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`Star Wars' loyalists line up Photo by Jim Craven Robin Murray of Talent, left, and Jesse Purkerson of Ashland duel with light sabers Tuesday while waiting for ticket sales to open for "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace." Waiting overnight for ticket sales that start today By JIM DAVIS For some, the saga has already begun. A couple dozen twentysomethings began camping at Tinseltown in Medford Tuesday afternoon to get the first tickets for the next installment in the "Star Wars" movies. "We are armed," said Robin Murray, a 20-year-old Southern Oregon University student, as she brought out an armload of plastic light sabers. The tickets for the movie "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" go on sale today at 1 p.m. So campers were prepared to wait in line for about 20 hours, said Chris Heinonen, another SOU student. "I have friends in Portland who have been camping out for a couple of days," Heinonen said. "This isn't that bad." Each person is allowed 12 tickets, and most said they were getting that many. The movie won't even open until May 19, a week later. The lines started forming Monday, but security for the Medford Center shooed them away. As more people showed up, security decided to allow the camping. On Tuesday afternoon, the group huddled under an awning outside of Tinseltown, sitting in lawn chairs, eating pizza and getting ready for the night. The theater made the campers sign a waiver, and the campers brought a version of a "Phantom Menace Ticket Line Code of Conduct," downloaded from the Internet. The 16 rules of the code dictate no alcohol, no pets and no cooking. Gary Carpentier, 25, and Gena Walters, 27, both of Medford, were waiting in line for Pacific Computer Solutions, a Medford computer company. Carpentier is a company employee being paid for his time and Walters is the wife of the company's owner. They said employees would wait in eight-hour shifts until they got their 24 tickets for company employees and family. "This won't affect our clients in any way," Carpentier said. Another person being paid to wait was Jeff Dubois, an anchor and reporter for KTVL Channel 10. Dubois, 24, was doing live broadcasts from the line, but said he took the assignment because he wanted to get tickets -- for himself and the rest of the crew at the station. "I'll be here at 5, 6, 11 and the morning and noon shows," Dubois said. "Until I get my tickets." One of the would-be Jedis, Jesse Purkerson, 20, of Ashland, sat on his lawn chair, held his light saber and looked to the sky. "Hopefully, it won't rain," Purkerson said. Only if the Force was with them. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA