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Blog/Nicholas ChanXbox 360: Zero Hour
Written by Nicholas Chan on November 24, 2005 – 6:48 am -The Xbox 360 Consoles Arrive | Xbox 360 Lauched in North America
With ten minutes left to go, breakdance entertainer Tommy the Clown took the stage and pumped the crowd up for the imminent arrival of the Xbox 360™ consoles. “Are you ready for your Xbox 360?”
The crowd roared. Tommy then brought two gamers onstage, Edgar and Mike, who had driven 1,800 miles from Mississippi.
It took them 35 hours and they declined to say how many speeding tickets they got. They got lost in the desert and spent the night in their car, but still arrived at Site 9 a full 24 hours early.
In recognition of their harrowing feat, these two die-hard Halo® fans were chosen to receive the first Xbox 360 consoles. Behind them on a massive screen a clock appeared counting down the final 360 seconds.
At the other end of the hangar six-story hangar doors opened slowly and three Best Buy trucks, preceded by a police escort, rolled into Zero Hour. The crowd parted as the trucks made their way to the Zero Hour Best Buy store and parked just as the countdown clock hit zero.
Truck doors opened to reveal Xbox 360 consoles stacked to the ceiling. With three trucks packed to capacity and 30 Best Buy cashiers on standby, Zero Hour became the largest Best Buy retail location in the country.
Xbox team members watching from a platform above got a bit choked up seeing the Xbox 360 consoles reach the hands of the gamers at last.
Best Buy employees unloaded the consoles onto rollers to stock all 30 registers.
Edgar and Mike got their consoles fresh from the back of a truck and held them above their heads in triumph. The gate was then opened and gamers made their way to the registers, high-fiving the Best Buy cashiers on the way.
Though the line of thousands of gamers moved quickly, it snaked in a great, large U around the entire hangar.
In a twist of fate, we ran into Cade Nichols and Zach Kibbee, the first two gamers in line to enter Zero Hour on Sunday. They were racing for the exit to get home and set up, but paused long enough to say, simply, “Incredible!”
When pushed to say more, they mentioned that the box was heavier than they thought it would be. “Chock full of love,” Kibbee said. They were on their way to set up system link at a friend’s house, then help him stand in line at midnight madness to get his own console.
They each walked off with a bean bag in one hand and Xbox 360 in the other.
Although Xbox 360 had launched in North America, but I would not buy the import version of Xbox 360 from US. It had been many complain about freezing and crash on many Xbox 360 system, Microsoft is now investigating what was wrong with those Xbox 360 system. GameSpot Forumer keep on complaining about the overheating issue. Luckily, I not yet get the 360, I will wait for Singapore official Xbox 360 launch and get my system ther…w00t…
