Posted December 5, 2006 hey all, Hoping to get you guys in on the launch coverage this week on the main site. We've previews, features and media going up before Friday, but once the big day hits we think it'd be awesome if we could run loads of stuff you lot have got from your launch experience. What we're after is on the ground articles about what was happening on thursday night/friday morning in your local games store, videos of you or your friends queuing up for it, pictures of you getting it home and booting it up... all that jazz. It's going to be a grand day for all of us, so it'd be great to get as many people involved as possible. Spread the love. Thoughts/volunteers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2006 I'll make a little edit and give yous it if you want? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 5, 2006 I'll see if I can take our camera to my opening on Friday morning, see if i can take some good photos of people arriving getting their Wii's. Hopefully I'll be first Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2006 well i'll be sat at home waiting for the amazon parcel, but i'll picture what I can be bothered to and what will be of interest. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2006 I'm planning of getting mine from ASDA early on Friday morning(as they don't do pre-orders so first come first serve) and will hopefully post my ecstatic happiness of brand a new Wii-console-owner guy on the 8th. If all goes well I am hoping to catch a short vid of the opening of the white box of gaming on Friday afternoon. I will keep looking back to this thread+forums for some interesting stories + first opinions. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 6, 2006 I might take some photos Friday morning of me opening and setting up the Wii. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2006 I'll probably write about my potentially catastrophic experience of trying to buy a wii on saturday. .......that's trying buy a wii on saturday as opposed to release day Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2006 Good luck Chris! If everybody could throw their stuff in the thread here but gather it all up and post it on the site on the weekend. 23 hours to go. : peace: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2006 Erm I can blog it, or something gotta give myself something to do at 4am in the morning!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2006 [ATTACH]759[/ATTACH] well here's my first pic, space made next to the TV ready for the Wii and yes I am that bored that I am watching Eastenders. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2006 I also try to do some coverage. Maybe a few pictures of me getting the Wii and a little report about the day. Although I'm at Uni until 3 PM so the big rumble will be over I guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2006 I forgot to take my camera, so i might write a little article about the morning. It was actually quite eventful for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2006 Right no pics Im sorry but here it is.... I was getting my Wii from GAMESTOP here in Drogheda, which is located in a Shopping Center, and was opening early for the Wii at 8am. 6.35am-7.05am - Lay in bed willing myself to get up (it was SO cold and I had 5 hours sleep!) 7.05am-7.15am - Got ready in a hurry resulting in me leaving the house without the reciept which I had to go back for 7.30am - Bought some OJ in the garage, I needed to wake up! 7.40am - Got to the bank where it took AGES for a queue of 3 people to get money out. When I got there they had only 20s in the machine GRRRRRR!!!! 7.45am - Got to the shopping center, and it was still locked up tight!! Waited at the front entrance right next to the doors 7.50am - Competitor number 1 arrived running to the lower entrance (I couldnt see from where I was) I followed him sneakily and saw that it wasnt open either to which I returned to the main entrance. 7.55am - I am joined by Competitor 2 and 3. Competitor 2 says hello in the middle of his ciggie, whilst Competitor 3 looked like a right lesbian, so she was scared of us men folk I presume. 7.59am - Competitor 5 arrives, cant remember much about him I was too buzy looking at my watch!! 8.05am - Stilll waiting for the doors to open. The security man looks at us all weird 8.06am - Doors open, Competitor 2 subtley storms off down the length of the shopping center, beginning to jog when hes almost there. Competitor 1 thinks its a marathon and does a Paula Radcliffe down the length of the shopping center, I think "What a geek!" and continue walking. Competitor 3 aka "the lesbian" isnt anywhere to be seen, like I said probably to afraid of us men folk 8.07am - I arrive in the shop Competitor 1 is a few places ahead of me, Competitor 2 aka "Paula" is in front of me. All that running he did for nothing! Its only now I remember the back entrance, no wonder there was a lesbian queing with me, shed never think of that!!! 8.15am - Its taking ages to get the show moving, then my heart drops, the manager wants "Everyones attention for one moment please..." I get ready to hit the manager........ 8.16am - JOY! He told all the "non pre orders" to "please leave" because they had sold all the ones they had and only had enough to fill preorders! All of he Competitors leave, looking at me with envy 8.25am - Bought my Wii retro controller and Zelda, no Wii-motes, Wii Play, or extra cables until Wednesday, I admit I was just chancing my arm. He tells me that HMV had 250 preorders and got only 7 CONSOLES!! We all laugh at HMV... 8.26am - I leave Gamestop a happy man... 9.00am - Clean my room in preparation for the Wii. 9.15am - The Wii is on first impressions a re pretty good! A bit weird and awkward but Ill get the hang of it 10.30am - Play all of Wii Sports enjoy it but Ive overdone it. My hands and right arm is SO sore, I decide to make a sausage sandwhich which I dont eat... 11.30am - Writing this post!! Well thats my Wii day experience (And seriously no offence to Lesbians its my humour, however I couldnt give a damn about offending Paula Radcliffe the minger...) monkeyking87 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2006 I must of not cooked my tea properly last night. This morning I threw up a few times, but still went to GAME about 6. Threw up in a bin when I was there, was third in line, but the second person who was getting a Wii (first person was just getting Zelda). Anyway, went in at 7:00 on the dot (the staff were wondering around doing pointless things for no reason from 6:45), Said I wanted Zelda, Red Steel, Wii Play, Super Monkey Ball and a Nunchuck, got it all in the bag, got student discount of some games, used my £30 in store credit, and was the first person to walk out with a Wii. Got home, threw up again, went to bed (I just sat up and unpacked everything first), and went to sleep for a bit. Then got up and started playing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 9, 2006 My experience has been painless: I pre-booked a couple of months ago in a EB Games store in Sweden. That store got 20 Wii's on the first shipment, and I got one of them on Dec 8th. But they had no extra remotes, no games or anything extra that I could buy... I got my console box and that was all. Still a ton of fun. I heard that the store will be getting another 20 consoles before Christmas, totalling 40 for them, which doesn't seem like many at all. Anyway, I feel privileged to have gotten some action right on day 1. Does anyone know if I can expect shelves with Wii games in any store before Christmas? Or is the only way to get Wii games this year is to have booked them already? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 10, 2006 Okay, so I said I would take a few pics and what did do? Forgot my camera...! But I had my phone, so the quality isn't great but it does the trick Okay, so first thing I had to do was get the bus across town. I wasn't entirely sure if I had missed the bus and to be honest, it wasn't looking good for a while.... Well finally one trundled down the road and was completley empty. I sat at the front just so I could get off the bus quicker if there was a big queue and maybe beat that 1 person into position! When I arrived at the bus stop I could see a sizeable queue and I walked over as quick as possible. ( This was about 10.45 pm) I asked the man in front of me was it the queue for the Wii (Duh! I know but...) and obviousky it was. He handed me a pen and told me to write a number on my hand. This was my ticket to my Wii (along with my preorder receipt!) After about an hour waiting (after some free pizza) people started moving forward and getting excited So close now! I was literally standing in the doorway of the store, watching all the lucky people in front of me purchasing their bundles of Wii goodness! I was finally allowed in (circa 12.30 am) and look what I got my grubby mitts on: Then began the long wait to give them my money for the little white box of joy..... Now there is a slight lack of pics as I was so excited as to what happened next that I forgot to take any. I GOT MY Wii!! And when I eventually found an empty taxi, and got home, I took the console itself out of the box and just had to hold it and take some cheesy pics of me (Mii!) and my Wii When I finally got it set up I took a few pics of it and played my heart out!! ] And here are some pics of the free Wii stuff I got, just for preordering! And that ends my launch night story. I was so tired the following day, and I still am today, but I have my Wii and all is good. Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:bouncy: :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 10, 2006 Ok then: AM: 5:30 Wake up, need to pee, can't get back to sleep. 6:50 Get up get ready, ahve breakfast 7;30 Prepare my room for Wii, unplug plugs, move gamecube games. Etc. 8:00 Go to school PM: 3:10 Come back home from school, VERY quick. 3:30 Get home. 3:40 Leave the house walk to the bus stop. 3:45 Get the bus 3:50 Get off the bus, begin running acros town. Slowing every now and then, as it is tiring. 3:55 Run into gamestation, taking a leaflet handed to me by a guy at the door. 4:00 "Hi, im here to pick up my Wii [Gives name and Receipt]" Guy pull out box, with red steel and monkey and.. whaa? A component cable? Nope, i didn't order one of those mate. 4:05 Meet up with my mum. Sit int he car staring at the boxes, etc. 4:15 Unpackage box, takes photos. Plug in. 4:20 Playing commences. Longest day of my life. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 10, 2006 Regarding the Wii packaging... I've been an Apple product owner for years now, and I always get a delightful experience out of unpacking their products: everything is PERFECT. Every bag, instruction book, cord, is neatly and cleverly presented. The logic of the unpacking lends itself to a satisfying setting up experience. Well it seems to me that Nintendo has stolen a page from Apple's book: they nailed the whole thing just right. It was just a pure pleasure to open the box, connect the wires, mount the sensor bar and get everything ready. This was followed by a painless software setup: in no time at all I was WiFi connected, had created interesting Mii's and had even checked what's on offer at the Wii Shop Channel... The same can be said about Wii Sports: the way the game tutors you as you go, then ceases to tutor if you are using an experienced Mii. That is realyl clever. Then how the game adjusts the level of the competition as you yourself improve, and does that automatically. Really pleasant I must say. So a very big THUMBS UP for Nintendo! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 10, 2006 Here's my little report: 6.45 AM: The Alarm goes off. Normally I would turn it off and sleep for another 15 minutes but not today. It almost feels like christmas - it's the Wii launch day. I can't wait for the evening when I finally will obtain my console. Uni lessons are longer than ever but at about 3 PM I meet my dad to take on a journey to get a Wii which waits for me over 100 kilometers away - that is due to me studying away from home. The trip on the motorway is pretty fast - about 1.5 hours until I reach my homeland Austria - but still it feels like forever. I almost feel like a hamster in a wheel with a carrot bouncing in front of my head, only that the carrot is a Wii and I'm in a car and suffer from haluzination. Finally I arrive at the gameshop, beaming like a kid I enter. I preordered my Wii over two month ago so I walk straight to the counter and ask for it. It's evening and no other costumers are there. I tell him I pre-ordered my Wii, told him the name. He looks it up in his pre-order list and then: Wii, Zelda, Red Steel are shoven on the counter. But I didn't forget to ask for other things and before I ask anything he asks me if I need other games or a second Wiimote. I certainly wanted another Wiimote, however, he told me he only has them in the WiiPlay bundle, all other are sold already and he only got 4 Nunchucks which are also sold out. I decide to go with the WiiPlay bundle. I also ask for RGB cables and a SD card but he has neither in stock - expects to get them within one week though. Then we chat a bit about how launch day went. He received the Wii only at 10 PM before launch day and brought them into the shop at 7 AM on launch day. Luckily there was no queue at the shop to raid his supply of 28 consoles. Actually he took four pre-orders too many so 4 people who have preorder won't get a Wii. I continually had my eyes on a Wavebird that sat tempting behind the counter and now that I have the all wireless Wii there surely was a big need for a Wavebird - and that way the GC also gets honored on his last day. Now I had my whole package together and went home. First I unpacked the Wavebird and played my last round of Smash Bros on my GC before finally pulling the plug. And then... enter the Wii. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 10, 2006 7:40am - radio comes on with the shouty lardarse Chris Moyles. Get up and get dressed. 8:05am - head to the bus stop 8:15am - bus arrives. 8:45am - bus arrives in Wigan. Walk up Market Street to go to Subway round the corner. Notice Gamestation is open. 8:50am - Get into Gamestation and hand in my pre-order slips and GameCube for trade-in. Farewell, dear friend :'( 8:55am - walk out of Gamestation with Wii, Zelda, Red Steel, Classic Controller, 2000 Wii Points and 1GB SD card. Still waiting for extra controllers to come in, so will pick them up this coming Friday. 9:00am - go to Argos to buy a microphone (got a gig tonight), then Music Zone for some - *shudder* - modern music. 9:15am - catch bus back home. 9:45am - head to Subway for toasted breakfast butty. 9:50am - back home, and take the first photo: 10:00am - set up Wii. 10:10am - play Wii Sports for the first time. 10:20am - remember I bought a breakfast butty from Subway and start eating. It's still warm. 10:30am - more Wii Sports! 11:15am - play Red Steel for the first time. 12:15pm - download first Virtual Console game - Donkey Kong Country (SNES) 12:45pm - play Zelda for the first time. So in all, quite a day really! I was amazed to see how small the actual WiiMote actually was! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 10, 2006 And that ends my launch night story. I was so tired the following day, and I still am today, but I have my Wii and all is good. Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii:bouncy: :p Wii mousepad and hat. I'd almost kill for that. - Well not you... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
