I was 12 years old - that was the very first "system" I ever got on Day One.
I remember about the October before, I was inside a Hollywood Video and there was a Nintendo Power magazine with SpaceWorld 2000 info - a huge blowout on the AGB and GCN. I was amazed. I needed that GameBoy. There was a screenshot of Golden Sun in that issue - a tiny, tiny picture - that looked so much better graphically than anything I had ever seen on a handheld.
There was a website I would visit on 56K back in the day - Nintendojo - that had said some stores were receiving GBA units early, and a few lucky readers were managing to get the system several days before it was officially released at Walmart.
I called every.single.Walmart within 50 miles - as a 12-year-old - two or three times a day for an entire weekend. Then, on some random afternoon, a handful of days before release, an older guy in electronics answers.
"Hi, I've heard you may have the GameBoy Advance in stock, can you confirm before I make the trip out there?" (I was so sneaky, lol)
"Umm... we have GameBoy systems, yeah."
"No, there's a new one called the GameBoy ADVANCE - can you make sure it's that one?"
"No problem, let me check.... .... .... .... .... .... .... yeah, looks like there's actually a box of them at the register."
"OH... OH REALLY? OKAY GREAT, CAN YOU HOLD A GLACIER ONE FOR ME?"
***
My mom was taking a nap. I vividly recall that. I stormed into my parents' room:
MOM MOM MOM MOM!!! THEY HAVE ONE! Will you plllllllllleaaaase take me to the Walmart (15 minutes away). Please! Please! It's now or never. If they guy leaves, they may not sell it to me.
Most awesome mom in the world gets out of bed, drives me to Walmart in the middle of the afternoon, and let's be blow, literally, every penny I owned from a year's worth of allowance savings on a Glacier GBA and THPS.
Great memory.