For most people, being on the road takes them away from the comforts of home. Even the most action-packed vacation includes hours of tedium sitting trapped in a hotel room or rubbing shoulders on a plane with sweaty businesspeople and colicky babies.
If videogame giant Nintendo has its way, its Nintendo Gateway System will help you while away the time. Gateway is an "interactive multimedia" service that's finding its way into airplanes and hotels, which are Wired as mini-networks to feed individual seats and rooms.
Gateway's benefits are especially apparent on an airplane. On a recent þight to the East Coast, I merrily jammed for an hour with the Super Mario All-Stars on the LCD screen in the seat-back in front of me. Flying first class garners an even cooler armrest display. Menu navigation and gameplay are accomplished through a basic game control pad.
If videogames aren't your cup of tea, Gateway offers a variety of entertainments, such as CD-quality music and a movie library. The selection and quality are a marked improvement over the aural and physical torture inþicted by the tubular headphones most airlines foist on you.
Gateway isn't just entertainment, though. You can also duty-free shop and check out weather and travel information. Baggage tracking is offered on some þights. It wasn't on mine, but I didn't really want to know if my bags were en route to Yorkshire instead of New York.
If you aren't familiar with a particular game that's offered, Gateway's lack of a gaming manual may leave you stumbling over which button does what. Ah, the price of being entertained on the move. As long as they can keep the pilots, front-desk employees, and ship captains from indulging, I can live with it.
Nintendo Gateway System: price determined by carrier. Available in 120,000 hotel rooms in North America and the UK, and on select Northwest, Air Canada, China Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Air, and soon British Airways flights. Nintendo: +1 (206) 882 2040.
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