Bought a Nintendo Wii today...

gothicaleigh · #1 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 04:17 PM

...in Wal-Mart of all places. Was picking up some quick groceries when they announced that 5 had just been delivered. Being in the middle of the day on a Tuesday, I walked over to Electronics and asked if they were still available.
I walked out with the last one. Yay!

I know the huge rush is over for them, but I'm still rather excited to have one.

EcSTSatic · #2 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 04:20 PM

I heard that they were being recalled because the straps were breaking, sending them into TVs, furniture, windows etc. Be careful!

urbanski · #3 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 04:25 PM

gothicaleigh · #4 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 04:49 PM

Nintendo anything is hot around here right now and next to impossible to find.

This weekend I bought a DS Lite for a christmas gift. Couldn't find it available anywhere (the story from most shops was that it was the go-to gift when people couldn't get a PS3 or Wii, so they too were scarce).
So I called a friend of mine that runs a GameStop. He said that they would be getting a few in on Sunday, but there would be a line because the latest shipment of Wii was arriving also, but that he would hold a black one as long as I bought it that morning. I was there a few minutes before they opened and watched as every Wii and DS Lite they had sold out in minutes (a couple of people said they were in line the night before). Crazy that there are lines weeks after the release...
Anyway, I didn't have to wait in line, but I waited for the liners to leave before collecting mine.

gary88 · #5 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EcSTSatic

I heard that they were being recalled because the straps were breaking, sending them into TVs, furniture, windows etc. Be careful!

They're not being recalled as far as I know, but Nintendo is aware of this problem and is offering to upgrade people to a stronger strap for free.

I'm starting to really like the Wii. I think i'll get one sometime after Christmas just for Zelda, I'm a huuuge Zelda fan. The virtual console looks pretty neat too.

CIWS · #6 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 06:15 PM

Nice snag caleigh

gothicaleigh · #7 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EcSTSatic

I heard that they were being recalled because the straps were breaking, sending them into TVs, furniture, windows etc. Be careful!

urbanski · #8 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 06:55 PM

dp102288 · #9 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gothicaleigh

Nice grab!

ChicagoCTS32 · #10 (**permalink**) 12-19-06, 11:49 PM

check this out... www.wiihaveaproblem.com
Funny stuff.

They're voluntarily recalling the straps for the controller to fix them with better ones. Supposedly retailers are going to have the better straps available so people can get them when they buy them or bring in the bad ones and get the good ones.

Wii's are still pretty hot. They completely dropped the estimated number of deliveries they were supposed to have before christmas. They're going for $100-200 over retail on ebay. Before this last shipment that came in on sunday, they were going for $300-400.

Good snag goth!

xxpinballxx · #11 (**permalink**) 12-20-06, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gary88

They're not being recalled as far as I know, but Nintendo is aware of this problem and is offering to upgrade people to a stronger strap for free.

I'm starting to really like the Wii. I think i'll get one sometime after Christmas just for Zelda, I'm a huuuge Zelda fan. The virtual console looks pretty neat too.

no they recalled the controller straps...not the whole system. They send you a new thicker strap and you send them the old one back.

gothicaleigh · #12 (**permalink**) 12-20-06, 11:20 AM

Things learned today:

Wii will use the Opera browser!

Sure, I probably will never use my Wii to surf internet land. But if you're going to have a browser in there, at least it will be the right one.

EcSTSatic · #13 (**permalink**) 12-20-06, 11:23 AM

Is this one of those gadgets they are catching kids downloading porn onto?

gothicaleigh · #14 (**permalink**) 12-20-06, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xxpinballxx

no they recalled the controller straps...not the whole system. They send you a new thicker strap and you send them the old one back.

http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/images/p76/02.jpg

gothicaleigh · #15 (**permalink**) 12-20-06, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EcSTSatic

Is this one of those gadgets they are catching kids downloading porn onto?

I believe that's the PSP...

As for the Wiimote (I love the name) breaking the strap and damaging things:

Quote:

The wii-strap supports upwards of twenty-five pounds of weight without apparent ill effect. Taking this as a baseline, we must apply _more than_ 25 pounds of force to the strap to break it. According to Google this comes out to 111.20554 newtons.

Using the familiar formula F=ma, we find that in order to apply the 111.20554 newtons of force that, recall, was not sufficient to break the strap, the wiimote would have to accelerate at a rate of 889.64432 m/s^2.

889.64432 m/s^2

Just for reference, at that rate of acceleration the wiimote would be going over a kilometer a second in under two seconds. In a few seconds of continued acceleration it would reach the speed necessary for low-earth orbit (around 8000 m/s).

To equal the force that didn't break the strap would require exerting about 91 times the force that gravity exerts on the wiimote. Or, the wiimote would still not weigh enough to break the strap in 91 times earth gravity. Of course, that's just dangling there. If you swung it, it might break. If you were alive to swing it. But you aren't, because humans die at about nine times earth gravity.