thought id throw this up so anyone who finds one of these controllers at a flea market in 2009 and does a search will have some info about it after the program is long gone. viva la DP!
my brother invited me to stay at a Great Wolf Lodge in Sandusky, Ohio recently. in the room they had a modified N64 controller(with menu, select, order, reset, * and # buttons above the start button) sitting on top of the TV. naturally this piqued my interest. attaching the controller to the TV is about an 8' phone type cord. i thought this must be some bootleg deal, but soon noticed it has the nintendo logo on it. flipping it over, the rumble pak slot is solid(though the controller is shaped the same), and in this area is printed "CONTROLLER IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH ANY HOME GAME SYSTEM. IF REMOVED, A $29.95 SERVICE CHARGE WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR ROOM BILL."
then, in smaller(but still capital letters)
'lodgenet model no. LN6401 Made in china
M(circled)C(circled)1997 nintendo /D(circled) nintendo U.S. patent376,826
more patents issued and pending"
im a sucker for weird controllers, so naturally i stole it...more on that later
being a connoiseur (i cant spell anymore) of game history, i thought id preserve the game list...avaialble in the room for $7.73 an hour.
each game select screen showed 3 games, as follows.
mario tennis
excitebike 64
mario kart 64
paper mario
super smash Bros.
hydro thunder
midways greatest arcade hits
rush 2 extreme racing usa
1080 snowboarding
mario golf
namco museum
dr mario 64
super mario 64
ready to rumble boxing
mario party 3
kirby 64
star wars rogue squadron
martal kombat
wave race 64
pokemon snap
virtual pool 64
yoshis story
donkey kong 64
star fox 64
the new tetris
rampage 2 universal tour
fzero x
pilot wings 64
legend of zelda (thats all it said)
gauntlet legends
legend of zelda: majoras mask
virtual chess
32 games total, but at $8.00 an hour it seemed expensive, especially with a water park downstairs.
so anyway, i decide im going to steal the controller. i go down to the night manager to tell him(i dont want it to be charged to my brother) and he tells me"theyll charge you like $150 for that...i wouldnt take it. our blankets are $300!!" younger guy, but a damn twerp. he also said 'theyd have to call in an order for one of those, we dont have them here". twerp.
after looking for a 'prices of our stuff if you steal it' guide in the room, i find out the blankets are $50, and the damn controller is printed $29.95, so thats what ill pay. so in the morning i go tell the older manager(different guy, cooler and more knwledgable of company policy) that im stealing the controller and would like to pay for it now. his response? "ok""i dont know why youd want it, but how much did it say?" so we run the deal, he charges my credit card...says simply"you know what, let me check with the maintenance guys to see if those will work on your system"...nice guy. i told him i knew it wouldnt and didnt care, im a collector, etc.
to help shorten a long story, 5 minutes later i was out the door with my lodgenet controller.
so i think to myself "theres a market for these if i can get them cheap"
so i email lodgenet. they respond basically that "we are not resellers and are not licensed to sell these things. sorry about your luck but thanks for the interest" (paraphrasing) good thing i 'stole' one, even though it cost $29.99 for a controller that will never work. i still like it.
well, thats my tale, simply for posterity. there are other posts about these in the past, but no topics yet...
someone else said the place they stayed had about 11 games and 3 homebrew type. im sure lodgenet has updated its offerings many many times, so there are probably several different available games at different times.
i thought this was pretty interesting, and had never seen one even though it was licensed in 1997....the website says a gamecube lodgenet is in place in some areas also. if i find one, you can bet ill drop another $29.95 for that one too.