If you poked around the video game loving corners of the internet at all last week, you may have noticed how many people were going bananas over the Super Nintendo Classic. Pre-orders went up and disappeared almost immediately multiple times throughout the week. You might even get the impression that these things were impossible to find, that Nintendo screwed up and limited the stock, and that the average pleb’s hopes of ever ordering one were pretty much dashed. But when you break it down, how hard was it really to order one?
I’d argue it wasn’t as hard as the first impression makes it seem. I managed to order three without the use of bots or computer trickery. Here’s what happened.
Upfront disclaimer that all three units were bought for real people, myself and my two brothers, not to scalp on the internet. I understand your frustration, you don’t have to believe me, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The somewhat official timeline of pre-order availability went like this: Amazon and Best Buy posted pre-orders in the middle of the night on Tuesday, August 22, around 1:00 am EST. These pre-orders were shrouded in mystery for days, and some Amazon orders were ultimately cancelled or reduced, while a few Best Buy orders may have met similar fates. Walmart opened pre-orders at 1:00 pm EST on Tuesday, August 22, followed shortly by Target. Around this time, GameStop announced that units would be available in-store only, and stores took orders sporadically as their allocations were confirmed. Some reports indicate stock at certain stores actually increased as more orders were placed. Around the same time, GameStop shut down their website entirely, replacing it with a link that redirected you to their sister site ThinkGeek, where you could buy bundles of SNES related memorabilia that also happened to include a Classic. Later that day, around 5:30 pm EST, Target opened orders again, which by varying accounts were open for as many as 5 minutes. Finally, Walmart reopened pre-orders on Friday, August 25 around 6:30 pm EST, and they sold out in about 10 minutes.
I honestly thought I was over prepared for the pre-orders to come; I followed two different Twitter accounts (@Wario64 and @NinWire) that promised speedy information, as well as a stock tracking app (i4u News Tracker), and individual notifications from various retailers (you can find them on the actual stock link). This would be my first attempt at securing a pre-order for such an in demand item, but I had a good track record with things like concert tickets and limited edition vinyl; how different could this be? I found out when I woke up on Tuesday to a string of tweets and stock updates, indicating that both Amazon and Best Buy had listed the SNES Classic for pre-order in the middle of the night, while I had made the mistake of following my normal sleeping schedule. I checked the SNES Classic page on Nintendo’s own website, and discovered that the section previously titled “Retailer info coming soon” now listed the names of six retailers: Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart (an update that is curiously gone now, just a week after it first appeared). This could only mean one thing: it was really happening. The Amazon and Best Buy releases may have been premature, but the pre-orders themselves were really here.
I opened up every retailer stock link on my laptop and my phone, making sure I was signed into every account I had, to streamline the checkout process. Having to re-input necessary information wasted precious seconds, during which someone else could snatch your inventory. I double checked that my notifications were working, so that I could know immediately if pre-orders opened. Then I did a few Hail Marys and hoped that pre-orders would stay closed until my lunch break.
They didn’t. I got the Walmart notification while in line at the post office, which didn’t matter anyway because they were gone the second I added one to my cart. By all accounts, they vanished as soon as they were listed. Was this the work of bots, or a demand so high that a million people flooded the site and the precious thousand who were fast enough won?
If you checked the main SNES Classic subreddit at this time, you would see the general consensus leaning towards bots. Post after post came from angry fans who just wanted to buy this piece of electronic plastic, but seemingly lost out to machines that could order faster than any human. How could Nintendo do this to its fans? Why didn’t they release more stock? I tried to stay positive, remembering that it was still early in the day, so all I could do was hope more inventory would become available.
It did, just a few minutes later, and I missed it again. This time Target had them, but for whatever reason my saved username and password was not actually correct, and by the time I reset my password... well I’m sure you can guess I had no chance. Lesson of the day: loading previously saved credentials is only useful if you know your username and password are actually accurate.
By this time I had basically accepted that I missed my chance and would have to camp out at 5am on release day if I wanted one of these. I had done it before for Black Friday deals (I bought last year’s limited edition New 3DS for my brother) so I was confident I could do it again. I just hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that. My prayers were answered moments later, when I walked out of the office for lunch. GameStop tweeted official confirmation that their physical store locations would have pre-orders available throughout the day. Could this be my chance? There were two GameStops in my area, close enough that I could visit one and be back within the hour. But I would only have time for one. They were in the same general direction, but at a certain point I had to choose one. I started driving, instructing Siri to call my main store. They had not opened pre-orders yet, but they would “some time” that day. It could be five minutes, it could be hours. I called the second GameStop at the local mall. They told me yes pre-orders were available, but they were already selling quickly and they couldn't guarantee them even past the next ten minutes. It would take me fifteen minutes to drive there.
As I approached the split that would lead me to a single store, I called the first store again on the chance pre-orders had opened in the last ten minutes. My gamble paid off, and I turned towards this store, arriving just five minutes later. Hopefully that was fast enough.
I was the fourth person in line at this store, but as luck (or fate. Calling it fate makes me feel better about it) would have it, the first two people weren’t even ordering Super Nintendos. Counting the man in front of me, who had no bags in hand so was most likely there to order, I considered myself safe. When it was my turn I blurted out a mess of something like “Super Nintendo. Please. Available?” I held my breath, unsure if my quest had been worth it.
This is what Nintendo had done to me. I sacrificed my lunch break so I could stand in line just for the chance to order a piece of my childhood. But deep down I knew: if I got one, it would be worth it.
“Yep,” the clerk said, “Just give me your rewards number.” I completed the transaction too giddy to believe it had happened.
What about the other two Classics I mentioned ordering? Well those stories are less dramatic but possibly more useful. After arriving home on Tuesday night at about 5:30, my phone buzzed to inform me that Target had stock available again. I shocked my wife as I ran to where I had left my wallet because Target was asking me to re-input my credit card information. The first time I had missed out because of a password issue, now it seemed like I would miss out a second time. Thankfully, this round lasted much longer than that morning's first attempt. I'm not sure how long it took me, but I was able to complete my order. SNES number two confirmed.
The third and (so far) final console was purchased on Friday night as I was taking out the trash. Once again my phone buzzed and I pulled up Walmart’s website, thinking that if it was anything like last time, I probably already missed it. For whatever reason Walmart had not saved my address information, so I even had to put that back in again. By most accounts orders were up for around 10 minutes which may explain why I was able to get my order done. Classic number three confirmed.
So what's the lesson here? It may sound like I’m humblebragging about how I went to a lot of trouble to obtain the first one and then got extremely lucky on numbers two and three. Honestly, that's a little bit of how I feel. The reality is that I was incredibly lucky, but the lesson is that I was also prepared. I knew what I had to do if I truly wanted a SNES Classic. That’s my tip to anyone who was unable to pre-order but still wants one: be prepared and be ready to do some work for it. Don’t blow off your job or other commitments for it by any means - I wouldn’t have made the trip to GameStop if the time hadn’t been convenient - but be ready for the 5:30 Targets and the 6:30 Walmarts. We don’t know for sure if pre-orders are totally done, or if a retailer will reopen them. Rumors about additional Best Buy units abound, and since the first Amazon pre-order was kind of a mistake, they technically haven’t done an official pre-order yet. Then of course there is launch day, and Nintendo’s promise that stock will be plentiful. I know a lot of people don’t believe them, but if I was able to get three of these, I feel like maybe they’re not totally tricking us. If you need tips for launch day camp outs, I’m happy to help. Until then, be vigilant, and you too can have a piece of curated nostalgia.