. And though she understood she wanted to keep looking. Until we ended up at a ghetto WalMart... We wondered if it would even have a Wii in their store but if it did no one would expect to come here!It was 6 pm and my gf ran in to ask them if they had any in stock. It was confirmed and we were led to the line. The line was small and the ones in front seemed really introvert.. but everyone else you KNEW was part of the Nintendo community... For the next 6 hours we got to know each other more and enjoyed hanging out.. some of them had video game song competitions on their guitars.. and some of them just talked about the PS3 bashing on the Wii.. we played DS wireless battles through the night as we snagged cup noodles and Wendy's burgers to still our stomachs... It was great. I remembered why I favored Nintendo so much. By 12 tons of unknown people swarmed in trying to break apart our line so they could get a snag of the Wii before us.. but when the manager said that there was no Zelda all of them left! But the ones who were in the line from the very beginning and the very community that even set up a system to make sure that we were all counted in stayed... all that was ruined though. WalMart manager wanted to do things his way the very line list that we agreed with them to make sure that all of us were accounted for was ripped up by the very supervisor of the WalMart. Ugh.. they passed out random numbers instead almost missing some of us! Even a person who cut in line almost got a number because of how irresponsible and uncoordinated this all was!In the end we got our systems.. and though somewhat defeated by WalMart we still held smiles and cheered for everyone who left the building with a Wii. At this point my gf and I each got a Wii and I got the last Classic Controller.. the guy before me the one who rallied us all together just missed it... Believing he really helped us out my gf asked if we could give it to him. I agreed and we gave him the Classic Controller..... everyone left happily... well. except for us.. our taxi was late.. we had to wait until 4 AM... :) But it was such an enriching experience.. and when I first played Wii Sports my love of video games was renewed and I was more than ever inspired to become a Game Producer and Director.
Well i preordered my Wii are TRU about three weeks before the 19th. It was the same day that the PS3 preordered and Tickle Me Elmo Extreme preorders. Well needless to say after 4 hours in the cold and tons of counting heads i got in and preordered my Wii. I had been a nintendo stockholder since september so this was a gaming and investment! haha. So i walked in on sunday november 19th at about noon asked for my Wii and then brought it home. It took me and hour and a half to take open it up because i saved every twisty tie and cardboard in the box. After setting up the whoel console and putting it online and calirating the sensor bar. I connected by Wii remote and made my own mii. This was such a revolutionary process for me because it was so new and fresh. After i made my mii i went on to play Wii Bowling. Tenis. Golf. Baseball and Boxing. I had not yet got LZTP... i know but i was low on money due to the Wii. Well after a good year i'm now playing Super Mario Galaxy and having the best time. Luckily for me also i've recieved a 350% profit on my nintendo stock so high five for Wii and Nintendo!!Viva La Revolution!!
I got my Wii in January after an extremely disappointing Christmas. The one thing I wanted for Christmas was a Wii and low and behold there was a Wii under the Christmas tree.. for my Nintendo hating brother. He didn't want it didn't like it never used it. He kept it in a closet took awful care of it (parts were missing it was stained and dirty and a bit banged up) and would eventually trade it away for a PS2. I on the other hand called around scoured the internet for any news and eventually learned that my local EB Games would have the Wii in stock that Monday. I waited in the freezing cold several hours before opening time. People in line were sitting in their cars for warmth one of them brought a lawn chair. I stood there dressed in 3 layers and still shivering. But when the doors opened I was the first to step through the first to claim a Wii. I even took advantage of a $50 discount deal by trading in my old gamecube. I also bought Twilight Princess. Trauma Center a Wii Classic Controller and a new Gamecube controller to replace the one I traded in. Afterwards I'd read the stories of others the trials and tribulations of those seeking a Wii their victories and failures and smile to myself knowingly.
I ended up waiting in line to get it on launch day. My friend was having a birthday party the night on Friday night and we planned on going on Saturday morning to our local Walmart to wait in line. Unfortunately we got a call from another friend who said the line was already started because some idiot went right after school on friday and started the line. Because of him we had to go on Friday night to start waiting in line. We both ended up getting one but the wait was quite unbearable. Saturday was the worst quite possibly one of the slowest days of my life. It was all worth it though!
I remember it well... I was working that evening and I had gotten off at 11PM and went straight to my local 24 hour walmart and found about 25 people waiting in line. Most of them were kids just hitting their teens waiting outside in the cold when one of the employees came out. He looked over the line twice and started giving everyone vouchers; with that we all moved inside to the Layaway section of the building. There they were in all their splendor. All of their white boxes and the small amount of games available. I did not have a ticket and thought I would probably not be able to get one. Time seemed to move slowly as it finally neared 5 after midnight they started calling their vouchers. However there was one kid who was willing to sell this voucher to me and made taunting gestures of prices. Their supply was nearly depleted when I finally heard a magic number that was in my price range for the voucher: 125$. Hearing that. I rushed to the ATM machine at the front of the store but realized that if I pulled out 120 it would leave the kid 5 dollars short... Being the nice guy I am. I pulled out 140$ and told him to keep th rest then said that he would go and wait in front of Best Buy. So... that night. I spent 694.97 dollars for the Wii and Legend of Zelda. I have no regrets about doing that.
About a week or two before launch I started planning my first launch-day console purchase. I figured I would camp out at Target for the best chance at scoring a Wii try Toys'R'Us second and Sears as a last result. I had ruled out GameStop (no pre-order) and Best Buy because I knew that's where everyone goes for games. I knew I had work on the 18th and the next 2 days would be devoted to gaming bliss. Shortly after the guitarist for my newly formed band told me he booked us our first gig on the 18th. "What!" I said. "That's the day before the Wii comes out. I was supposed to camp out right after work." Now I love playing music (I'm a drummer) and I didn't want to let my band mates down but they knew this was important to me so I threatened to quit the band if I didn't get a Wii on launch because of the gig. Obviously they didn't want that to happen so we arranged to take two cars down to the show. As soon as we got done playing. I would drive straight to Target. The day before launch I could think of nothing else. I drive for a living so every chance I got I drove by Target and Best Buy checking out the lines. At about 2 o'clock a friend called me and told me he was waiting in line a Best Buy and he could save me a spot. "Cool," I thought. "Now I have another option in case Target runs out."I got off work at 5:30 and went to help the band load the van and we set off for our first show. Meanwhile my friend at Best Buy calls to tell me they started a sign-in sheet and he forgot to put my name on it. "Oh well. I was betting on Target anyway."So my band played a pretty decent first show despite nervousness and Wii on the brain but I didn't stick around to celebrate. I jumped in the car and drove 45 minutes to Best Buy. I dropped off some food for my friend and hung out for a bit before I went to Target. At Target there were maybe 20 people in line but some were just waiting with friends/family. I figured I had a little more time before I committed to sitting alone with mostly parents buying for their kids and decided to see what would happen at Best Buy. After all the guys waiting there seemed cool and had a spot saved for me. Plus most had DS's so it would be fun. So I picked up some supplies mostly Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper and headed back to Best Buy. We all sat around playing DS and basically acting like kids before Christmas. I let every |