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How I Got My GameCube - A Remembrance of a System Launch 

Pedro's Story

by Pedro Hernandez - November 18, 2011, 7:40 pm EST

Getting a GameCube on Black Friday? PREPOSTEROUS!

Before I start off, I just want to say that my story is nothing fantastical. I didn't attend any midnight releases, I didn't pre-order the system, and I didn't partake in any special event where fights started and both clothing and dignity were lost. However, the reason I want to tell this story is because I find it amusing how it got connected to the Wii launch, and especially what some of the former NWR members had to say about it.

If you guys recall, the members of one of the podcasts (can't remember which) made the controversial statement that the Wii would be so underwhelming in terms of sales that on the morning after launch you would be able to go to a Walmart, grab one off the shelf and go home. Of course, history dictated otherwise, as the Wii would become so successful that for YEARS stores would be receiving them in extremely limited quantities.  Now, this was a statement I mocked for years before I eventually joined the staff, and it was mainly because of how their comments were similar to when I got my GameCube.

It was Black Friday, 2001. I had gone shopping with my mother, my sister, and her family. We stopped at a Walmart to see what they had. Now, I was saving money to get my own system, but I never expected to pick it up right away, so I went to check my bank account, and it turned out that I had enough money to buy both a system and a game. I went to the electronics department, to the video game aisle, grabbed a GameCube off the shelf, grabed Luigi's Mansion and a memory card in the process, and paid for everything.

Note that this was on a BLACK FRIDAY, so the store was packed to the bone with bargain hunters and mad shoppers, so the fact that I was able to just grab a system and a game without any hassle says something. The statement the podcast crew made was right: the launch of the Nintendo system was so unspectacular that one would be able to find it at a store easily. Except they talked about the wrong system at the wrong time period!

It's for that reason alone that I enjoy this story so much. Pardon if my passive-aggressiveness regarding the Wii statement seems too much (I've long since stopped being bitter about it), but I find it amazing how things tend to work out. But I did have fun buying it, regardless of how UN-spectacular it was. I still remember going to my room, all decked out in holiday decorations, and spending hours playing Luigi's Mansion and thinking how out of place it felt playing a horror-themed game on the holidays.

Talkback

StrawHousePigNovember 19, 2011

*wewt* OGCN represent! 8)

I too lament the lack of the spice 'Cube. I went for purple (was it really called indigo?) but would have given it away and bought the orange one in a second. I'm on my second 'Cube, the first having been stolen. This one is a goner though since controller port 1 is dead. :(

Like most folks I picked up things to use with it before it was launched. I went in well after opening, like mid-day, and they still had plenty. Rogue Leader was king with me. Monkey Ball was great too.

The GCN reminds me of the internet and the IGN boards. I had gotten a new TiBook and was a newb on the gaming forums at that time too, but it was all tied together and was great fun. I've "known" Mr. Bivens since about then, too, from the IGN I-Board. A real good guy, he is. I remember them all fondly. Well, most of them...  :-X ;)

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterNovember 19, 2011

Wait, IGN forums? Dude, I used to be a regular on the IGN forums back in 2001! I used to be on the SSB boards mostly, but I was totally around for that! :D

Those were some really awesome times! Basically, it got me started with talking about gaming online, which provided an awesome outlet that was (and still can be) hard to have in the "real world." I remember StrawHouse being a real bastard, and I didn't much care for him. :-p (j/k of course!) Pedro, what was your username back then?


Right now, I own four GameCubes - Jet Black (launch, baby! Still kicking'!), Indigo, Tales of Symphonia Mint Green Edition (complete with GB Player), and the Panasonic Q. I NEED all of the variations, such as the Red Gundam version (Char Zak II or some stuff), Spice Orange, and maybe some of the other limited edition ones if I can find.

NintendadNovember 19, 2011

I live in a small town compared to most and figured I'd have no problem getting a GameCube on launch day. I planned to drive to Walmart at 11:45pm, wait 15 mins and walk out with a new system. I wasn't about to wait in line for hours. So the day before I went to Walmart and bought an extra controller, memory card, Luigi's Mansion and Waverace. While there I checked with the worker who told me they would have 28 GameCubes, plenty I figured.


So that evening I was waiting till late to drive back to Walmart, about a 30 minute drive. At around 10:00 I got online to kill some time. There I saw the reports of massive lines already forming in the bigger cities, and even some smaller ones. I started to get nervous and called Walmart to check the situation. You can imagine my despair when the worker told me there was already a big line. I then asked if they were already all spoken for. He went to check for what seemed an eternity, then came back and told me 21 of the 28 were already taken. I couldn't believe it. I jumped in my car and made the long drive as quick as I could. All I remember is there were deer all over the place but I wasn't slowing down. When I got there and walked back to the game section, my throat was dry and I was expecting the worst. However, I made it in time and became number 23. Happy, but then it dawned on my I'd probably be stuck with the purple GameCube. I really didn't like it and wanted black. However, it seemed most people ahead of me were choosing purple so I even go the black GameCube I wanted. I drove home much more slowly and content. I didn't even play it when I got home, but went to bed and played the next morning.


One thing I do remember is the kid with his mom in front of me throwing a fit. He got his GameCube but had forgot about the memory card. He ran back to pick one up but discovered they were sold out. That must have sucked.

NWR_pap64Pedro Hernandez, Contributing WriterNovember 19, 2011

My username back in the day was pappel64, Danny.

Xero!November 19, 2011

I was a late adopter all throughout my gaming life up to after the GCN generation. That being said, I spent most of that gen only managing to play the Gamecube when my school had near-vacation arcades and when my friends invited me over. I would then go home to continue playing my trusty N64.


The time eventually came for me to get my own Gamecube because one night I nearly screamed when I heard about this: "Get the Gamecube system and Mario Kart Double Dash for just $99.99". I could NOT pass this up and so I kept talking to my mom about how cheap the system was now.


So one travelling Aunt and $100 bucks from my Xmas job's income later and I somehow forgot what I was expecting. Probably because it took so long for my Aunt to get back and I was perhaps focused on my job. However, that boxing day was the best EVER cause my mom gently woke me up with the Gamecube bundle in her hands. I never woke up so happy in my life and I don't think I ever did since that day. :D

purevalNovember 19, 2011

I wanted a Gamecube at launch but did not have the extra cash to spend due to my wedding and my parents decided I was too old for games so I did not get one at Christmas. About a year after the system launched I came home from work and my wife told me she had something in the trunk of her car and asked me to bring it in. I went to get it (expecting something REALLY heavy) and much to my surprise there was a Gamecube waiting for me. Unfortunately she did not get me a game so we ran out to the local Blockbuster to grab a game. The only game that was interesting to me that I could afford at the time was Legends of Wrestling.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorNovember 19, 2011

Good times, good times...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/TheUncleBob/gcrec.jpg

SundoulosNovember 20, 2011

I never had much of a problem getting one.  I think I bought one for myself at launch, one for my dad as a Christmas gift (as a proxy for my mom) a few weeks later, and one for my sister's wedding gift also a few weeks later.

ThePermNovember 20, 2011

I woke up early in the morning, walked into the wal-mart and bought it. There was no line, and no other people buying it. I got luigis mansion with it, and when Smash Bros came out I rented it for like 2 weeks straight before I bought it.

SourdoughNovember 22, 2011

I myself had just started college up in Fairbanks, AK (if you think Anchorage is bad, try going to Interior Alaska in the middle of January... two weeks of -50 is ugly...), hanging out with some friends and talking about the "Micro$oft whore" who lived down the hall from us who was so damn proud of his new X-box.  For some reason we thought it'd be funny for all of us to go out and get Gamecubes and just walk into his room with them in our hands, so one of the guys, Nick, started calling around and asking if anyone wanted to go out in the morning and buy one.  Imagine our surprise when he found out from one of the guys that K-Mart was open 24/7 and they had started selling the 'Cubes at midnight!  So we all piled into Nick's car and putted off in -20 at 1:30 am to get our consoles.

The astonishing thing was that, according to the sales clerk, this store had received 150 consoles,  and there was quite a stack of them left when we got there (probably close to 80 or so)!  We each chose a black version of the machine and a game of some sort.  There wasn't much in the way of software to choose from at the time, and I ended up getting that year's edition of Madden.  And we all did indeed walk into the "Micro$oft whore's" room to show off our 'Cubes... though it didn't turn out to be as funny as we initially thought it'd be...

Despite my console dying on me six or seven months afterwards and having to get a replacement console from the local Nintendo service center, I've never regretted the purchase.

Why in Cthulhu's name would you move to Fairbanks?!

SourdoughNovember 25, 2011

Why in Cthulhu's name would you move to Fairbanks?!

nickmitchNovember 25, 2011

I remember having saved up birthday/other gift money and allowance to buy one. One of parents drove me to Toys 'R' Us and waiting in the car while I walked in excitedly. There was a huge stack of them behind the register in all the colors. The games were in a cardboard display, IIRC.

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