In October of 2000, my wife and I sat overnight outside the Mustang, Oklahoma Wal-Mart sitting in two cheap lawn chairs, waiting in line for the Playstation 2 to be released. It was a cold night; we wore winter coats and shared a blanket between us. We spent from 10pm one evening until 7am the following morning chatting with other hardcore videogame fanatics, holding our coveted positions in line (first and second, for the record). By calling ahead, we already knew the score — the Mustang wal-Mart had six PS2s in stock, and we were buying two of them. (Wal-Mart’s rules stated that only one console would be sold per household, but we had a loophole; our drivers licenses had different addresses listed on them.) Despite the fact that the store only had six units available, an hour before the doors opened there were twenty to thirty people in line. Some of them were hardcore gamers, dying for an opportunity to purchase the latest and greatest videogame system available. Others were parents, desperate to put the perfect gift under the Christmas tree that year. The rest of the people were simple consumers, caught up in the hype and just wanting to “be a part of something.”

Susan and I did end up getting the first two PS2s sold in Mustang, Oklahoma. At $299 each, the PS2 was a significant investment at the time. My $299 price ballooned to nearly $500 with the addition of a second controller and two $50 games. The other PS2 was purchased for a co-worker — we had a deal, whoever managed to get a unit would buy two, one to sell to the other one. Tony had no chance at Best Buy, and instead of turning a profit on eBay like so many other people who nabbed one of those prime first-day consoles, I stuck to my word and sold it to Tony at cost.

Today, Sony released the successor to the PS2, the Playstation 3. Along with today’s PS3, the current generation of gaming consoles also includes the Xbox 360 (which is relatively comparable in performance) and Nintendo’s Wii (pronounced “we” or “whee!”), which goes on sale Sunday. Of the three, the PS3 is the most technologically advanced. It has the most horsepower under the hood, and comes with a blu-ray DVD drive installed. Those features don’t come cheap. The PS3 comes in two flavors; one with a smaller hard drive and no hi-definition video ports for $499, and the deluxe edition that comes with a larger hard drive and the aforementioned video ports for $599. The Xbox 360 is less expensive, with two similar models priced at $299 and $399; the caveat being that the Xbox 360 comes stock with a regular DVD drive and not a next generation player like the PS3’s blu-ray drive. Few who follow technology will be surprised to learn that Microsoft is now selling an HD-DVD drive (high-definition DVD drive, similar to the blu-ray in performance and its direct competitor) for $199, bringing the total price of an upgraded Xbox 360 to, you guessed it, the same as the PS3.

Trailing in third place is Nintendo’s Wii. The Wii’s selling point is its revolutionary controller — a remote, or the “Wii-mote” as some have dubbed it, is nothing short of a magic wand that can be waved around in the air, controlling on screen actions. In demonstrations I’ve seen people playing tennis, swing swords, and boxing with the remote (a lightsaber game cannot be far behind). Nintendo plans on delivering a one-two punch with the Wii this holiday season. One, the Wii retails for $250, which includes the wiimote and a game (the $599 systems mentioned before do not come with a game; that’s an additional $60 per title). And two, Nintendo plans on releasing four million Wii consoles before Christmas 2006.

That brings me to today. Sony’s PS3 and its blu-ray drive use a blue laser, of which there is currently a shortage. As a result, Sony has only been able to produce 500,000 PS3s. 100,000 of those went to Japan; 400,000 of them were available to American shoppers this morning, although that’s not even true. Many of them were sold through “pre-sales” months ago. Other PS3 units are being sold in bundles. The only way to order one online via Wal-Mart is through a “deluxe gamers package”, which forces you to also buy 12 games; total package cost, $1,420. Circuit City is only selling them bundled with a hi definition television set.

The systems that didn’t go to rabid gamers this morning went straight to eBay. There are dozens of them on eBay in the Oklahoma City area alone, with price tags of up to $3,000. Wishful thinking, perhaps. A scan of already completed PS3 auctions within 150 miles of Oklahoma City show several “buy it now” auctions that sold between $1,500 and $2,000. Apparently all that stuff they taught us about supply and demand was not only true, but won out over patience and common sense in the end.

Am I bitter? A little. In the back of my mind I had kicked around the idea of picking up a PS3, playing it for a month or so, and then deciding if I wanted to keep it or sell it around Christmas time. A few casual phone calls last night put an end to that plan. The Wal-Mart in Lindsey, Oklahoma had “2 units, and 30 people in line for them.” Mustang had four units, and “more people than we can count here already.” At Target, a woman standing in second line was holding a sign — “this spot in line for sale, $700.” Best Buy had people in tents as early as Tuesday morning. With such a fevered pitch (and potential financial gain) surrounding the PS3, any half-hearted attempts such as my own never had a chance. At least people in Oklahoma are nice; elsewhere around the country there have been reports of riots and even people being shot.

About a month ago I put one of my old original Nintendo systems (1986) in Mason’s room. I only let him borrow a few games at a time. Last night the two of us played Excitebike (a motorcycle racing game), and One on One, a basketball game that I used to play on our old Apple II computer. Mason will be five next month. Although he certainly notices the difference between the Xbox’s graphics and those of older systems, I’m not sure he cares that much. To him, a fun game’s a fun game. Mason came running out his room last night into the living room to announce that he had finally beat the first castle on Super Mario Bros. I couldn’t help but smile a bit.

And, no one got shot in the process.

(Interesting side note: when I began typing this, there were approximately 6,000 “ps3” auctions on eBay. By the time I got done, there were 8,000. Let the madness begin.)