At the front end of today I gave a little spotlight for the Game Boy Advance, which is celebrating six years since its launch in North America. Now at the backend, we celebrate the Nintendo DS Lite. One year ago today, Nintendo officially launched the DS Lite in North America, showing the world what the DS looks like when done right.
While I’m sure the vast majority of you picked up your DS Lites this date last year or later, Matt and I aren’t with you in that respect. I technically got my DS Lite on May 31st of last year when Target and Wal-Mart stores were breaking the street date of the system. Rumors were going around that DS Lites had gone on sale, and the two of us started calling every Target and Wal-Mart in the region. Some weren’t selling until the 11th. Others had indeed started selling them, but had already sold out. Finally, after call to I think 18 different stores, we found a Super Target in Tinley Park, IL that had about 9 in stock. I immediately rushed out there to pick one up, offering to pick one up for Matt if he could somehow get me the money. Unfortunately, he was out of town and no one was at his house at the time.
I finally got to the store, with Matt on the phone as I walked into the electronics department maybe 45 minutes before closing. “Dude, I see it. I can see them.” There were 9 DS Lites sitting right there in the casing. I remember being all excited and the employee talking about how they had sold a lot of the handhelds that day as I paid for the system. I went out and sat in my car, opened up the box and turned on the system out alone in the dark parking lot. I regained my eyesight about ten minutes later and proceeded to turn down the brightness setting. It was a thing of beauty.
I was hoping that a few would be left in the morning when Matt would be able to pick one up as he was the one who called that specific Target and found out. Unfortunately, I had told someone who was looking for DS Lites in the Chicago area online that the Super Target in Tinley had them, and some other jerk (who wasn’t the original person asking for help) decided to thank me on the GameFAQs forums the next morning, saying he picked up four later that night, and that his wife went early that next day and picked up the last three. I had to pass that unfortunate news along to Matt.
But that’s my story of getting the DS Lite, though a little early. I’ll let Matt finish off his part of that story in the comments below. One year later (from the official street date), what are your memories? And how are you celebrating the big “1″ with your favorite handheld?
