I pre-ordered my copy at Electronics Boutique (later EB Games) at Vallco shopping mall in Cupertino. Turns out that EB pre-sold more copies than any other game store in North America (IIRC). There was a big publicity event hosted by Sony and the line to pickup your pre-order went outside the building, through the parking lot, and wrapped around the mall.
I was 11 years old. Some of my friend's parents let them skip school to get in line early. My parents did not, so I got in line around 3pm. I was probably the thousandth person in line and had to wait about 6 or 7 hours before getting my copy.
There were perks though. Sony ordered pizza for everyone and they were handing out promotional items. In addition to pizza I also got
-FFVII shirt with Cloud holding his Buster sword over his back
-A four pack of FFVII action figures (Cloud, Tifa, Aeris/Aerith, and Barret)
-Strategy guide (not the white Brady Games version, the other one that was widely available. Forget the publisher now. Prima games maybe?)
-Three free PS1 games!
--Jumping Flash (amazing game where you are a robot rabbit that can jump insanely high in a 3D world)
--RoboPit (also amazing game. You customized fighting robots/mechs and battled to the death. You could save your builds to your memory card and bring them to a friend's house to battle their mechs)
--Some first person shooting game where you piloted a mech that could shoot missles and lasers. I remember it being somewhat boring
When we finally left the mall around 10pm I was so excited and happy. My dad didn't let me skip school that day, but he did let me stay up until about 12:30am to play it.
To this day it's still one of my happiest memories. I'll never forget it.
Yarbskoo on January 31st, 2021 at 16:49 UTC »
I played Final Fantasy VII as a kid and I'm basically dead, meme checks out.
Null_Fragment_000 on January 31st, 2021 at 16:53 UTC »
What?!! I played this in high school. Oh no I'm a goner.
SalvageStemCells on January 31st, 2021 at 17:47 UTC »
I pre-ordered my copy at Electronics Boutique (later EB Games) at Vallco shopping mall in Cupertino. Turns out that EB pre-sold more copies than any other game store in North America (IIRC). There was a big publicity event hosted by Sony and the line to pickup your pre-order went outside the building, through the parking lot, and wrapped around the mall.
I was 11 years old. Some of my friend's parents let them skip school to get in line early. My parents did not, so I got in line around 3pm. I was probably the thousandth person in line and had to wait about 6 or 7 hours before getting my copy.
There were perks though. Sony ordered pizza for everyone and they were handing out promotional items. In addition to pizza I also got
-FFVII shirt with Cloud holding his Buster sword over his back
-A four pack of FFVII action figures (Cloud, Tifa, Aeris/Aerith, and Barret)
-Strategy guide (not the white Brady Games version, the other one that was widely available. Forget the publisher now. Prima games maybe?)
-Three free PS1 games!
--Jumping Flash (amazing game where you are a robot rabbit that can jump insanely high in a 3D world)
--RoboPit (also amazing game. You customized fighting robots/mechs and battled to the death. You could save your builds to your memory card and bring them to a friend's house to battle their mechs)
--Some first person shooting game where you piloted a mech that could shoot missles and lasers. I remember it being somewhat boring
When we finally left the mall around 10pm I was so excited and happy. My dad didn't let me skip school that day, but he did let me stay up until about 12:30am to play it.
To this day it's still one of my happiest memories. I'll never forget it.
Thanks for letting me share :-)