What to do in the Wii launch line

LOS ANGELES--If you had to wait in line for 38 hours for a Nintnedo Wii, what would you do to pass the time?

Well, here at the official West Coast Wii launch, there was only a couple of folks who waited that long, but all told, there are probably 1,000 people in line, and they are choosing all kinds of things to entertain themselves.

Many have come in groups. There are countless camp chairs, though none of the makeshift tents and shelters that I saw in San Francisco on Thursday for the PlayStation 3 launch there.

The most common pastime? Eating, by far, and I feel bad for the janitorial staff that will have to clean up after these gamers.

Next up? It seems to be playing games on a Nintendo DS. In fact, there are many clusters of friends who are playing Mario Kart wirelessly against each other. The biggest appeared to be a group of eight standing very close to the front of the line.

Some other things that those in line are doing to pass the time: reading, playing cards, playing guitar, sleeping, creating art on a computer, watching DVDs on a computer, feeding babies, playing sudoku, listening to iPods and playing board games.

Of course, there are countless other choices, but those are the ones that stood out in a quick walk through up and beyond the line.

The Wiis go on sale in about 75 minutes, so I predict a quick stuffing of things into bags soon as the line gets ready to move forward.