Source: A handful of posters on the Cheap Ass Gamer message boards.

　　The official story: Nintendo reps weren't immediately available for comment.

　　What we heard: Last night, a moderator on the Cheap Ass Gamer message boards going by the name of "Trakan" posted pictures of a Nintendo DS Lite he had apparently just purchased from his local Target, about a week and a half before the system's official on-sale date of June 11. The pictures show the North American DS Lite packaging, the system itself, a stylus, an AC adaptor, and a receipt. Details on the receipt aren't clearly visible, but Trakan said it rang up only as a Nintendo DS, instead of a DS Lite.

　　That posting was followed by a number of people from around the country reporting that they had picked up DS Lite systems at their local Targets and Wal-Marts. However, plenty of posters reported failure in their attempts to find a system.

　　GameSpot's own attempts to find Target and Wal-Mart stores selling the system were similarly stymied. After striking out at three local-area stores, we expanded the net. A Target near the company's Topeka, Kansas, distribution center wasn't carrying the systems yet, nor was a Wal-Mart near the company's Macon, Georgia, distribution facility. Finally, we tried the Wisconsin Target, where Trakan reported his DS Lite was purchased from. After some dissembling, the nervous-sounding clerk there told us they had the system in stock behind closed doors, but it wasn't going to go on sale until June 11.

　　Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus that Nintendo has launched the DS Lite early in the US. Not bogus that some stores accidentally broke street date on the system.