Tech

A couple of weeks ago, the right shoulder button on my Nintendo DS suddenly stopped working. Because the warranty had expired, I was forced to pay $75 to get it serviced. I called Nintendo’s service department and they instructed me to ship my device to their service center in LA. I enclosed a check along with detailed instructions to reproduce the issue. So far so good.

I was told the process would take about 7-10 days. But after a few weeks, I still didn’t receive my package. I checked with UPS. According to their tracking system, the package was ‘delivered.’ So where was it?

It turns out the Nintendo service guys shipped my system to the wrong address (typo) and also to the wrong person. Some guy named Jeremy from a ‘pharmacy’ signed for it. Another funny thing I discovered was that instead of addressing the package to Kevin Sung, they shipped it to John Sung. Where they got the name ‘John’ from remains a mystery since the name on the check and service order both said Kevin.

I called Nintendo’s customer service yesterday and told them my situation. The CSR responded that it would take 3-4 days to run a trace and do a full investigation. “Oh great,” I thought. “Time to get the run-around from terrible customer service again.”

But to my surprise, Nintendo called me back a few hours later and informed me they would be sending me a brand new DS. “We want you to know that no matter who’s at fault here, we want to make sure you’re happy and you have a system in hand.”

Interesting.

I can’t say I’m too happy about the mix-up. But Nintendo’s quick response puts a smile on my face.

I despise DRM. I especially despise DRM that prevents you from removing a game from your hard drive after you’ve finished playing it. Case in point, I bought The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition last year from Amazon while it was on sale. I played it, liked it, but eventually got busy. It has been sitting in my laptop for many months now, unused but taking up hard drive space.

Lo and behold, this message popped up when I tried to uninstall Oblivion.

Apparently, SecuROM thinks I’m a thief and I need to have the original disc to prove that I have the rights to remove the game. I guess the fact that I had the disc when I installed the game and when I played the game wasn’t enough evidence for SecuROM.

My disc is in a box somewhere, I think. I still haven’t unpacked everything since moving to my new apartment. Searching online, a lot of people recommend deleting the folder and cleaning the registry. Doing this is not ideal because it’s not a clean uninstall and a bulk registry will eventually lead to slower computer speeds. In the end, it makes me never want to buy a SecuROM-enabled game again.

Sony’s motion controller package is called the PlayStation Move. But that’s also the name of the wand device with the colored ball. What about the secondary controller? Does it have a name?

With the device’s filing with the FCC, it has been revealed that the sub-controller will be called the Navigation Controller. Oooh! What a… functional name. But don’t be disappointed. I’m sure our creative friends in Japan will find a way to combine the two words into something that rolls off the tongue, like NaviCon.