With DVD boxes being stacked on shelves near the cash registers, Chris Johnson was getting prepared for the crowd.

Customers were slowly filing into Hastings shortly afterward, mindlessly rummaging through bargain bins and magazine racks while they eagerly anticipated the stroke of midnight.

At 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, Johnson, the manager of Hastings, 620 Lincoln Way, was finally able to start selling the DVD sets of the original “Star Wars” trilogy.

“We’re one of the few places that will take advantage of the precise [release] date,” he says. “If it’s 12:01 a.m., then it’s technically Tuesday.”

But in the moments before midnight, Johnson was confident to make sure not a single product left his store.

The small crowd of devoted “Star Wars” fans had begun mulling close to the shelves, picking up copies of the DVD set and reading the box descriptions.

Johnson turns and tells the potential buyers, “just 14 more minutes, guys.”

Fans who have shown up are mostly the devoted kind, but there were also casual fans who found the midnight timing to be a convenience.

Dan Schroeder, junior in community and regional planning, decided to come decked out in his Darth Maul T-shirt. To say he was looking forward to this release would be an understatement.

“It’s Star Wars,” he says. “It’s the original trilogy. These are classic movies.”

Ever since he first saw “Return of the Jedi” when he was around 8 years old, Schroeder says he has enjoyed the original trilogy. He also understands why other people have been able to fall in love with the films.

“I think people really relate to it; they relate to the characters,” Schroeder says. “For me, it was Han Solo. He’s the brash kind of guy, the swashbuckler.”

Schroeder was one of the first fans to show up, roughly half an hour until midnight. Soon enough, more people start filing in.

Chuck Ripley, senior in English, came in close to the selling hour since it worked well into his schedule.

“I got a busy day tomorrow, and I’d figured I’d be up late tonight,” Ripley says. “I might as well stop in so I can take a break from homework and pick it up.”

Although Ripley says his interest in “Star Wars” has dropped since high school, he sees the trilogy as having a profound effect on his life.

“I think [“Star Wars”] got me interested in a lot of different films, and also the mythology behind it,” he says. “Then the mythology got me interested in reading classical literature.” The Greek poet Homer is one example, he says.

Surprisingly, there’s at least one fan there for something other than the DVD. Brian Sweet, senior in art and design, says he came only for the new “Star Wars” video game.

That’s not to say Sweet is boycotting the release, such as some distraught fans who are mad at creator George Lucas for not releasing the original versions of the films on DVD.

“It is Lucas’s vision,” Sweet says. “If he wants to change [the films] to fit more aptly with what he originally envisioned, then that’s his prerogative.”

The hands on the clock draw closer to 12. The employees decide to hold a trivia contest, giving away “Star Wars” toys to those who can answer some obscure questions. The quiet crowd answers most questions right off the bat. Before Obi-Wan could have ignited his lightsaber, all the prizes are gone.

The contest ends right as 12:01 a.m. is announced over the speaker. The crowd, now roughly 30 fans, breathes a sigh of relief, grabs their copies of “Star Wars” and forms a line behind the registers.

As soon as the exchanges are made, the fans start leaving while more people come in for their own copies.

Soon enough, these “Star Wars” fans will be transported to a galaxy far, far away, in an entirely new way.