Did you know that multiple hotels (in the US, of course) had various, bespoke systems for playing N64 games in the mid-90’s up to the late-2000’s? And that these Nintendo games were specifically modified for use in hotels, making them incredibly rare and actually lost media up until this week?
For those unaware, a little something called the Nintendo Gateway System allowed airlines and hotels to host various Nintendo games. Hotels with a service called LodgeNet were able to provide on-demand delivery of Nintendo games from consoles starting at the SNES and ending at the GameCube.
According to Forest of Illusion, arguably one of the top teams of preservationists in today’s online landscape, the LodgeNet hotel versions of 38 specific N64 games have been highly sought after by the preservation community. This is because the LodgeNet systems required games to function without saving, without a RumblePak, and without more than one controller connected. Therefore, the LodgeNet versions of these games are unlike any versions available online and were ultimately considered lost media — until now.
I mention Forest of Illusion as it’s thanks to them that 32 of the 38 lost Nintendo 64 LodgeNet ROMs are now considered found media, as a small group of preservationists managed to get their hands on a LodgeNet system, which included hard drives containing the games. According to the blog post linked above, the following titles were able to be extracted from the hard drives and dumped online:
- 1080 Snowboarding
- Donkey Kong 64
- Dr. Mario
- Excitebike
- F-Zero X
- Gauntlet Legends
- Hydro Thunder
- Kirby 64: Crystal Shards
- Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Mario Golf
- Mario Kart 64
- Mario Party 3
- Mario Tennis
- Midway’s Greatest Arcade Hits
- Mortal Kombat 4
- The New Tetris
- Paper Mario
- Pilotwings 64
- Pokemon Snap
- Rampage 2: Universal Tour
- Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
- Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA
- Star Fox 64
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- Super Mario 64
- Super Smash Brothers
- Virtual Chess
- Virtual Pool 64
- Wave Race 64
- Yoshi’s Story
While Forest of Illusion also includes a link for folks to give the ROMs a try for themselves, Twitter user PrincessDaisy64XP has also recorded footage showing off just a few of the differences one would find in the LodgeNet hotel versions of the listed N64 games. A recurring theme seems to be the removal of any multiplayer modes, which makes sense, considering LodgeNet services only supported a single controller.
Star Fox 64: Lodgnet variant. (Yeah I know that was featured in “This was in my Hilton Room” YouTube video) but “Multiplayer” is missing. pic.twitter.com/W5elPNOPKP
— 🌼PrincessDaisy64XP™️ (@PrincessDaisyXP) April 26, 2023
Dr Mario 64. Removal of the “Two Player” And “Multiplayer” option. pic.twitter.com/awfUFDkSNn
— 🌼PrincessDaisy64XP™️ (@PrincessDaisyXP) April 26, 2023
Yoshi’s Story. Doesn’t work… pic.twitter.com/3O0dCGtK3N
— 🌼PrincessDaisy64XP™️ (@PrincessDaisyXP) April 26, 2023
Kirby 64: No changes whatsoever in this Lodgenet variant… pic.twitter.com/8diudHLloD
— 🌼PrincessDaisy64XP™️ (@PrincessDaisyXP) April 26, 2023
Pokémon Snap. The Options is missing. And there’s more to come tomorrow. So Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/3l8hOJe2dn
— 🌼PrincessDaisy64XP™️ (@PrincessDaisyXP) April 26, 2023
I don’t know about you, but little niches like this make me love video game preservation even more. Who else would think of making sure hotel versions of N64 games, extremely restricted in what they’re capable of, are accessible to the general public for as long as possible? I also highly recommend giving Forest of Illusion’s full blog post a read as well, as they also go into depth explaining exactly how they managed to get these games off of the LodgeNet system. It’s very fascinating.
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