I've been planning for some time to buy my GameCube at Walmart, mainly because I wasn't sure if I'd be at college or back home on launch day, but also because I avoid pre-order bundles like the plague. After our football game yesterday (we lost), I threw the TV and suitcase into my Trans Am and hurried back to good ol' Jasper. I could have stayed in Auburn and tried to get a system at the Walmart there, but obviously there's going to be more competition in a college town. I'm probably one of the most hardcore console gamers in the whole town of Jasper, and easily the most hardcore Nintendo fan, so I knew my chances would be much better there.

So anyway, I pulled into town about 9:00 PM on Saturday night and immediately called the Walmart SuperCenter (which is open 24-7) to ask about launch status. They said the line was forming at electronics and was then seven people deep...also said they had 42 systems in stock. Armed with those promising numbers, I decided not to get in line until about 11:00...just no need to go earlier, unless I wanted to hype myself up even more. Sorry, I've had about three years of hyping myself up for GameCube, so I'll take the practical route. I picked up my friend Matt and we stopped by Sonic, since I hadn't had dinner yet. By the time we got done eating it was 10:15, and I decided to just go on to Walmart since there was nothing else to do around town.

Armed with a massive hardcover edition of The Annotated Hobbit (I'm gearing up for the Lord of the Rings movie next month) and my trusty GBA w/ Golden Sun inserted, we headed into the Walmart SuperCenter and joined the line around 10:30. Matt wasn't really looking forward to the wait, but it was no big deal for me. I've camped out for over three hours before E3's opening day two years in a row now, and just that day I had arrived to our football game about three and a half hours early to get a decent seat. One and a half hours for GameCube is NOTHING. (Just ask StrikerObi...that feller is hardcore.)

At that time there were maybe twenty people in line ahead of us, but a lot of them were in groups...like a mother and father there to buy GameCube for their kid, who was also there. So it turned out that only about ten systems were sold before my turn came. I expected some other teenage gamers to be waiting, but there was only one other than me (he'd also bought an Xbox two days earlier...geez), and another teenage guy I know who was there to help his little brother get one.

Finally 12:01 arrived and the line started moving forward...it was actually about 12:15 before I got to the counter, but they had a sizable pile of GameCube boxes still there. Oddly enough, there seemed to be about half as many Jet Black systems as Indigo. The employees had all the available games and accessories right there at the checkout counter, so they just asked what you wanted with it and tallied it up with the system right there. I told them I wanted a black system and Tony Hawk 3 (already had Rogue Leader, Super Monkey Ball, and a memory card back at the house). Unfortunately, they had ZERO first-party controllers for sale...I'm not sure if they'd already sold out or just didn't get any, but I ended up having to buy my three extra controllers (one black and two Indigo/Clears) at GameStop the next day.

So that's how it went down...all in all, a very quiet launch for this small Alabama town, which was just what I expected (and, to the extent of availability, had hoped for).