What is your best console launch memory?

[hairlesswookiee]

I saw this posted in Facebook earlier so I thought it would be fun to this this on the eve of the "next gen" console release.

Mine takes me way back to the Sega Dreamcast. I still remember the cool launch day advertisements because they all said 9/9/99 on them. I saved up for months to pay off my pre order and games before release day. Electronics Boutique had a special release day party (this was before the midnight releases we have now) so I camped out at the mall at 6am so I was the first in line when they opened at 10.

All the employees were wearing the black shirts with the orange Dreamcast logo on the front and I think a large Sega on the back. They blew up a bunch of orange and black balloons and were giving out orange cupcakes for people that were there.

It was awesome because I met a girl there that just moved to town and was about to start at my school. That was the first time I met one of those mythical gamer girls. We ended up talking for about 2 hours while waiting for our stuff. It turned out Soul Caliber was one of her favorite games, and she also had it on order. I left that day with a new Dreamcast, Soul Caliber, NFL 2K, Power Stone, and her phone number.

Alright, so what's yours??

 

[cr0w]

The Dreamcast launch for me was painful, because I was working at Sears at the time directly across from the game section, which for some reason was in the kids' clothing section. So all day at work, I had to stare at the kiosk watching other people pick theirs up until I finally got off and was able to go get mine. Picked up Blue Stinger, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure. Got home, and only Soul Calibur and Sonic worked. There was an issue with the initial pressing of some launch games that caused them to not be able to load correctly due to a bad burn, so you had to keep trying them until the system could finally read them. That was frustrating.

My favorite would probably be the Wii launch. I lined up outside a Wal-Mart with about 10 of my friends and waited 18 hours, just hanging out and bull****ting most of the time. We were all pretty bleary-eyed when they finally let us in to pick the consoles up, but I still ended up playing a few hours of Zelda once I got it.

 

[snappahead]

The Dreamcast was my first console midnight launch experience. Didn't score any digits, but I do remember how siked everyone was. That was a killer launch. At an EB in a mall. It was weird to be in a mall at that time of night. All closed up and dark except for all the dorks waiting in line at EB. Good times. That's my favorite one. Bought Ready to Rumble, Soul Caliber and Sonic Adventure.

I picked up a PS1 on launch day, but that wasn't a big event really. Walked in and bought it. People didn't know the Playstation was going to be huge at the time I guess.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

The Dreamcast was my first console midnight launch experience.

I feel cheated because we didn't have a midnight launch for the Dreamcast. I still have a Dreamcast, and even though the PS2 killed it off it's still my favorite console of all time.

 

[cr0w]

I remember first getting my PSOne, sitting down and playing like 4 hours of FF7, then trying to save and saying out loud, "What the **** is a memory card?" because I was still in the SNES mindset and didn't realize I needed an extra device to save on.

So it stayed on pause for another couple hours while I tried to track one down.

 

[shells075]

I remember getting my SNES back in the day, It was a double celebration as it was the last day of school before the summer break and my mum was like you cant open up the box until school is finished.

 

[krec9]

Getting the sony Psn to play Metal Gear Solid .

 

[Snake Plissken]

Getting PS2 to play GTA III and MGS2.

 

[karamazov80]

I had all the systems back in the day, but didn't get one on launch day until the Gamecube that I can recall. My best/worst memory is probably also the Wii. I got up at 4:30 in the morning or so and waited for several hours to get one for my wife. I did this because I pre-ordered one from some idiot working at an FYE that didn't know they couldn't actually take pre-orders or something. She didn't even know I was doing it, so she was pretty excited about it as she had given up hope of getting one and being able to play Zelda for a few months.

 

[cr0w]

Oh ****, I forgot about the Gamecube. I had mine pre-ordered at a Sam Goody, and I went in to finish paying it off like 3 days before launch and the guy was like, "Uhh, we already have it if you want to pick it up early."

So that was awesome. Loved me some Rogue Squadron and Wave Race.

 

[Vitus]

I don't remember... but the Dreamcast has fond memories, my wife and I bought one before we were married.

I do remember surfing the web on my Dreamcast with the modem they put out and waiting a long time to download stupid stuff.

 

[RagingBull]

Ps2 the 1st console I bought with my own money

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

The Dreamcast was before it's time

 

[hairlesswookiee]

I don't remember... but the Dreamcast has fond memories, my wife and I bought one before we were married.

I do remember surfing the web on my Dreamcast with the modem they put out and waiting a long time to download stupid stuff.

I remember buying Unreal Tournament for $9.99 at Toys R Us one day,and then getting so mad because I couldn't get into a game to play it.

 

[karamazov80]

Oh ****, I forgot about the Gamecube. I had mine pre-ordered at a Sam Goody, and I went in to finish paying it off like 3 days before launch and the guy was like, "Uhh, we already have it if you want to pick it up early."

So that was awesome. Loved me some Rogue Squadron and Wave Race.

Rogue Squadron was one of the launch titles I had, and probably my favorite. I think I also got Madden, which I picked up nearly every year back in those days.

 

[cr0w]

Rogue Squadron was mind blowing for the time. The GCN had some power under that tiny hood.

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

I remember buying Unreal Tournament for $9.99 at Toys R Us one day,and then getting so mad because I couldn't get into a game to play it.

I played that demo disc over and over Ready to Rumble 1&2 was fun. The sports games were some of the best I've ever played

 

[hairlesswookiee]

I played that demo disc over and over Ready to Rumble 1&2 was fun. The sports games were some of the best I've ever played

IMO the NFL 2k series owned Madden every year. Too bad EA had to drop all the $$ to get the monopoly on the "NFL." Douches. I haven't bought an EA sports game since.

Ready to Rumble was another awesome series that I never played until after the Dreamcast was long dead. Lots of fun there.

It's a shame that it didn't last because I haven't met another Dreamcast owner that didn't love the system and it's games. I think the PS2 just killed it based off of the PS1's success (not that it wasn't awesome, but I know a lot of people that wrote the Dreamcast off because the PS2 was coming) and the DVD ability that it had (that was my first DVD player).

 

[automaton]

the Nintendo 64 release was the most memorable for me... it very much changed home console gaming.

 

[Thorne]

Gonna echo the majority and go with the Dreamcast launch. Loved that system dearly and still have mine to this day. And it works fine. You'd have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

OG Xbox comes in a close second because of launch day Halo.