What Was Your Experience at the PS2. Xbox, and GC Launch Nights?

I was too young to be into gaming at that time. So to all you older gamers on here who were there at any of those launches, what were they like?

I was probably asleep.

Great with all 3.

PS2 was insane.

I used money I saved up from mowing lawns and such to buy a ps2 off ebay.

My parents bought us a PS2, so we went through the rigmarole of the "It's my turn" scenario. Suffice to say, I wasn't at the launch of any of the consoles.

Wasn't a console gamer even back then, but on PS2 launch I had preorders in at 10 stores, I got 6 of them and immediately resold them for twice as much.

Then I upgraded my PC.

The PS2 was pretty busy from what I recall. I picked one up at launch along with NHL 2001 and Tekken Tag Tournament.

Don’t know what it was like for the Xbox and GameCube. I wasn’t interested in the Xbox until Halo 2 was near launch and picked it up then out of curiosity. Got a GameCube along with Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door shortly before Resident Evil 4 came out because I was very hyped to play that game.

The excitement was about four times that of current gen launches. Maybe more. And typically the changes in graphics and controls held some surprises and was very noticeable.

For that generation I just got the GC at launch. I don't think I had to fight for one. But it was definitely a thrill to find out whether they would actually be in stock and listing the stores in my mind that I could check out if this one was sold out. Which was a very short list. If they ran out I had to look through the big fat phonebook and call them one by one to see if one still carried some and get my father to take me there. And I think to remember that I wanted the black one but they only had purple ones left and I didn't take my chances. Grabbing one of those boxes was one of the best feelings ever. And I never regretted having the purple one. It actually looked remarkably good in real life.

And the amount of money you'd spend as a kid on these things was enormous. It was like buying a new car as an adult. So you did feel that rush of 'Am I really going to do this?' the night before and the whole morning while you're carrying more money around than you've probably ever seen in your life. And I normally never went on my own to the city because of social anxiety but for a GC launch I woke up early and went on my own without a moment's hesitation.

I remember even the moment of seeing one of these consoles appear in a toy ad-magazine around the time of release got me excited. Despite 'the world' being much less about video games. Besides me and my excitement there wasn't anyone else who was excited. There were no message boards I checked. No forums. No friends who were into games. But that didn't detract from it, at all.

And typically there were launch games that you really wanted to play. You didn't have this feeling of 'I could also play this on my PC,' or 'I could play the lesser version on my current gen console eventually, probably.' You were locked out of those games, so it was a much bigger deal. And those games weren't necessarily going to be available forever, either. I think for me it was Rogue Squadron II. Because it looked better than anything I had ever seen before in games. I remember being almost surprised that it was interactive because it was so pretty. And I loved the game. Found all the secrets on my own I think. Good times.

I was in highschool for PS2 and actually didn't know that much about it. My plan was to get a Dreamcast for House of the Dead 2, but my buddy convinced me to hold out for what PlayStation had to say...so I waited.

I was working in a Walmart at the time, so the line for launch was full by the time I got off work. But luckily I had a couple buddies in line, so I got to try it that night. I bought a copy of Armored Core 2 and an extra controller, and my buddy got Madden. I'm not really a sports guy, but those graphics looked like real life compared to ps1 :) It was a great night.

A few weeks later the same buddy rented (well borrowed, his dad owned the video store) American Psycho, and all throughout the movie the brightness would randomly go dim and then come back to normal. I started to think it was some artsy way of showing that Patrick was about to go into crazy mode...turns out his PS2 was just messing up. He returned it, got a new one, and played many a great game.

Another story about it happened around the same time. Right after it came out, the supply was super sporadic. If they got some in the store they would roll the pallet to electronics and announce it over the intercom. They would be gone in seconds! It was like watching piranha on fresh meat.

But the craziness came from silly girl who didn't know what she had done. Periodically a cashier would have to cover for a door greeter when they went on break, or had to plan their funeral. And on this fortuitous occasion they picked the absolute worst person to cover.

Like normal, a shipment of ps2s arrived and were subsequently sold out within minutes. The girl in question was dutifully manning her post when an elderly woman with a PS2 in the childseat section strolled by. The girl politely asked to see the woman's receipt for said console, to which the replied "oh they're just handing these out back there dear"...to which the girl replied..."oh, ok"...and let the lady walk out with a brand new PS2!!!

When I heard what she had done I almost threw up in my mouth. Not only were they sought-after by every gamer around, but they could be sold on eBay for $1500-$2000 easily. But like I said, she honestly had no clue.

@Archangel3371: "I picked one up at launch along with NHL 2001 "

NHL/Madden 2001>>>>> NHL/Madden 20?

I would have been busy working.

Having said that I owned the Xbox & PS2 but got neither until well after launch as I was busy still playing the Dreamcast (GOAT) for many years after its demise. As for the GC, well I've only ever owned one Nintendo console, the best one the N64.

I was playing TEKKEN tag for the ps2 with one of close friends who also picked up a ps2.

Is this more appropriate for the Legacy Systems forum?

I bought all 3 post launch. I was more focused on PC gaming back then and I had a Dreamcast. There weren't any launch titles that made me want to buy the systems right away.

@onesiphorus: You're probably right yes, although this forum tends to get more traffic than the Legacy Systems one these days.

I'd say it's close enough to a System Wars topic that it can stay in here and get some love, unless of course the other mods have any objections to its placement.

Well, I didn't get none of the consoles at launch even though I was really jonesing for the Gamecube which I got some 2 years into its life. So my experience was simply craving for the Gamecube and getting my hands on Smash Bros. Melee but nothing else...

I didn't do PS2 because I was a Sega Fanboy still holding onto my Dreamcast when PS2 launched.

After Dreamcast and Sega went under I was a day 1 xbox owner of all things.

I was, however, a day 1 Sega Genesis, 32X and Sega Saturn owner. Also Dreamcast being the last system, I was day 1 on that as well.

I've never been to a midnight launch.

As a massive Gamecube fan, this makes me happy... brings back heaps of memories :)

I agree with this very much. Not Legacy System, Retro Gaming forum isn't active if ever but since System Wars is the only place that active, and besides, PS2/Xbox/Gamecube had a fighting history so it kinda fits the bill.

Who cares

This

Traded a ps1 for a ps2. played tekken tag tournament for hours. I unlocked everything in one night with my brother. Unfortunately, we didn't have a memory card, so we unlocked everything in the game every day until we got a memory cart. I forgot how many days in a row it was, but it was over a week at least.