Last night Nintendo had its fall press conference in Japan. It was obviously for Japan but most of the announcements will make  their way stateside eventually so of course I was eager to see what was announced. Of course it was a Japanese press only event meaning the only way to “see” it was to follow blogs that were actively translating Japanese “live” blogs written by people at the event. Meaning there’s at least 3 layers of interpretation between everything I read and what was actually said. But enough about the amazing accuracy of the blogosphere (is that a word now?) and on with the good stuff.

Nintendo’s first order of business was to unveiled their newest license to print money which they call the DSi. As the name implies the DSi is a new version of the DS, with the “i” apparently representing its connection with the Wii. Nintendo is calling it their third platform which is a nice way of saying they’re not retiring the DS Lite quite yet. Although I they said the same thing about the GBA when the original DS was released.

Introducing the DSi

Overall it looks pretty much the same. It’s slightly thinner and no longer has a GBA slot.  It now sports Dual touch screens both of which are The dreams of a dual touch screen device have been dashed as there is only a single touch screen on the DSi but they have had their size increased to 3.25 inches which is a whopping 17% bigger. There are two built-in cameras. One appears to be on the on the cover and the other is located on the hinge in between the screens. One of the cameras, presumably the outside one is 3 mega pixels with VGA resolution (640×480). An SD card slot has been added for storage as well as more internal memory how much exactly wasn’t said. I’m somewhat surprised there’s not an accelerometer in there too.

Along with the hardware updates are several new multimedia features. The DSi can now play back music and supports the ACC format. although I’m unsure what formats are supported. It also allows the adjustment of pitch and playback speed which will help for language study but is only likely to be used to make everyone’s songs sound like they’re being sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks. Similar to the Wii the DS will also support channels.

Along with the DSi, Nintendo will also be launching the DSi Shop which will allow users to buy DS Ware (games and other content) via a Wi-Fi connection.  DS Ware is bought with Nintendo Points which are the new Wii Points and will cost 0, 200, 500 or 800 points. Anyone who buys a DSi before March 2010 will also get 1000 points for free. Nintendo Zone hotspots which are the successor to the DS Download stations, will allow for free Wi-Fi connections at Japanese McDonald’s. Part of the DS Ware content is a free web browser application. The browser will be Opera based and supposedly runs faster than the previously released DS Browser. The first two DS Shop games will be revamped version of Brain Age 1 and 2.

The DSi will be available November 1st in Japan for $178 in either Black or White and is will be available sometime in 2009 for everyone else.

Also announced was the ability to download games directly to SD cards on the Wii starting in Spring of 2009. (Hooray!) After the american conference I’m still not sure if you’ll be required to copy games over to the Wii’s system memory in order to play them. It was mentioned that copying speeds between the SD card and Wii System memory has been dramtically increased. A new Wi-Fi adapter that was previously announced was re-announced. Also WiiSpeak and presumably Animal Crossing City Folk will be released November 20th in Japan for $79 and support both Miis and the swapping of data from the DS version of the game.

As for Wii games there were a few different. Certain Gamecube games including Pikmin are going to be re-released for the Wii as a sort of best seller series. Hopefully they won’t just be direct port and include at least wide screen and 480p support. A few new games were also announced for the Wii including Punch Out, Sengoku Musou 3, Sin and Punishment 2, Taiko no Tatsujin, and Another Code. The only one that interests me is a fully motion controlled Punch Out which has the potential to be amazing. After seeing a short video of the game it looks like it might have a chance of living up to my expectations. Miyamoto also demoed Wii Music (again) and it still sucks. They sure are putting a lot of effort into promoting a game that nobody really seems interested in.

As for the US release day it’s “well into” 2009. There’s also a picture editor included.

Some news from the American Press conference.

The Conduit which I had a chance to demo at PAX is now a first party Wii game. *Update* Turns out The Conduit isn’t going to be a first-party game. The presenter simply confused the terms first-party and first person shooter. It was recently announced that the Conduit is actually going to be published by Sega.*/Update* I’m seriously excited about this game. After playing it and talking with some of the developers I’m positive it’ll be huge. A Halo 3 for the Wii if you will.

There is going to be a WiiSpeak channel that will allow up to 4 people to chat with each other and can be downloaded off of the Shopping Channel. A coupon to download the channel will be included with the WiiSpeak Mic, hopefully this also means non-WiiSpeak microphones can also be used with the channel.

Most of this information was shamelessly stolen from the following sites:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/02/nintendo-announces-the-dsi/
http://www.destructoid.com/sort-of-but-not-really-a-liveblog-nintendo-announces-a-new-ds-model-the-dsi-105937.phtml
http://kotaku.com/5057867/liveblogging-the-nintendo-press-conference-liveblog

The showdown: Rock Band 2 vs. Guitar Hero: World Tour

Harmonix had a single setup on a large stage that gave a rock concert vibe aside from the occasionally terrible singing. There was almost always a crowd around the stage watching or waiting in line to play. Overall it looks like a nice update to the original. Same basic setup with some minor tweaks like better sorting options on the song selection screen. One feature that I’m excited about is the inclusion of a no fail mode which should make it easier to get amateur fake rockers into the game. The new drums seemed quite a bit quieter but of course there was loud music all over the hall so it’s tough to say for sure.

Activision on the other hand chose to have 4 or 5 smaller GH: WT setups. It wasn’t quite as cool to watch but it did allow for more hands on time for anyone who was interested. Really GH: WT looks almost exactly like Rock Band. There’s a slight difference in color and the notes are round but in general the layout is pretty much the same. Of course the drums are a bit different, there are 3 toms and 2 cymbals.

I’ll probably end up buying both RB2 and GH: WT eventually. I’m more excited about Rock Band 2 but since Guitar Hero: World Tour is compatible with my current RB setup I don’t see any harm in getting both.

Champions Online seem to be pretty much be City of Heroes 2. That isn’t a bad thing though since I enjoyed CoH way more than WoW. I talk to one of the developers a bit while I was playing. Cryptic apparently bought the Champions IP so they could have complete control over it and were trying to expand the universe’s stories to for the game. They have cross-platform play between the PC and 360 working in test versions at the office but she wasn’t sure whether or not it would make it into the final product. She also wasn’t sure how DLC and expansions would work on the 360. I got a hopefully but no overly convincing vibe. The game itself played pretty well on using a controller but I could for the life of me figure out how to swap different powers in and out.

I checked out all of the PAX 10 games but the only one that caught my attention was The Maw, an Xbox Live game developed by Twisted Pixel Games. The basic premise is you play as a captured alien whose only chance of escapes means releasing a blob that will eventually eat the entire universe. You start out the game leading the blob around on a leash and as he eats more and more he grows larger and larger until by the end you ride on him. The blob gains different powers depending on what he’s eaten and I saw some sort of fire power and some sort of flying power.

I’ve pretty consistently had very little interest in Little Big Planet. First of all I don’t own a PS3 and secondly I had almost no idea what it was supposed to be and no interest to find out. After seeing Sony’s demonstration of LBP I still have no idea what it’s about but it did look kind of neat. Sony showed off a small jungle level that was created during the demo. Four players had to then race to the finish line which was rather uneventful until one of them figured out how to use the rocket cars. They then proceeded to kill everyone with it and crashed into the spawn point which caused everyone to die when they respawned.

I played Resistance Retribution for a few minutes mainly just to get a free hat. The controls were tough to get used to, the analog stick moves you, the ABXY buttons look around and the shoulder buttons fire. It was OK but it’s not really my thing so I’m biased. Other people seemed to like it. This was the first time I’ve ever used a PSP and I was pretty impressed with the PSP’s analog button.

I briefly played Sega’s Bleach: Dark Souls. Despite hearing a lot of buzz about the game it didn’t impress me much. I think they were going for an old school SNES type fighter look but the graphic mostly just looked meh. All I thought about while playing it was how awesome Smash Bros DS could be and why Nintendo hadn’t created one yet. I mean it’s just about the only Nintendo IP without a DS version.

Gearbox was doing a promotion where if you let them shave your head and paint Hell on the back of your head they’ll give you a free copy of Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. A free game sure is tempting but I’m not sure I could pull off the bald look. I also once again hit the PC free play area for some more TF2 LAN goodness. Mmmmmm

After I was finished with the exhibit hall I got in the very long line for the final round of the Omegathon which also served as a sort of closing ceremony for PAX. The Omegathon is a tournament featuring 20 contestants randomly selected from those who pre-registered for PAX. Over the course of expo they compete in various games that generally aren’t considered competitive games. The winner of the event gets $5,000, an all expenses paid trip to the Tokyo Games Show, and custom PAX versions of the 360, PS3 and Wii. This year’s games were Peggle, Boom Blox, Geometry Wars 2, Rock Band, Jenga (the real version) and a secret surprise game. I skipped all but the final round.

The absolute best marketing at the fair was in the Omegathon line. A could of people from 5th Cell showed up right as the line was forming told everyone that they had downloadable demos of Lock’s Quest available via DS download play. There were about a dozen people who took them up on this offer. Lock’s Quest is a tower defense game, but instead of just watching as the enemies pound away at your defenses you can have your character, Lock, who can attack the enemies and repair your structures. I mostly played the battle mode which was just straight up tower defense. I ran through part of the single player campaign but only got through part of the tutorial. It was a fun way to waste sometime in line and an interesting take on tower defense. Hopefully other companies will catch on and do the same thing in lines next year.

The final game of the Omegathon was revealed to be Vs. Excitebike for the Famicom Disk System. One of the guys easily beat the other, 4-0 in a best of 7 matches. It wasn’t a very exciting end but it was pretty cool to have be watching a video game competition with that many people all of whom were into it as much as I was. Gabe and Tycho then took their turn at the competition and Gabe bested Tycho 4-1 which was apparently the second year straight that Tycho has lost. With that PAX was over. I had a great time and was sorry to see it end but there’s always next year.

When I did get to PAX the first thing I went to check out was Starcraft 2 which was disappointing. Not that SC2 is a bad game but the lines to play it were really long, at least an hour and a half. The game itself looked like Starcraft with updated graphics. The Terran Thor units looked pretty sweet and combines with some siege tanks tore through a Zerg base in no time. The interface looks basically the same but with more stuff; they still appear to limit the number of units you can select at once to ~36ish. Nobody had that many units in the demo so I’m not exactly sure. The interface took up a lot of screen real estate; it would have been nice if they had slimmed it down a bit more. I’m sure SC2 will be a blockbuster no matter what. Blizzard makes good shit.

Rather than waiting to play I decided to go to the History of Harmonix: The Rockening panel. This was basically a bunch of Harmonix employees sitting around and talking about Harmonix and how everything came together behind the scenes.  It was a little boring at first since it was mostly just them talking about games they made but I did learn some interesting facts there. Disney made one of the attractions at Epcot, it’s a music game (go figure) where you wave your hands around and it makes different sounds. I remember playing with it when I was at Disney and thinking it was kind of neat. I believe it’s location in the imagination building after you get off the Figment ride. Harmonix is also the world’s largest maker of drum sticks. There was also a Q&A section where one guy asked a really technical question about how they did the voice detection in Karaoke Revolution using the PS2 hardware and another guy complained that he couldn’t re-download “Brass in Pocket” on his 360. The answers were “None of us worked on that” and “you need to talk to MS about that”. The panel picked up a bit at the end and Harmonix made two announcements. First, they are going to be releasing a PAX Pack for Rock Band, featuring Darkest of the Hillside, MC Frontalot and Jonathan Coulton. The second was a new play mode in Rock Band 2 called the Bladder of Steel set list. Harmonix noticed that a lot of people were completing the Endless set list in RB1 and decided to kick it up a notch. The bladderless set list requires that you beat all 84 songs in the game without pausing or failing. That seems pretty impossible to me but I’m almost positive some will have done it within a week. Although it seems like disconnecting the controller might allow you a brief respite but who knows maybe they’ve prevented that.

After the panel I check out the table top lounges and then headed back over to the exhibit hall. While there I bought a SNES controller. I also checked out the PC free play room which was probably a bad idea since I ended up playing TF2 on the LAN for about an hour. Eventually I ended up in the Handheld lounge where I played some Mario Kart DS over Wi-Fi and watched people draw penises on Pictochat. Pictochat was a really fun thing to have while waiting in lines. It was a bit laggy at times but when it worked it kept me entertained.

I should also say that Brawndo failed utterly today. Before I had got there yesterday they didn’t have any cups AND wouldn’t let you take the cans. Which made it a bring your own cup event; this was cleared up before I arrived yesterday. However, when I got to their booth at about 11 am today, I discovered they were out of Brawndo. Apparently used up all 40 cases of the stuff on the first day. Today they just had a bunch of empty cans on the table and a pad where you could write your info down for chance to win a year’s supply of Brawndo.

After doing a bunch of non-PAX related stuff (dinner, wandering around the city) I decided to watch the first half of the Nerdcore for Life documentary and then go see what they were playing for “Geek Movies”. Nerdcore for Life turned out to be more interesting than I expected so I watch the whole thing and then seeing as I just watch a documentary about it went to see if I could get into the concert downstairs. I didn’t have any problems getting into the concert and MC Frontalot came out at almost the exact time I joined the crowd. Even though I didn’t know any of his stuff I enjoyed the concert. After MC Frontalot was the MiniBosses. I was tired and not really into them at all so I went back to the hotel after the second song.

Ken Levine’s keynote was entertaining. He gave a brief overview of his history as a nerd. From his early days of wanting to fuck the scarlet witch and his first awkward experiences with D&D all the way to his failed screenwriting career and his decision to go get into the game industry and join Looking Glass Studios. The theme of the whole boiled down to “We’re all geeks, love it, embrace it and go have fun together”.

I skipped the Q&A panel to hit the exhibit floor. After a quick walk around I stopped and checked out Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour . I discovered that Brawndo The Thirst Mutilator, did indeed have what I (and plants) crave. It’s pretty tasty but oddly not got sale. (I’ve since learned that it wasn’t for sale because the convention center doesn’t allow non-convention vendors to sell food or drink)

Nintendo was nearby so I checked out some of their stuff. WarioLand: Shake It seems like a decent platformer although depending on how much it’s used; constantly shaking the controller could get annoying. Kirby Superstar Ultra was fun but there really isn’t much new about it. After that, I had some fun creating a creature in Spore Creature Creator for the DS. I couldn’t do anything more than walk around with it once it was created which makes me what the game play would be like in that game. I finished off my day in the exhibit hall with Left 4 Dead which was amazing.

Next up I hit the concerts. It was probably the strangest concert I’ve ever been too. No one was really getting into any of the bands mostly everyone was just sort of hanging out listening. The OneUps were kind of neat but it sounded a lot like they were just jamming the whole time and not really playing songs. Freezepop isn’t really my thing but they ended up being pretty good. During their entire set, there was a guy nearby playing Final Fantasy Tactics which was odd. Freezepop’s encore ended up being a cover of The Final Countdown and it was really good.

Finally Jonathan Coulton was up. I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing him but figured it would be cool to see “Still Alive” from Portal performed live. Of course, I was completely wrong and he ended up being the best of them all, I suppose that’s why he was “headlining”. I enjoyed all his songs, my favorite was “re: Your Brains” there is nothing cooler than a room of people out of sync and groaning “All we want to do is eat your brains”. He also managed to Rick Roll the whole audience twice. The first time the video played over the projectors and most of the crowd started singing along. The second time was mixed in the middle of “Mr. Fancy Pants”. For “Still Alive” Felicia Day, who is like geek goddess, came out and sang with him. He ended the night with a sing along cover of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” which was unexpected and really cool. Over all, Day One was amazing.

Pictures still to come.

MS definitely won E3 this year. Hands down. First they announces a refresh for the Xbox 360 dashboard interface. The new look is similar to that of Vista’s Flip3d and the new Media Center. I can’t wait to play with the interface when it is released. Along with they new interface they’re also allowing 8 person voice chat and the ability to copy game discs to the HD to speed up load times. Microsoft is also adding avatars, which are basically Miis for the 360, and along with them a casual games section for XBL called Primetime. Not extremely exciting but kind of neat. Two other things that don’t really interest me are Lips and Netflix. Lips is a karaoke game and Netflix is partnering with MS to allow movie downloads. The big reveal for MS was Final Fantasy 13 was going to be available for the 360 (everywhere but Japan). That’s a pretty big blow for Sony since the Final Fantasy series has always been a huge exclusive for Sony.

Harmonix also announced the entire set list for Rock Band 2 and it is chock full of awesome. One of the coolest parts of the announcement was that for $5 you can unlock get most of the RB1 content as DLC for RB2 which will go nicely with the ability to use any RB1 DLC in RB2. Activision also annouced that the Rock Band guitars and drum set will work with Guitar Hero 4 which means there is actually a chance of me buying GH4 now, depending on the set list.

The Nintendo conference was just weak. Wii Music was announced and looks pretty useless, basically it amounts to a video game version of the toy instrument they make for kids. Other than a generic statement about more Mario and Zelda coming they didn’t really say anything about any games I actually care about. They did announce Animal Crossing: City folk and eventually Pikmin 3. Neither of which I’ve play or have much interest in right now (although I did order Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS). I was hoping for a new Kirby, Kid Icarus, or a new IP. Of course they did announce two new periperals for the Wii, WiiSpeak and the Wiimotion+. Wiimotion plus comes bundles with WiiSport: Resort looks and interesting but it would have been nice if it was built in to the Wiimotes to begin with. Apparently WiiSpeak, which comes with Animal Crossing, works pretty well but I think I’d just prefer a headset.

OK, So there was some good news for Nintendo on the DS side. Chrono Trigger (aka the best RPG ever) and Kirby Superstar are being remade for the DS.

As for Sony, they didn’t have much that interested me. probably since I don’t own a PS3. They some new PSN games and a video download service. They also showed a trailer for a game called MAG which is supposed to feature 256 players at once.

Some other stuff worth mentioning:

• PC/360: Left 4 Dead
• PC/360/PS3: Return to Castle Wolfenstein 2
• 360: Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
• 360: No Bungie announcement
• Wii: Dead Rising is coming to the Wii
• Wii: Mad World
• Wii/360/PS3: MegaMan 9
• DS: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• DS: Puzzle Quest: Galactrix

In the end, I think this sums it up the entire conference pretty well.

No More Heroes is exactly the kind of game that should be on the Wii. It’s a unique new IP, doesn’t suffer from the waggle effect and isn’t a quick cash in on the Wii’s popularity or a mini game festival. More importantly it’s also one of the few Wii games squarely aimed at mature gamers and make no mistake this is truly an M rated game. There’s sexual innuendo, decapitation, blood spewing from enemies like fountains, incest and more! Here’s the two sentences run down of the story. You play as Travis Touchdown whose hobbies involve anime, wrestling and killing people. After becoming the 11^th ranked assassin in the world he decides that he might as well go all the way to the top. The rest of the story doesn’t matter much but is pretty entertaining none the less.

I spent the first hour of No More Heroes thinking about how disappointing it was. The overworld was probably my biggest gripe; it just felt clunky and lifeless. No one interacts with you, people walking on the street will slide in whichever direction they are pushed, and cars stop when you get near them. The graphics work well enough during the battles and cut scenes but are noticeably lacking most other times. The side missions are a bit uninspired. The motorcycle doesn’t handle very well. Everything worked but it all had an unpolished feel to it.

Once I got to the ranked battles though, I completely forget about all the annoyances of the game and had a blast. Collecting money to unlock the next ranking battle at first seemed like it was going to be painful but luckily you earn most of the money to enter the next battle in the pre-ranked battle massacres. Normally it only takes one or two side mission to earn enough for the next battle. Of course you can also spend your hard earned cash on weight training, new wrestling moves, beam swords and clothes.

You definitely tell that the development team focused on the right areas of the game: the combat and the boss battles. After paying the entrance fee, each the ranked battles start by letting you slaughtering a couple dozen grunts on your way to the final battle area. These areas range from mine filled beaches to baseball stadiums and parking lots. Combat is simplistic; hit A to attack with your beam sword; hit B to kick or punch all the while keeping the wiimote help upwards for high attacks and low for low attacks. Once you do enough of either you then slash the wiimote/nunchuck to execute a finishing or wrestling moves. Upon killing the enemy you’re rewarded with a ridiculously large shower of blood and coins. Occasionally Travis will also enter darkside mode which lets him shoot energy from his beam sword or kill enemies with a single blow, among other things. One neat feature is right before the boss battle Travis gets a call which requires you to use the wiimote like a cell phone.

As for the bosses they each have their own quirky personality. Each boss is a new challenge and requires a different strategy to defeat. One of my favorite things in the game was the cut scenes that introduce each of the bosses. One of the final (and best) cut scenes virtually requires rewatching it on youtube.

It’s odd thinking back on No More Heroes. I began playing it with somewhat high expectations and was almost immediately disappointed. Once I got further into the game most of my complaints dissolved into to a deluge of blood, coins and joy. Had some of the graphical issues been ironed out and the overworld further fleshed out like the Godfather: Blackhand edition which I played earlier in the year this could have been an easy candidate for game of the year.

1. The Orange Box (PC)
   Portal and Team Fortress 2. Enough Said. I’ve already talked about TF2 and gave a brief mention to Portal. Combined together in one box this package is almost unbeatable. Portal was short but the most inventive game I’ve played in a long time. TF2 has already replaced CS: Source as my go to game on the PC. A great value and a great time!
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
   This is easily the best game released for the Wii to date. The controls are great and use just the right amount of motion without feeling tacked on. The gameplay is fun and I constantly find myself saying “just one more star”. There’s also tons of variety in levels, I haven’t found a level yet where I thought the game was overly difficult or broken. Although Two player co-op is somewhat disappointing.
3. Rock Band (360)
   Despite only owning the game for six days last year it’s easily one of the best. Guitar/Bass is a bit easier that GH3. The drums are wicked fun to play (despite my lack of coordination). Singing is fun when you have someone who can sing. The track list is better than GH3 despite having less songs. There’s just something undeniably awesome about getting a bunch of people together and rocking. The downside, It is a huge pain in the ass to carry around all that crap; My original guitar was defective and I’m waiting on a replacement; and I can’t use the same characters for different instruments.
4. Guitar Hero 3 (Wii)
   Before Rock Band there was Guitar Hero 3. I bought this game twice, just to get a second guitar for multiplayer. Even after Rock Band it’s still a blast. (It’s also much more portable) Despite the Wii version getting screwed over with mono sound, no DLC (until later this year), and crappy online multiplayer, I’m still happy I got the Wii version. It’s waay more portable and GH3 (and Rock Band) are meant to be played with people in the same room.
5. Paper Mario (Wii- VC)
   Initially I was going to put Super Paper Mario here. The dialogue was great, I had fun playing it and have no regrets buying it but realistically it’s not top five material. It was waaay to easy. Less like a game and more like a story with a lot of walking and jumping. It did get me interested in it’s great granddaddy, Paper Mario. So Paper Mario came out six years ago, I never bought an n64 so it’s new to me. Anyway back to the game, It was a lot of fun but I’m still disappointed I got a fish instead of getting to ride Yoshi around.

Close but not quite:

• Metroid Prime 3 (Wii)
  I like the game so far especially the controls but haven’t had a chance to play much of it yet.
• Halo 3 (360)
  It’s pretty looking and I hear the multiplayer is good but this is another game I haven’t had much time to play with. I plan on using this game to learn how to play console FPSs.
• Bioshock (360)
  Supposedly one of the best games this year, I want it and I want it bad but I don’t have to time for another game right now.

I also want to note that this will apply to just about any console with composite (Red/White/Yellow) or component (Red/Blue/Green and Red/White). PS, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube all have composite out by default and use the same basic process except of course the Nintendo Wi-Fi connector will only work with the Wii. Of course older consoles like the NES, SNES, n64, and Sega Genesis, don’t have composite out so you’ll have to use an RF adapter in most cases.

**Original Article**

I noticed a couple of people were directed by Google to this post in search of how to connect a Wii to a hotel TV. I figure if Google is desperate enough to send people here maybe it might be good idea to expand upon my previous entry.

Most consoles come with a composite (Red/White/Yellow) connection by default (Red/White/Yellow). I connect to the TV using a component cable (Red/Blue/Green and Red/White). Either way it’s the same idea just different ports. Start by connecting the cable directly to the back of the hotel TV. If you only see red/white connectors then just plug in those two, if you don’t see any colored connections then you need an RF adapter and you can skip to the next paragraph. At this point you can turn the TV on and try hitting the source/input button. If it changes the screen and you can see the game you’re done. If not that’s because most hotels have the inputs disabled by default. The idea being you’ll be more likely to buy pay per-view movies. This is pretty easy to get around by buying a a cheap universal remote. This will let you access the menu to re-enable the inputs on the television. In general all you need to do is program the universal remote for the brand and model of the TV and then you’ll be able to use the input/source button just like at home. Every TV and remote has different programming sequences and menu structures so I won’t get into that here. Suffice to say follow the directions that came with the remote and you can usually pull the model number of the TV off the sticker on the back.

If the TV does not have any composite or component connections on it then things are a bit trickier. *Disclaimer* I haven’t tried this method yet. **
In this case, you’ll need to use a RF modulator to convert the composite connection into a coaxial connection. Which you can then plugged into the the back of the TV. You might also need to use the universal remote to set the TV to the correct station usually 3 or 4.  Most hotels have a metal or plastic cover over the jack on the TV, to prevent you from messing with things. If you’re feeling bold you can either cut them off and assume no one will notice they’re missing or come up with a way to unscrew them. Whether disconnecting whatever system the hotel uses for their television will set off alarms I can’t say. I will say I have heard stories of people who unplugged the TV and had the front desk knocking on their door to make sure the TV wasn’t stolen. I’ve disconnected most of that stuff with out issue in various hotels and never had an issue but YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). Just don’t blame me if you end up sleeping on the sidewalk because the hotel staff kicked out out.

To get internet access on my Wii I use the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Adapter. The adapter allows the Wii (and/or DS) to connect to your PC and through the magic of internet connection sharing to the internet. The adapter was recently updated to support both Windows XP and Windows Vista. (Sorry Mac & Linux people, Windows wins this round). This allows you to avoid the registration pages most hotels use (which the Wii won’t display) and the general lack of in room Wi-Fi. Another option is to get the Nintendo LAN adapter or just setup a wireless router in you room.

For my Xbox 360 I came up with another solution. This requires two things, one that you have a laptop and 2 that the hotel has a wired internet connection. Under the network settings options there’s an advanced page that will allow you to change your MAC address. Basically a MAC address is you computer’s unique ID on any network, similar to how your phone number works. First you need to connect you laptop to the network and register as you would normally, there’s usually directions on the card neat the desk. Once that is done go into the start menu and click on run, enter “cmd” in the box and click ok. This will bring up a command prompt type in the following

“ipconfig /all”

and you’ll see a whole bunch of information pop up somewhere in there you’ll see an entry that looks something like this

“Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 01-5A-74-1B-94-8E”

This is your MAC address. Now you’ll need to update the Mac on the 360 to match here’s the steps taken from xbox.com:

From the Xbox Dashboard, choose Settings, and then Network Settings.

From the Network Settings screen, select Advanced.

From the Advanced screen, select MAC Address.

Enter the MAC address of your PC in the Xbox Dashboard. Do not enter any dashes, just letters and numbers.

To attempt connection to Xbox Live using the new MAC address, return (Back) to the Network Settings screen, and then select Connect.

After that you should be all set. Just remember to change it back later on or you’ll run into trouble.

So there you go, how to setup a Nintendo Wii video game console in your hotel room. Enjoy!

Being that I practically live in hotels at this point I’ve taken to carrying my Wii with me on my journeys. At first everything was great. The Residence Inn in Cambridge had two pretty nice TVs that were ready and willing to let me waste hours of time on the Godfather: Blackhand Edition.

The Sheraton, Parsippany. Being a Sheraton and paying a crazy amount of money each night to stay in the “Club Level”, I figured I’d have no trouble. Oh boy was I wrong. First there are no inputs on the TV. Alright then I suppose I can just buy an RF adapter and hook it up through that. Nope. They’ve got some metal casing around the coax jack AND there’s no where in walking distance to buy an adapter. Alright I can survive 3 weeks no problem. Besides I just bought a Nintendo DS I can always play that.

Three weeks go by and I’m jonesing for a Wii fix. I head home for the weekend and pick up an RF adapter and Mario Strikers Charged. Next stop the Best Western; Simi Valley, California. Not a bad hotel but again no inputs and metal jacks on the coax connectors. Ok I guess I can wait another week…

After that I move on the the Marriott Courtyard nearby. The Residence was owned by Marriott and they had some big press release about all sorts of connectivity options. So I can’t go wrong, right? I get to the room. I’ve only got a standard CRT TV but low and behold I’ve got inputs. Not only composite but component as well! Hallelujah!

Of course everything is working out way to good. The next night I attempt to connect my Wii. I plug everything in turn it on pick up the remote. “Where’s the input button? Well maybe I can just us the channel buttons to switch to a/v mode…hmmm…maybe a different input will work…” after another 20 minutes of trying just about everything I can think of I call the front desk. “I’m sorry sir the TV is not compatible with the inputs.” Wait WHAT? The TV isn’t compatible with itself? So I hit the net. I discover it’s possible to put the TV into maintenance mode which will allow you to enable the inputs. IF you have a special remote. Of course I’ve only got some crappy “On Command” remote. Eventually someone suggests that I go buy a Universal Remote and use that.

The next day I hit Target and buy a universal remote. I get back to the room, crap I forgot to buy batteries. So after eating dinner (For someone who was never a big fan of Chinese I sure do eat a lot of it these days) I head over to Walmart which is conveniently behind my hotel (I’ve got a lovely view of the sign from my room). I find the batteries and decide I’ll just take a quick peek at the DVDs. On my way out of the electronics section I see a clearance rack. Woot! Among the standard junk I find a Nintendo Wi-Fi USB connector. This little doohickey plugs in to your computer and basically uses your net connection to create a wireless network that a Wii (or DS) can connect to. Neat! I decide to buy it if it costs less than 20 bucks. I wander around looking for a price scanner eventually I go up to some guy and ask. “It’s 15 dollars I can tell” he says, without ever looking at me. I’m a bit skeptical at his psychic powers but I figure if it costs to much at the register I just won’t buy it.

I head to the self checkout line and of course the thing is out of paper so I don’t get a receipt. The good news is it did cost 15 dollars (technically 16.06 or so) Now I know if I walk away without a receipt as soon as I get to the door the alarm is going to go off and that old guy guarding the door isn’t going to believe for a second that I just didn’t happen to get a receipt. So I go to the lady at the front and tell her what happen. She ignores me walks away then comes back and checks the paper in the machine, replaces it and continues to ignore me. “Ummmm if I walk through the door is this going to go off?”

“Just get out of here.” So I hold my breath walk through the door aaaaaaannd no alarm. Hooray! I get back to the room use the universal remote to enable the inputs and install the Wi-Fi connector and suddenly I not only have a Wii that works but it can get online as well! After doing a little celebration dance I boot up Strikers.

Really the whole point I’m trying to make her is that I’m obviously spending my time in beautiful, sunny California wisely.