GameCube Getting - Bivens style!
The summer before the GameCube released in North America was a magical time. Not only did events like E3 and the unveiling of Super Smash Bros. Melee and Pikmin help fuel my nerd love for Nintendo, 2001 marked the first time in my life I would have the means to purchase a home console without the help of my parents. I worked a variety of jobs the summer before the GCN released, mainly mowing grass. Throughout the summer, I managed to save up enough money for the console, a controller, a memory card, and one game. Early on in November, some third party titles and official GCN memory cards had been released at the local Walmart in my hometown. After buying Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader weeks before the launch of the console, I spent hours pawing through the instruction manual and an ample amount of time being mesmerized by the tiny size of the 1.4 GB GameCube optical disk. While I couldn’t enjoy my brand new game just yet, I did manage to frequent Walmart and play the Rogue Squadron demo for hours. By the time the November 17 rolled around, I was pumped for the November 18 midnight launch.
Being from a medium size town in central Illinois, I didn’t have to worry so much about mobs of people lining up for game consoles on launch day back in 2001. The evening before the launch took place, I kept going back to my local Walmart every few hours to see if there was a line forming for the console. After making several visits throughout the evening, a line had started to form around 10:30 PM. I immediately jumped in to secure my spot. Since I had already bought a memory card and Rogue Leader a few weeks prior, all I had to do was hunker down and wait for an hour and a half to grab my console. Things were looking pretty good, too. I was ninth in line and the store reportedly had more than enough units. Everyone in line was talking excitedly about the GameCube and was really looking forward to having the console in their hands.
As the clock struck midnight, the queue began to move forward and I was inching my way toward the counter to get my Cube. I almost had a change of heart on the color I was going to buy. Initially, like many Nintendo fans, I detested the choice of iIndigo for game console, so I was planning to buy a Jet Black unit. Over the months leading up to the GCN launch in North America, the “purple lunch box” had really grown on me and I was strongly considering purchasing it. In the end, I chickened out, and blurted, “Jet Black” when the clerk asked me which color I wanted. Regardless of my indecision toward color preference (in all honesty, I was hoping that the Spice GCN made it to the US!), I was a proud owner of a Nintendo GameCube. Ten years later, it remains one of my favorite consoles of all time.
