<< When will we be able to drive to the store and buy these without having to have a ton of luck? >>
Probably between 1 and 3 months from now.
Heh, I was at Best Buy on Friday Dec. 29 at they were selling them. I saw some guy with one and said, "HEY! Congratulations!" He said exhaustedly, "Heh, thanks...they have more still..." I'm thinking, 'Thanks for the tip but my Dreamcast is arriving as we speak!' 😉 I'm gonna use my DC till GameCube comes out in October!
BTW, a friend of mine got PS2 the day it came out and he said DVD quality was pretty good- but then again he isn't much of a video quality aficionado. If fact they have no other DVD players in the house except the one on his computer. But hey, it works for him.