I’m a big advocate for speaking one’s mind, especially when large corporations are involved. I have this habit of sending out long winded letters to customer service departments, you might even call it a hobby. Believe it or not, I do get enough responses to justify my doing so. A free month of service here some coupons there, it’s amazing what you can get with a little tactful complaining. My latest letter is a perfect example…

Not too long ago I wrote a post on this blog titled WTF Nintendo?. In it I expressed my frustration toward the button layout on the GameCube controller when playing Super Mario World on the Wii. There were many similar postings on various forums, so I felt justified in my position. I knew that a single post on a no-name blog wasn’t going to do anything so I turned my blog post into a letter; Presented in a slightly more diplomatic fashion of course. I mailed it out the next day but really never expected a response.

Two weeks later, the phone rings and my wife answers. “Matt. Nintendo’s on the phone.” My flight response started to take over, especially since I didn’t include my number in the letter, but I had nowhere to run so I took the phone. Amanda, a customer service rep for Nintendo of America, was on the other end. Much to my surprise she gave me a very detailed and thoughtful response to my letter. Here were the basic points:

• Not much QA is done on Virtual Console games, after all these games were well tested 15+ years ago. They just make sure the game runs and send it out.
• If you compare the button letters of a GameCube controller to a Super Nintendo controller you can see that they match up perfectly. It’s the GameCube button layout that’s messed up.
• Nintendo does not have a mechanism in place to “recall” a VC game.
• Nintendo designed the Classic Controller for the virtual console and thus it is the preferred method of input. (read “Cough up the cash, that’s what we made that classic controller for.”)
• Nintendo reps have no fore-knowledge of upcoming VC games (I had to ask about Pilotwings).

I was impressed just to get a response, not to mention that she tracked down my home number. Then Amanda pulled out the big gun. She sent me a free Classic Controller, in the hope that I would refrain from calling it “useless” in the future. Touche; consider my silence bought. The controller came in the mail yesterday and I’ve been using it quite a bit. I can honestly say that I like it a lot. Do I now think it’s worth $20? Barely. But I will no longer call it useless.

I played Astro Chase 3D for the first time at the ‘95 Macworld Expo and was hooked instantly. The game is a sequel to the hit Atari/C64 game, Astro Chase. The plot is simple; Mysterious aliens from parts unknown decide to attack Earth for no good reason. Since when does evil need a reason? They send a hoard of their ultra destructive Mega Mines (pat. pend.) on a collision course toward Earth. This leaves you, in your super secret experimental Ultra Ship as Earth’s lone defender. AstroChase 3D is a beautiful game that combines fast action, simple controls and a difficult goal making it a perfect time killer. [Read On]

When I started reviewing old games, I decided that I would only cover games that were delivered on floppy disk. Just this one time I had to break that rule. Spaceship Warlock was an interactive movie from the 90s which added a touch of innovation to a tired banal genre. Despite the genre’s great stigma, I don’t hide the fact that I love interactive movies. I recently got the bug the play Spaceship Warlock again; so I dusted off the CD, and my LCII, and decided to write a review.

Click on to read more about Spaceship Warlock

I know in my last update I promised a review of the Lucasarts masterpiece Monkey Island. What I didn’t anticipate was being so busy this past month. Add on the fact that it’s a long freakin’ game and that just doesn’t equate to a review. So instead I decided to throw this crap together.

Those of us Mac users that remember System 7 will also remember a certian singing icon named Jared. Jared didn’t do much, just sing. . . badly. But that is why we loved him, go figure. Jared had come up in a conversation at work recently, and I couldn’t get that song out of my head. I was a big Jared fan back in the day, mainly because it annoyed the hell out of my high school teachers. I even owned the official Jared CD which I obtained at Macworld one year. If you can get a hold of the music <cough>bittorrent</cough>, they’re worth a chuckle or two.

So if that piqued your interest, you’ve got too much free time. If that’s the case, click on to read more about Jared: The Butcher of Song