The Nintendo Gateway System (with Pics!)

[Jorpho]

So a month ago I was already having a pretty hard time believing that I was actually on my way to Japan... It did not help my disbelief when I found myself suddenly bumped up to that glorious land of excellent food, extra footroom, and cool freebie toilet kits: first class!

I had been regretting that I had forgotten my Game Boy (I play it so rarely lately, mostly because I never travel), but that was okay, since the seat was equipped with that relic of days gone by, the Nintendo Gateway System.

I had only read about this thing in Nintendo Power long, long ago; since the multimedia system on Air Canada's aircraft dates back to 1996 (as suggested by a copyright screen visible when they had to reboot the multimedia system), it's probably not too surprising that they still have it. (I've seen similar Playstation setups in a few hotel rooms.)

http://tinypic.com/9va0qt.jpg

There's a selection of ten or so games available, including Super Mario World, Zelda ALTTP, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Punch Out, F-Zero, and a few sports games. I'm not sure whether the system uses actual SNES hardware, emulation, or a combination of both. Before starting a game, it is downloaded somehow; as you might expect from 1996 technology, this takes a few minutes. Oddly enough, when an annoucement comes over the PA system, the game is entirely halted (not just paused) until the announcement finishes.

http://tinypic.com/9va6xc.jpg

The control pad is relatively comfortable, and the button position is fine, but the D-pad is a creaky piece of crap. Maybe this is because of old age, but I'm inclined to blame poor design. Notice that the pad is actually circular; it's very easy to acciently hit a diagonal when you don't intend to. It sometimes sticks, too.

http://tinypic.com/9va41u.jpg

I managed to finish SMW (the quick way) and I had a few rounds of Super Punch Out, but as I was unfamiliar with the game, Bear Hugger proved to be insurmountable. The intriciacies of The Lost Levels proved to be far beyond what I could accomplish with the D-pad. Pretty cool nonetheless!

[§ Gideon §]

Bear Hugger?? LOL

Erm... Thanks for sharing (pics and everything)! It looks really fun. Did you have to pay?

[Jorpho]

Nope, no fees involved.

[Jagasian]

Somebody needs to get in contact with the owners of those planes, so that when they get rid of the SNES Gateway system, it can be sold as opposed to thrown away.

[godsey1]

Somebody needs to get in contact with the owners of those planes, so that when they get rid of the SNES Gateway system, it can be sold as opposed to thrown away.

I totally agree. This is the first time that I have seen or even heard of this system. I would love to get one @_@
Tony

[§ Gideon §]

Somebody needs to get in contact with the owners of those planes, so that when they get rid of the SNES Gateway system, it can be sold as opposed to thrown away.
Imagine four of those, 2x2 in a dark game room... I think that's cool for some reason.

[VG_Maniac]

Wow, I remember reading about those in one of my old issues of Nintendo Power from 93 or 94. I can't believe there are still planes that have them.

[Uzi 9mm]

That is pretty cool, I wish the planes I have flown on had things like that.

[Humanoid]

Damn, thats pretty neat...
so how much does a 747 cost? :P

[Jorpho]

Gee, I thought this was probably old news...

[If someone really wants to give my little writeup a permanent home somewhere, I'm down with that so long as you ask first.]

[kevincure]

My Virgin Atlantic flight (BOS->LHR) had the same SNES player. Really not too bad.

[Cauterize]

My Virgin Atlantic flight had the same SNES player. Really not too bad.

Same here, except 10-11 Years ago when i was visiting Florida for the first time as a Kid

Thanks for the pics, the controller brings back memories big time!

[Jumpman Jr.]

Thats really cool. They should rip them all out and sell them off.
Where does the controller come from? Is it nested in the arm-rest, and you have to pull it out?

[Jorpho]

Thats really cool. They should rip them all out and sell them off.
Where does the controller come from? Is it nested in the arm-rest, and you have to pull it out?

Exactly. (That'd be rather more difficult to do with a Playstation controller, methinks.)

[BrokenFlight]

Damn, thats pretty neat...
so how much does a 747 cost? :P

I think they're somewhere around $300m new IIRC, from the last time I bought one. (j/k it was on discovery channel)

[rbudrick]

A few hours on the phone to any given airline that has these will probably do the trick (getting to the right person). Chances are, there are recently decommissioned planes or planes that are getting remodeled with these being thrown out.

Airlines are hardup right now....they'd probably let you buy one of these from them, if not the whole damn seat.

-Rob

[Mattiekrome]

:eek 2:

Man talk about convienient. You forgot your GB, and there was basically a fully functional SNES sitting right there with you. Cool pics BTW. Never even heard of this thing before

[SkiDragon]

Any other airlines use this besides Virgin Atlantic? It would be nice to have a list.

[Nirvana]

That's awesome. When I went on vacation, I had something similar, but it was just generic games to play. It was set up the same, like the controller was the remote control and the screen was right in front of you. Definetly really cool, but I wish I had the thing you had. Man, Super Punch Out? I would've beaten that so many times just to eat up some time...

[Sam]

These are cool, played them on a few airlines. Virgin Atlantic a few years back (yet my next flight with them didn't have one :( ). Singapore airlines (used them a few months back) have the same thing but with Gameboy and Gameboy colour games.

[BrokenFlight]

If quality airlines like Virgin have SNES, maybe budget airlines like Easy Jet will have Atari 2600. They probably go with old ones because licencing is much cheaper.
Actually, these are the sort of games you could beat in a couple of hours so they're well suited to a flight. Newer games need a few days to really get far in the story. Apart from The Getaway. I beat that in a day.

[Jorpho]

How many hours does it take to finish Zelda ALTTP, anyway? Quite a few, I would have thought.

[Yamazaki]

Singapore Airlines had them too.

I played it on my flight to Japan in 1999. Its funny though. I also lost against that fat "bear" guy in Super Punch Out.

[rbudrick]

How many hours does it take to finish Zelda ALTTP, anyway? Quite a few, I would have thought

I think there's a speedrun of someone doing it in around 1:30.....however, for the average human (the non-robot kind) It would probably take 10-15 hours.

-Rob

[McBacon]

I agree, the whole massive world of Hyrule isn't the sorta thing you want to get thrown into on a 2 hour plane trip.

[phreak97]

there are aircraft 'graveyards' which are basically the aircraft equivilent of a wreckers yard. they sell off EVERYTHING from the planes.. no doubt you'd find one there. now you just gotta locate one.
seriously, someone really does need to contace these airlines.. i hate the idea of this stuff going to waste..

[Jorpho]

Come to think of it, as I recall from that old NP writeup, the idea is that the units in the individual seats are networked to a central server from which data is downloaded... in which case you would need to buy the entire server if you wanted to do anything.

[TheHammerGod]

It still would look cool in the "play-room", working or not.

[mills]

I know someone who works on planes for a fucking living...



FUCK!

[phreak97]

the place i was thinking of was 'Interface Aviation' http://www.interface-av.com/

if they cant get you one, theyre gonna know who can.

[rbudrick]

These are cool, played them on a few airlines. Virgin Atlantic a few years back (yet my next flight with them didn't have one ). Singapore airlines (used them a few months back) have the same thing but with Gameboy and Gameboy colour games.

Was it a Super Gameboy style (the funky borders around the games + the added features of the SGB)? Or was it something you think may have been proprietary?

-Rob

[mezrabad]

Singapore Air had a Game Boy Color setup with the same controller seen above. There was a selection of games ( I don't remember how many, but I'd say more than 30, less than 50) including Zelda Oracle of Ages (either). Since the flight was, oh, about 11 hours long, it was a realistic goal to finish it in flight. (Realistic if you don't have a 13-month old little girl so I didn't get to play much.)

[rbudrick]

Hey mezrabad, that's the same one Sam mentione earlier in the thread. Perhaps you could answer my above post?

-Rob

[phreak97]

another place which quite likely would have one of these is the mojave desert boneyard (aka mojave airport)