SNES hotel system - game list and label information revealed!

[Ed Oscuro]

It's peculiar that I never got around to releasing the information I've been hoarding on a laptop since July 14, 2002 (yes, before my first two posts in this thread (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28602) - pretty sure I wrote the information about the Lodgenet before I joined this site even; I was an "information packrat" even back then. Incidentally I should have the paper I mention in that thread, though it is probably for a British PSX Lodgenet-alike, NOT this SNES hotel system; I wouldn't take anything that wasn't paper).

Won't be formatted exactly right as it was in the *.doc file I used (where I tried to get the relative sizes and positions of elements right; didn't have a camera at the time).

Note: facts are free for use as per US copyright law, but please don't copypasta this entire thing without asking (I can provide the DOC on request)

LodgeNet Entertainment system factsheet

SNES games, movies, and other services can be used on hotel televisions with this system. The following data relates to a specific unit encountered in an Oshkosh, Wisconsin hotel.

SET TOP BOX
[front of unit]
Clear plastic front over two digit LED on left side. Right side has “LodgeNet ENTERTAINMENT” decal.
Front is slanted outwards approx. 30 degrees from vertical.

[bottom of unit, label:]
MODEL LNC 2000
LODGENET ENTERTAINMENT
CORPORATION
SIOUX FALLS,SD, 57104
[boxed]TO BE USED ONLY WITH PSU-503
FCC ID : EUH5U4CTV500A

[log]
SERVICE LOG
DATE 07-95
REV. 4.42
BY EEC

Other labels:
365776
[barcode]
LNC2000CJ ADDRESS

[Back of unit, left to right: cord; excerpt of printing on it] CATV OR CL2 [phone input: controller port power, circular 5 pronged TV cable, the standard kind]

[top of unit buttons read left to right, top first: buttons are set apart from unit top by depressed pattern of rounded square divided into quarters for each button
pair of yellow buttons on left, each triangular, top + and bottom –
faint pinkish eraser-like button, “ORDER”
light green button, “ON/OFF”

[Controller]
Black plastic. Shape is similar to Sega Genesis controller; a wide dogbone shape. Two raised circles contain gray directional pad (left) and (X, Y; light blue) (A, B; dark blue) buttons arranged in diagonal diamond. However, the labels for each button are rotated 90 degrees each button starting with A, directly below the right button, to the right of X, top button. Grey shoulder buttons; each labeled on the top near middle of controller and with a corresponding decal on the controller front. On front of controller in the middle lie four buttons: orange, both labeled “RESET” on left and “ORDER” on right; below that yellow “MENU.” To the right, “VOL” blue button “+” and “VOL” blue button “-”
Below THAT, two yellow buttons set at a slight angle. Above the top “SELECT,” above the bottom “START/ *” Below this is a decal: LodgeNet® in light gray. A nice controller with bad decals. Feels strong.

[Controller back]
Two clear rubber pads. Four screws visible below and to the sides of unit. Two silver stickers: “S2995” and oval “Q.C. PASSED” below is main sticker (not inset) reading:

LodgeNet™ Entertainment System
HOTEL ROOM CONTROLLER


NOTICE: THIS CONTROLLER IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH
ANY HOME GAME SYSTEM. IF THIS CONTOLLER IS
DETACHED FROM THE TV SET A $29.95 SERVICE
CHARGE WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR ROOM BILL.

MODEL MSC-401 MADE IN CHINA

(note: I found the controller unplugged. Had to plug it in myself.)

Controller terminates in phone line jack. There is a good length of gray coiled cord (again like a phone) flattening out at the end, which has been (left?) coiled before the connector.

[Unit/TV Remote]
Takes two AA batteries. Five or six inches by about 1.5 inches. LodgeNet™ logo decal applied to bottom right of top, reads vertically (i.e. perpendicular to the side.) Black, inset pad for buttons, bottom of inset labeled “LRC-2920” and all decals are on this pad unless otherwise noted. Buttons:
ORDER (orange,) blank space, ON/OFF (green,)
MENU, PAY, FREE (these are yellow)
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9 (all black with white number decals)
Now going down, then left to right:
VOL+, VOL-, MUTE (all blue)
0 (black,) DISPLAY, *
[triangle upwards] [triangle downwards] SELECT (all these yellow.)

[Remote bottom inset]
MADE IN TAIWAN R.O.C.
[battery cover inset]
THIS DEVICE WORKS
ONLY WITH THE
LODGENET
ENTERTAINMENT
SYSTEM

REMOVAL OF THIS
DEVICE WILL RESULT
IN AN AUTOMATIC
$25.00 CHARGE TO
YOUR ROOM BILL

IF FOUND
PLEASE RETURN TO
LODGENET
ENTERTAINMENT
SIOUX FALLS
SD 57104

[Games:]
The main menu shows four choices: 1 Movies, 2 Games, 3 Languages (English, Japanese perhaps, Spanish,) 4 Exit.
Games are displayed four to a screen. Each group starts with 1 and ends with 4 to allow you to press a button on the remote to select one. 5 is browse (previous) * is go back, 6 is browse (next)

1.Super Mario World (Players Choice Million Seller)
2.F-Zero (see 1)
3.Dr. Mario
4.Donkey Kong Country 2 (see 1)
5.Super Punch Out (see 1)
6.Blackthorne
7.Super Street Fighter II
8.Super Mario All-Stars (see 1)
9.Vegas Stakes
10.Kirby’s Dream Course (see 1)
11.Hangman ([yellow text: “Not Available in Stores”)
12.Hal’s Hole In One Golf
13.Postcard Puzzle (see 11)
14.Final Fight
15.The Legend of Zelda (see 1)
16.Lost Vikings 2
17.Noughts & Crosses [yellow text on picture reads “tic*tac*toe)
18.Tetris

[c0ldb33r]

How much did it cost to play the games?

[badinsults]

I seem to recall when I played this system it was about $5 an hour. I also recall that it had different games at the hotel I was at.

[Baloo]

I remember seeing SNES in a Hotel YEARS ago in Knobels' Grove, but I never got the chance to play it.

[slapdash]

What the heck were you doing in Oshkosh?!?

[Dr. Dib]

I vaguely remember seeing a SNES in a hotel room some time in the late 90s. It was in Illinois I think, but I can't remember where. I just remember being at a family reunion and seeing the SNES thing and wishing I could play it.

A bit off topic, but I have to mention this. Last year I was in a hotel in Beechwood, Ohio that had a GCN. I remember looking through the game list and saw you could rent Animal Crossing for an hour.

[Famidrive-16]

My family once stayed at a hotel with one of these in the 90's too.

Pretty much the same list but our's also had Tetris Attack.

[PSony]

Sort of related: I remember back in 1998 on my plane trip to and from Hong Kong and every passenger seat had a Super Nintendo Gateway System, where you can play games and probably watch movies. There was a screen on the back of the seat in front of you, a controller (turn it the the other side and it's a phone), and the games were Super Mario World, F-Zero, Super Bonk, and Super Tennis. You cannot save in those games, but they were free to play. It was the first time I've ever played F-Zero, Super Bonk and Super Tennis.

[CelticJobber]

I stayed at a hotel in 2001 that had one of these. $5.00 an hour, which I thought was outrageously expensive.

[exit]

I remember staying in a hotel up in Kentucky for my cousin's wedding back in 2000/2001 and you could rent PSX games for an hour, I think it priced at $5 (or maybe even $10) an hour and pretty much ignored it after a quick view of what games were available. Didn't know those things existed prior to that, didn't think many people would pay that much to play for an hour.

[Ed Oscuro]

What the heck were you doing in Oshkosh?!?
Probably was a stopover point on a cross-country trip. I could ask and see if anybody remembers what trip that was.

I'm pretty sure the games were charged by the hour. Prices, don't have any idea.

One thing I neglected to add in that information was that the boxes with pictures of the games (I recall they were set to the side of the title, perhaps in a square, but I could be wrong) showed that the "original" games listed here (i.e. noughts and crosses) showed they were definitely amateur.

Really wish I could've taken some pictures...agh!

Of course, eBay is no help, as it just has a bunch of listings for stolen remotes.


Sort of related: I remember back in 1998 on my plane trip to and from Hong Kong and every passenger seat had a Super Nintendo Gateway System, where you can play games and probably watch movies. There was a screen on the back of the seat in front of you, a controller (turn it the the other side and it's a phone), and the games were Super Mario World, F-Zero, Super Bonk, and Super Tennis. You cannot save in those games, but they were free to play. It was the first time I've ever played F-Zero, Super Bonk and Super Tennis.
Nice story! I've never heard of that one before. Incidentally, the operating system used in many *current* seat-back LCD-screen entertainment devices is Windows 3.1 (or 3.11, close enough), which is just about as old as the SNES. Upgraded hardware from those times, though. Microsoft just stopped licensing that about 8 months ago.


Didn't know those things existed prior to [PlayStation], didn't think many people would pay that much to play for an hour.
The earliest type of in-room hotel gaming system that I'm aware of is the Hotel Famicom thing (uses NES-shaped carts, I think you walked back to your room with 'em or something though).

[FamicomFreak]

uhh I remember this system. They had lots of games for it but the one I mostly remember was Super Mario World. The hotel was Marriot so maybe that's the hotel line that carry those SNES games in the rooms.

[skad]

I used to work in the IT department of a casino/hotel that had the Lodgenet system. The SNES games were later replaced by N64 games. I haven't been in a hotel with them in a while, so they may have updated again.

Much like the other PPV parts of the system, it worked by channel modulation, and if you were tied in to the right part of the network, and tuned into the right channels, you could watch people as they played the games.

The best I recall, the games were hosted on the same server as the menus and such.

[Ed Oscuro]

That's interesting, skad. Do you recall any specifics about the server that ran the menus and the games, i.e. any model number perchance? It would be interesting to say the least to find out if the games were recoded, or emulated (hmm), or something of that sort. It kinda sounds like they were recoded for x86. o_O

Also, doing a bit of reading on this topic, it sounds like perhaps we have the MPAA to thank for something - the first link in this topic (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/457840-hacking-hotel-tv-systems.html) is quite scary.

Don't send any sensitive business emails on one of these systems! (Thankfully everybody seems to have their own laptops and in-room LAN these days...that causes its own problems, but...)

[badinsults]

Here is a short article on Naughts and Crosses (http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=0788) (note that I have not updated this page in a long time). It is the only copy of one of these hotel system games I have seen.

[skad]

That's interesting, skad. Do you recall any specifics about the server that ran the menus and the games, i.e. any model number perchance? It would be interesting to say the least to find out if the games were recoded, or emulated (hmm), or something of that sort. It kinda sounds like they were recoded for x86. o_O

Also, doing a bit of reading on this topic, it sounds like perhaps we have the MPAA to thank for something - the first link in this topic (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-technology/457840-hacking-hotel-tv-systems.html) is quite scary.

Don't send any sensitive business emails on one of these systems! (Thankfully everybody seems to have their own laptops and in-room LAN these days...that causes its own problems, but...)

Lodgenet was not very forthcoming with information back then. I'd asked that question of our reps, and never got a real answer. The server was some kind of secure proprietary box, that I believe was running some flavor of *nix.

Even the local field reps had very little access to the servers, which were physically locked.

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks for the info Evan_G (and DreamTR!) - funny to think the game I could've sworn was a decade old was maybe just 4 (or slightly more, depending how it was first made - those screens seem to change my initial impression of the graphics from the title shots; maybe those were hacked together by LodgeNet personnel so they don't look as good, or maybe I misremembered).

@ Skaar: Alright. I would lastly ask what colors and rough dimensions the servers were, but that information is pretty helpful!

I also found another bit of info about Lodgenet, specifically the newer systems. Particularly interesting is the first comment, the person running the GameCube Lodgenet system at their property: http://www.pagetable.com/?p=108=1

[SparTonberry]

Not mentioned in the list above, I recall playing the original Street Fighter II, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents MLB (the first game), and Lost Vikings 1 in about 1995/1996.

[Iron Draggon]

Lodgenet offers N64 games now

[skad]

@ Skaar: Alright. I would lastly ask what colors and rough dimensions the servers were, but that information is pretty helpful!



It was a 4U rackmount server as I recall. It was a blind server, with no external connections for a keyboard or monitor. Access came through dumb terminals.

[cbroddy]

I remember playing Donkey Kong Country and Super Punch Out for a while with my cousins at a hotel with the Super NES setup. We played for about 3-4 hours. I think they charged about $6.95 or $7.95 per hour. You could switch between games at any time.

[badinsults]

I remember a few years back when I was looking up Naughts and Crosses I found a website on Nintendo.com (?) that described the Lodgenet system and the games available for SNES, N64 and Gamecube. The site must have bitten the dust now.

[SparTonberry]

Well, that explains why someone would write such a simple game at a such a late point in the system's life (1998).
Still doesn't explain why the proto cart shown on your site would need SA-1. Unless it was for the copy-protection I hear the chip contains?

[rbudrick]

I recently stayed at a hotel that had Gamecube games on their Lodgenet system. I did a thread a couple years back on these things...maybe 3 or four years ago. I stayed at a hotel and reported about their PS1 Lodgenet systems. I also tried contacting Lodgenet and they need proof you are a hotel before you can strike a contract to get these "rare collectibles," lol.

-Rob

[TonyTheTiger]

I also tried contacting Lodgenet and they need proof you are a hotel before you can strike a contract to get these "rare collectibles," lol.

-Rob

Think they'd buy that our houses are bed and breakfasts?

[Baloo]

Think they'd buy that our houses are bed and breakfasts?

Then they'd probably say something like "Pics or GTFO", lol.