I’ve known for a while that I’d be picking up a Wii as soon as possible. Once Nintendo released launch details, it became clear that demand at launch would be pretty high, so I figured I better find a place to pre-order one to be on the safe side. I figured once all the information was out there, plenty of stores would start taking pre-orders. Ha.

Details for the North American Wii launch were announced on September 14. I figured it would only take a week or two for stores to figure out how they wanted to handle things. The first thing I can remember is Amazon opening up pre-orders and closing them again the same day. Hmm…that’s both a good and bad sign. Good for Nintendo that demand is high, but bad for me trying to secure one for launch day. I wasn’t too concerned yet, ’cause I had no interest in ordering online. So I waited. I call GameStop every few days and hear the same thing: “We don’t know, but it will be soon.”

October 9 rolls around and GameStop/EB Games announce they will be taking limited PS3 pre-orders the next day, but there’s no news of Wii. I keep checking out my various sources for news (The Wiire, Go Nintendo, Joystiq). Word spreads quickly that the PS3 pre-orders were gone in minutes at most stores. Hmm…there should be more Wii’s available, but it might be harder to get my hands on one than I thought. Rumors are flying that Wii pre-orders should be later in the week or the beginning of next.

Finally, confirmation shows up on a few sites that Gamestop/EB Games will be taking Wii pre-orders on Friday October 13. I got my own copy of their email Thursday night and knew I was set. I’d stopped into the closest location and learned they let 14 people pre-order a PS3. With Wii’s launch units more than double that of PS3, I figured it was safe to assume that they’d have around 30 Wiis available. But would more people line up for Wii?

I found out early Friday morning when I pulled up to GameStop around 7:30AM after dropping Amber at work (why I drove her is another story). There were 10 people already waiting when I got there, making me number 11 in line. Two guys showed up immediately after me and the line continued to grow. I think it finally capped about 35 people. The first guy had gotten there at 3AM, and the second guy had been there the night before with a sleeping bag, but when no one else was showing up, he left and came back at 5AM. Craziness.

After about two hours of hanging out with other fans, sharing stories and favorite games, an employee came out. He had in his hands a roll of stickers to mark each person’s place in line and signify that he/she would be getting a pre-order. His roll stopped at 32, and he sent away one person. It turned out two of the people in front of me were together, so I ended up being number 10.

Once I got to the counter, I pre-ordered a console, an extra remote, and an extra nunchuck. I had brought some GameCube and DS games for trade-in, so I didn’t end up needing to put any money down. I’d pre-ordered Zelda and Red Steel a few weeks ago, and paid them off last week. I walked out of the store with my pre-order reciept and stashed it somewhere safe. I got to work around 10:30, and was happy to see nothing had exploded and no one had really missed me while I was freezing my ass off outside. GameStop

November 19. I’m ready.