First Preordered Game?

[deltoidsteep]

Sorry if this thread already exists. I did a quick search and didn't see anything. What i want to know is this: what was the very first game you ever preordered? I'm pretty sure mine was Pokemon Silver. I got a bonus CD ROM for preordering it too.

[Hwj_Chim]

neo geo battle coliseum for the jp ps2

[Battlehork]

Final Fantasy VII

[bcks007]

GoldenEye 007

[c0ldb33r]

I'm trying to remember, but I don't think that I've ever preordered a single game or console. I've got nothing against doing it and I find it surprising that I've never done it. Weird.

[DDCecil]

Mario Kart 64 from Toys R Us.

[NayusDante]

I remember putting down a reserve on Pokemon Yellow and Final Fantasy VIII at the same time, and FFVIII was released first. Since then, I've only preordered a hanful of titles, mostly FF related. After Mega Man X7, I never preordered anything again until the FFXI expansions.

[DigitalSpace]

The only game I've ever preordered was L.A. Rush for the PS2. Midway Arcade Treasures 3 was included as a preorder bonus and EB had a trade-in bonus promotion going on at the time. I was the only person to preorder it at the EB I picked it up at, and my copy was the only one they got in the day it was released.

I enjoyed L.A. Rush more than some (and thought it might have received some better reception had Midway billed it as a new street racing franchise instead of throwing in the Rush name), but if it wasn't for the bonus MAT3 and the trade-in promotion, I probably wouldn't have bothered.

[kupomogli]

I think the first game I've ever preordered was Arc the Lad Collection since preordering came with a stopwatch. I actually don't remember who came on the preorder watch, but I think it was Elc.

Couple years ago I ended up preordering alot, but then I was like. Why bother unless you'll specifically get a bonus for it? Since then I haven't preordered unless you get some sortof bonus with it.

[deltoidsteep]

I think the first game I've ever preordered was Arc the Lad Collection since preordering came with a stopwatch. I actually don't remember who came on the preorder watch, but I think it was Elc.

Couple years ago I ended up preordering alot, but then I was like. Why bother unless you'll specifically get a bonus for it? Since then I haven't preordered unless you get some sortof bonus with it.

I agree. My main preorders are things that come with bonuses or things that will be hard to find. The latter usually means its a console.

[tofu]

Pier Solar

[skaar]

Bubble Bobble NES, from Electronics Boutique in Montreal.

Though I think my parents technically prepaid in advance for my Colecovision so does that count?

[BydoEmpire]

Super Mario 64 with the N64. It was the first gaming generation out of college and working, so I preordered form EB after playing a SM64 kiosk. Good times. I'm glad I did preorder, because N64s were hard to find for a while.

[jcalder8]

I'm pretty sure it was No Mercy for the N64. But the place where I preordered it from didn't get the shipment so I went and bought it from somewhere else for an extra 20 bucks.

[Gameguy]

I haven't preordered anything yet. I wait until it gets cheaper in price.

[izarate]

Chrono Trigger. RPGs were a niche genre back then so I wanted to make sure that I'd get a copy.

[PentiumMMX]

I believe it was Diddy Kong Racing DS. What a waste of time that was...since then, I only preorder games that I'll get a bonus with (Though Super Smash Bros. Brawl was an exception)

[Aussie2B]

Hmmm, I think Super Mario 64 along with the N64 itself. I don't think I bothered to pre-order anything prior to that, but for some reason I went pre-order crazy with the N64. I'm pretty sure I also pre-ordered Pilotwings 64, Cruis'n USA, Mario Kart 64, and even Quest 64, ugh. Maybe Quest 64 taught me my lesson, though, as I think I stopped after that. :P I very rarely pre-order anything these days (or buy games at launch, period), but when I do, it's almost always got some bonus item.

[The Old School Gamer]

First preorder may have been Mortal Kombat II for the SNES. Not 100% sure though. I remember going to preorder the first Mortal Kombat but when I got to the local EB they were already selling them a few days early.

[MattK]

WWF Attitude for the Nintendo 64. I regret the purchase.

[walrusmonger]

Metal Gear Solid is the first that I can remember, I preordered to get the limited dog tags and hat, which I sold on these forums- to this day I have never seen another set for sale...

[RPG_Fanatic]

The first thing I can remember pre-ordering was the Playstation in 95.

[XYXZYZ]

Street Fighter IV.

[NE146]

Street Fighter 2 for Genesis.

[jeffg]

Final Fantasy VII

It was also my first Midnight Launch that I went to to get a game. Drove 1 hour to McVans' video game store to get it at Midnight

[Draven]

I never pre-ordered due to the lame reviews available before the advent of the internet. Every game was so hyped before release, especially by the Big N's review department. I never trusted anyone after seeing some horrible games get good reviews. Maybe one day I'll pre-order, but I've always been able to find any game I want right after its release (I live in a rural part of the world, so there's not a lot of competition here for new games). Not to hijack, but I wonder what the 1st game was that was available for pre-order (I thought that's what this thread was before I read it)?!?

[jcalder8]

Final Fantasy VII

It was also my first Midnight Launch that I went to to get a game. Drove 1 hour to McVans' video game store to get it at Midnight
I didn't know that there have been places doing midnight launches for that long.

[namzep]

Legend of Zelda: Ocarnia of Time back in, what was it, 1997?

edit: Usually I only preorder anymore if they have some sort of good bonus with the game (art book, soundtrack, plushie, etc...). I seem to have no problems finding most games anymore.

[scooterb23]

Only one I've ever done was My Playstation 2 with Gran Turismo, Swing Away Golf, and whichever Madden year it was supposed to be.

Fun fact: I still own the same PS2, but none of the games.

[The 1 2 P]

The only game I have ever preordered was the limited edition of Halo 2(because I fell for the lies that it would be in short supply by a GS employee who is also a friend of mine). I have played that game more than any other in my lifetime and waited in line to buy it at midnight at Best Buy, so it was definitely worth getting. But I absolutely didn't need to preorder/reserve it and thats why I never preorder games.

[bangtango]

The only game I have ever preordered was the limited edition of Halo 2(because I fell for the lies that it would be in short supply by a GS employee who is also a friend of mine). I have played that game more than any other in my lifetime and waited in line to buy it at midnight at Best Buy, so it was definitely worth getting. But I absolutely didn't need to preorder/reserve it and thats why I never preorder games.

Fell for a similar line of hype surrounding Twilight Princess for Game Cube, that it would be in short supply and eventually rise in price.

I am old enough and have been gaming long enough that I should have known better.

But that was my one and only preorder. Never done it before or since.

[deltoidsteep]

I never pre-ordered due to the lame reviews available before the advent of the internet. Every game was so hyped before release, especially by the Big N's review department. I never trusted anyone after seeing some horrible games get good reviews. Maybe one day I'll pre-order, but I've always been able to find any game I want right after its release (I live in a rural part of the world, so there's not a lot of competition here for new games). Not to hijack, but I wonder what the 1st game was that was available for pre-order (I thought that's what this thread was before I read it)?!?

That's actually what i thought too after i wrote it but being the lazy bugger i am i just left it the way it was. It is a good question though

[videogameking26]

Not sure and think it was Burnout 3: Takedown for PS2, when I was younger never really pre-ordered anything, not till I bought my PS2 did I start ordering in advance.

[Kid Fenris]

Probably Final Fantasy III. I was really hyped about the game from reading EGM and GameFan during that summer, but I didn't really know that you could reserve games because I never did it before, even though I played Final Fantasy II and Secret of Mana and lots of RPGs that were sometimes hard to find if you didn't get them when they came out.

So it was like three weeks before the game came out and some guy at school was talking about how he reserved it at Babbage's and I decided I would do the same thing. I went to the local Babbage's and they said they weren't reserving games. Looking back I think that the clerk was lying or just didn't know what was going on but I believed him and went to another mall that had a Software Etc but they said they couldn't take any more preorders and that I would have to get it the day it came out. I was getting worried and I went to a used-game store that was a little outta town. I asked the girl behind the counter if I could reserve a copy of Final Fantasy III and she said that the store didn't really reserve games. Then I told her that I really wanted the game and that the other stores wouldn't let me reserve it, so she said she would hold a copy for me if I ate two dozen dead roaches. I really wanted Final Fantasy III so she locked the store while we went in the back and found them. Because I'd never done a pre-order of any game, I was worried that the store wouldn't call me but when the game came out they did, and I drove out there to pick it up.

I really don't preorder games that much anymore because you can always get it the day it comes out, unless it's an Atlus game or whatever. But I'm glad I preordered Final Fantasy III.

[Letiumtide]

Definitely Chrono Trigger, my father had preordered it for my sister and I based on the agreement that we wouldn't rent any games until it's release. Considering we rented a game every weekend it was a pretty big commitment on our behalf.

I still remember being the first to get it that day.

Also, Kid, if that story is true it has to be one of the most disgusting acts of self-depreciation in the act of gaming I've heard.

[sisko]

Ocarina of Time: Collector's Edition

[j_factor]

NiGHTS: Into Dreams...

[Ace Comics]

Tales of Legendia to get the free artbook... that Gamestop "never received"...

[Smashed Brother]

I think that my first was the EUR version of Shenmue II for the DC. The local EB was importing it because the US version was suddenly cancelled. Yeah, so when I heard about that, I had my buddy who worked there put 5 bucks down for me, ASAP. Good thing that I did, because they only received 2 copies; the one that I pre-ordered and one that some other dude pre-ordered!

I still have it to this day...

[makaar]

Super Mario 64 along with the N64...never was so excited about a console or game as that...was truly the most memorable launch for sure for me.

[Drixxel]

Mega Man Legends would have been my first pre-order, and while there was no bonus for it, it was a game I had built up massive excitement towards and a pre-order was a way to satisfy that frothing demand. My second ever pre-order was for Metroid Prime 2, and it came with a pointless morphball-shaped CD carrying case with something like a 15 disc capacity.

[Ed Oscuro]

What i want to know is this: what was the very first game you ever preordered?
Whaddya wanna know fer?

Maybe...Portrait of Ruin on the Nintendo DS, which I still haven't opened

minty fre$h

[crazyjackcsa]

I preordered the last of the Sega Saturn Games: Panzer Dragoon Saga, Burning Rangers and Shining Force 3.

It was geting to the point in my area that the only Saturn games they would stock was preorders. They were the first and the last games I've ever preordered.

[Hitman Tyler]

I really cannot remember but I think it's:
Grand Theft Auto IV:Special Edition (PS3)
I kinda regret getting it due to I only use the game. I remember when I picked it up at Midnight all the people outside said when I picked it up: "what the hell, he got the special edition".

[fergojisan]

My very first pre-order was Pac Man for the 2600. I paid 37 bucks for it at the Tiny Tots at the Middlesex Mall in South Plainfield. Yes, it is universally lambasted these days, but it was all we had back then, and we played the hell out of it. I don't remember feeling like I got burned or anything, but my memory may be faulty.

My second ever pre-order will be the deluxe Beatles Rock Band in September. I'm going to be dropping a lot of cash that day, what with the Beatles remasters coming out also.

[deltoidsteep]

Whaddya wanna know fer?

Maybe...Portrait of Ruin on the Nintendo DS, which I still haven't opened

minty fre$h

cause im nosy. and bored.

[optic_85]

The first and only pre-order I've done was the summer before the release of the first XBOX. I pre-ordered the console, along with Halo, Oddworld, and Madden. I remember getting the package the day before Thanksgiving break. I probably spent that whole break playing Halo with my friends.

[TurboGenesis]

I cannot recall the exact game but it has to be sometime around 2004-2005 when I finally started to do pre-orders. I do it now for the promotionals. Art books, soundtracks, DVDs, trinkets… I am not too serious in collecting them but I do like to get them and have acquired a nice collection in the past few years… If there is no bonus, then I do not pre-order UNLESS it is a Japanese game, I pre-order my Japan softs as I like to have them promptly. I receive my games 3 days after they release… sometimes, those have pre-order bonus too, like I got a mini guide for DDPDOJBLEX.

EDIT, I do know of an earlier pre-order I did.
I pre-ordered Lunar 2 for PlayStation and got a puppet for doing so.

[CreamSoda]

Harvest Moon 64, I had to reserve a copy on Etoys.com because none of the local stores in my area seemed to be getting the game. It was worth every penny once I got it though. I still wish I would have kept the box/manual, but back then I never thought about the game being so hard to track down complete.

Kid Fenris, dude I hope your joking, but your story still made me laugh out loud. :)

[Chemdawg]

Zelda: OoT gold edition

[Aussie2B]

Harvest Moon 64, I had to reserve a copy on Etoys.com because none of the local stores in my area seemed to be getting the game. It was worth every penny once I got it though. I still wish I would have kept the box/manual, but back then I never thought about the game being so hard to track down complete.

I can do you one worse. I threw away the SNES Harvest Moon box. I kept the manual, but still, I'd have a triple digit game if I just kept that cardboard. :(

[mezrabad]

To over-answer your question, I've pre-ordered four titles:

First of all, I would have pre-ordered Daggerfall if they'd had pre-orders at my local Egghead Software when it came out. Instead I called the game store about five times that day.

Ultima IX: Dragon Edition was the first game I actually pre-ordered. I still have it with all the pieces, just don't ask me to find it.

Chrono Cross, got a little clock and a poster. This was after having just completed playing Chrono Trigger. Though I don't remember if it was after I played the PSX version or the SNES/Emulated version.

Collector's Edition Morrowind for PC. Still have the artbook somewhere and the little metal ordinator.

Most recently Fallout 3 - Xbox 360. I wanted the game and the lunch box asap.

I don't think pre-ordering any of these was based on the "it will be worth more and hard to find afterwards" philosophy. It was more in the sense of "I want this as soon as possible and I don't want to deal with any possibility of not getting it the day it comes out". I think the first three were ordered over the internet and received by mail and Fallout 3 was picked up at the store.

Taking a look at and thinking about the titles, I think it's because I had such fond memories of the games that had been released previously in the series. Since it had been six or so years between pre-ordering Morrowind and pre-ordering Fallout 3, I don't think I'll be pre-ordering anything else anytime soon. I think, now, that it's more because I'm relatively clueless about what's coming out. Though, now that I think of it, Beatles Rock Band has really caught my interest. Too expensive for my wallet though.

[CDiablo]

Pokemon Diamond. I got it because my buddy got me hyped and it had the free preorder stylus.

[Haoie]

Never done a preorder here.

[Iron Draggon]

I think it was RCT3 for PC. I never preordered anything for consoles until all the Genesis homebrews started coming out. And I usually don't preorder any other games unless there's supposed to be a bonus for it, which I never get anyway, so I dunno why I bother anymore except it allows me to stay ahead of future releases as they come out without having to look for it all in stores.

[Richter Belmount]

Pokemon Gold for the gameboy color.

[VACRMH]

Final Fantasy 7.

Got a free T-Shirt and 2 posters (Well, 2x of 1 double sided) for it.

And everything was lost/destroyed over the years :( Goddammit.

[Icarus Moonsight]

My first was Policenauts for Saturn...

Now, I only pre-order through Amazon. No item, no cash.

[grolt]

I've only done it twice:

Zelda: The Ocarina of Time - I did it to get the gold version, but then it turned out that they were all out of it so I was given the regular release instead. Lame. At least the game was worth it, though.

Sega Dreamcast - Preordered that sucker so I could pick it up day and date on 9/9/99. Got a cheap, XXXL shirt for it. I still have it, and hopefully one day when I get my wife pregnant she'll actually be able to wear it.

[grolt]

I asked the girl behind the counter if I could reserve a copy of Final Fantasy III and she said that the store didn't really reserve games. Then I told her that I really wanted the game and that the other stores wouldn't let me reserve it, so she said she would hold a copy for me if I ate her out. She was at least five years older than me and a little overweight and she smelled kinda like windex but I really wanted Final Fantasy III so she locked the store for about a half-hour while we went in the back.

Wait...what? LOL

[Gapporin]

I initially misread the topic of the thread and thought that the OP was asking for the first game available to preorder ever (which would make for an interesting topic all its own).

As for myself, I've never preordered a video game. Heck, I can't even remember the last time I bought a brand new game.

[Slash]

I only preordered 2 games:

Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) - The Nintendo Power preview did it for me, IT BLEW MY MIND. Totally worth it.

Zelda:OoT (N64) - I preordered mostly for the Gold cart, if I remember correctly. What I do remember is playing it non-stop without sleeping between school for 3-4 days straight.

[kupomogli]

I know it's going off topic, but I wonder what everyone's favorite preorder item was. I'm not talking about generic crap like the FF7 UMD or maybe a mini soundtrack, but some really good stuff.

If you preordered Shadow Hearts 2 it came with a free copy of the original Shadow Hearts(too bad I already had Shadow Hearts.) Arc the Lad Collection you got a pocket watch. Castlevania Portrait of Ruin you got a plastic cover box with an artbook, soundtrack, among other things(still haven't opened it so I don't quite remember.)

I just searched for best preorder item so I'll just revive that thread. Maybe people want to post.

[NayusDante]

I liked the two-track CD for Chrono Trigger DS, but kinda wished it had more on it. Also like the poster, but that's a first-run bonus, not technically for preorders.

I did NOT like the CD that came with Ys Legacy DS, because the DS soundtrack lacked the emotion found in every other release of the game. At least it had the music from the intros, which was carried over from Ys Eternal.

I liked the MGS4 artbook, even though I didn't preorder. I bought the collector's edition a few weeks after release, and saw them sitting behind the counter, but didn't say anything. When I left, my car battery was dead. When I came back an hour or so later with my dad to jump it, I stopped in and asked if they were for sale, and the clerk just gave me one.

That's about all I have.

[guitargary75]

I don't like giving interest free loans.

[ButtonMasher123]

Mortal Kombat for the Genesis

[carlcarlson]

Beggar Prince? I can't remember if they did preorders or not. If not then I have never preordered a game.

The first game I bought new was Diablo though.

[mario2butts]

Back when I was in 7th grade, I won $100 from some contest at school, which I took straight to FuncoLand to preorder Ocarina of Time :D

[BobaFettHotep]

Warcraft 3 collectors edition

[RyoGeo]

My first pre-order was Panzer Dragoon Saga. It's probably the only reason I was able to get one.

Still have it.

[Kevincal]

First thing videogame related I pre-ordered was a Sony Playstation.. First game I pre-ordered was... I believe Mario Kart 64.