A Tale of Two 360’s

+/- Xbox 360

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Don’t be fooled, that’s about as literary as this blog will ever get. I’m just trying to drive home the title of this item, but let me see if I can relate this to the first sentence of the Dickens classic we were all forced to read in high school. I remember it being one of the better books we read and that I actually read, but I digress.

No, the purpose of this item is to catalog my efforts in securing an Xbox 360. Now, by now you are probably thinking this is going to turn into some kind of review, but it’s not. It’s likely going to turn into a rant, but we’ll see. Hey, just read along and see where I go with this…

IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times
Xbox 360 was set to launch November 22nd 2005 and I was sure I was going to be able to obtain one that very day. After all, Microsoft had been hyping this thing forever. I checked in with Ed on numerous times to see if we should pre-order. Nope, we were both pretty confident we’d obtain one without giving our local EB a short-term loan.

That week finally rolled around and I happened to have it off since it coincided with Thanksgiving when I traditionally take three days of vacation and make it five. Ed planned on stopping by one of a handful of retail outlets on his way into work that morning and I would actually get up earlier that day than I usually do for work. It was to be the best of times.

I decided that I would take a spin by my local Best Buy the night before the launch to see how many fools decided to camp out for the next morning’s launch. You see, that night we were having a Nor’easter, so how many people are hardcore enough to sit thru a night of that? To my shock and horror, there were about 40 people already in line. I tried to stay positive in the thought that they’d never all make it until morning. After all, this isn’t a Star Wars prequel.

That morning rolls around and roughly four stores later for each of us, it turned out to be the worst of times. We both came away that morning empty handed. I can’t speak for Ed, but I came away feeling a little dirty too after having been so close to so many greasy basement dwelling geeks for the morning. You know, I probably shouldn’t be too harsh. After all, I was right there with them.

It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity
I did walk away with a fun memory of a frantic girlfriend bitching the hell out of a KB toy store manager over having made her queue for an hour only to find out, like the rest of us, that they weren’t even carrying the damn thing. The thing was, the young female employee watching the gate didn’t know if they had them or not and was waiting for the manager to arrive. She had also tripped the alarm when she arrived, so we had a visit from Braintree’s finest and the mall rent-a-cop. I stood in that line for that hour anyway on the chance they had them, but deep down figured they didn’t, because that was the kind of morning it had been.

Anyway, my gut tells me the girlfriend was on a mission to secure a 360 for her man because that may in-turn mean a rock for her if she pulled thru. It’s either that or it was devotion to her man and the goodness of her heart. Based on the expletives coming from her mouth, I’m thinking it wasn’t the later and it was too bad the police weren’t still lingering so they could haul her off.

It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness
Flash forward one month later to the weekend of December 17th. Rumor had it that Best Buy and Circuit City would be receiving another bulk shipment of 360’s on the 18th. It wasn’t going to be advertised and the mainstream media outlets hadn’t picked up on the rumor yet.

With our launch day failure still fresh in our minds, Ed and I were quick to hatch a plan that Friday, but it would all depend on the help of a third party. Ed couldn’t very well pack up the kids and sit outside his local Best Buy for five hours on a cold NE winter morning, so he needed a surrogate buyer. Surely, Mookie could hang with me outside for a few hours, right? This is what friends do for each other.

It being lunch time, we conference called Mookie and presented our plan. Mook fired back with his list of demands. A concert rider, for the Xbox squatter:

  1. He would not meet me at Best Buy; rather I should pick him up after I make a run to Best Buy to assess the situation at 7.00 am. If it was already out of hand, I was not to wake him from his beauty sleep. So, at best we’d be in line by 8 and that’s 4 hours until open. I’d waste an hour driving back and forth, but fair enough.
  2. When I picked him up I was to have a medium reg-u-lah and a corn muffin from Dunkin Donuts. Yeah, okay, let’s waste more time stopping at DD, but I’d probably need my lah-ge reg-u-lah, so yeah, this too is doable. After all, we’re buying a $400 piece of cutting-edge hardware here, what’s another $2.50…
  3. Something about being named Aria’s Godfather if we are successful in our mission.

I had scored tickets from my friend Jay for the Pats game on the 17th and took Ed to the game. As we flipped burgers with cardboard, we fine tuned our plan. I’d make another late night recon mission by the Best Buy to see if there’d be any campers again. Then we decided what games we’d buy and be playing via Xbox Live a mere 24 hours later. After all, this was the age of wisdom and our quest was sure to succeed this time. This might be the best weekend ever.

The morning of the 18th rolls around and I am down to Best Buy at 7.30. I was running a little late as I lost the daily battle with the alarm clock… again. I had dropped by BB around 1.00 am the previous night and there were 5 hearty fools already in line. It was a far cry from the 40 on launch day eve, so I felt good about our chances. I get to Best Buy and there’s a crazy line outside. Where’d all these people come from? I estimated the count at 40 and the rumor had the total shipment at 60 per store. By the time I picked up Mook – his food be damned – and made it back, the line would be longer and we’d certainly be down to a Core or nothing at all come opening. I called up Ed and gave him the bad news and allowed Mook to sleep. I could have stayed and secured one for myself, but what’s the point of fragging punk kids on XBL when you can’t frag them alongside your BFF.

It wasn’t the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness! The fatal flaw in our plan was this; it was the last weekend before Christmas. Of course the store wasn’t opening at noon, it was opening at 9.00 am! Even with that second failure ending the weekend, it was still a good one. The Pats won the game and we didn’t freeze our tits off.

It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair
After having been disappointed a second time, I was resolved to the fact I wouldn’t see a 360 and earlier than March, so I was content to wait. After all, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) wouldn’t be out until then and that was the game I was most anticipating. For Ed however, it was a different story. The tax man cometh and done took his 360 cake. Even with that, Ed continued to troll the local retail outlets and Sunday fliers, but it was a winter of despair.

During that time, I got a surprise call from his wife Andrea. If I remember correctly, it was the day before her birthday. Turned out Ed dropped some fleeting knowledge that Wal-Mart was getting shipments, albeit very small, every week.

Whether or not he was laying down a foundation of propaganda or seeding an idea in his wife’s head on purpose, it worked. She had called Wal-Mart looking to get one, but they had just sold it. She wanted to know if I heard the same thing happening and sadly I informed her I had put my searching on hold until the Spring. Andi asked that if I do hear anything or happen to see one, that I let her know or pick it up for her and she’d surprise Ed with the rare device. Now, unlike the bee-yotch outside the KB, Andi had goodness in her heart, especially it being the day before her birthday. Then again, maybe if she had surprised him that day, he’d have had to scurry out to the jewelry store that night… 😉

Anyway, as Ed recounted in “360 Degrees of Separation… No More!!!,” he was finally successful in obtaining the ivory gaming crack known as Xbox 360 on March 5th. Truly this had turned from the winter of despair to the spring of hope! A few days after he got his, I came up with a plan to secure my own 360.

During the dark times when Ed was without his original Xbox and trying to obtain a 360, he had my PS2 and GameCube on loan. You see, they were collecting dust along with my Xbox, so of course he should borrow them. A man has needs you know, but now that they were no longer needed, they could be traded in to the local GameStop for credit towards a new 360 for me. I figured since he lived in Styx-ville, there was a better chance of his area getting me a 360 sooner than the South Shore.

Ed agreed to the plan and turned the systems, games and dust over on March 9th to his local pawn shop and left with a cool $49.31 of credit in his hands, a $50 deposit on my 360 and a guaranteed delivery date by April 1st. I won’t even rant on the rape that was committed by these stores accepting trades because you know what? I just saved $99.31 on a 360! Although… some of the games may have made decent coasters instead.

We had everything before us, we had nothing before us
Hey, I only had to wait about two weeks and I’d have a 360. Soon I’d be fragging punks on XBL and catching up on my recorded TV with the 360’s built-in Media Center Extender. Worse case scenario, three weeks and I get my mitts on it. Four months after a botched launch sounds about right.

Short story long, the Scoobs meet up the night before Aria’s Christening to welcome JPo from Cali. The night is just about over and Ed tells me he has something to give me before we all leave, so don’t leave without him. Yeah, no problem, it’s March 18th, so no way it’s my 360, right?

Turns out, it is my 360. Surprise! Yeah, he got a call earlier that day or right before they were leaving to meet up with us and he made a special trip to pick up my new toy. Now, I had injested a few malt, wheat and barley based beverages over the course of the night, but I think… I think I kissed the bag the box was in three times and then three times again twice. If you want to have fun with numbers, you can make 360 out of that somehow.

Anyway, I was sworn to still show for Aria’s time the next day and to not stay up all night. Not a problem, unless I wanted to play Arcade all night, which is another story altogether. So, I got her home and went to bed. Waiting another day won’t matter, right? And… this post is already so very long in the tooth (sorry).

Next time out, I open the box and it all goes to H. E. double hockey sticks.