We all trooped down to the Science Museum on Saturday to play “every game worth playing”, as the posters say. The part they omit from the posters is “and also Pitfall 2, which sucks ass.”

The Game On exhibition is at the London Science Museum until 27th February 2007. It was an… interesting experience, to say the least. Not comfortable. Here’s The Average Gamer’s survival guide, if you’re planning on seeing it:

1. Don’t go on Saturday. It will be rammed and there will be small children underfoot. Sometimes they will beg you to let them play even though you only picked up the gamepad a mere second ago. They will look cute and vulnerable. Don’t be tricked by their innocent gaze! You’ll have to pry the pad back from their cold, dead fingers.
2. Don’t bring WMDs, biological weapons or teeny tiny handbag knives used for cutting stray threads. They search all bags on the way in and will stop you from entering.
3. Bring lots of cash. It costs £8.50 for just the exhibit and you may decide to take advantage of their IMAX + exhibit deal. Also, the chocolate chip shortbread and brownies in the Natural History Museum next door are very tasty. (T-Rex is undergoing maintenance :()
4. Dress in layers. Poor ventilation + lots of people + a hundred PCs and consoles = really freaking hot!
5. Wear comfy shoes. This especially applies to any ladies reading. There is no seating once you enter the Game On section. Okay, there’s no seating if you’re over 2 feet tall. There are some teeny chairs next to the Pokémon SPs.

As for the exhibit itself… it was all right, I suppose, even though they left out pretty much every favourite game from my childhood (The Hobbit, Knight Tyme, Sorcery, anything by Bioware). I didn’t even see an Amstrad CPC 464. They had Lemmings but it wasn’t working.

Aside from that, the layout is very bizarre. They’re marketing it as a history of videogames but there doesn’t seem to be any coherent chronology. For example, in one corner they have Infocom’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . Next to that is Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Next to that is The Secret of Monkey Island. Eh??

(BTW, there’s a concept drawing of Pirate Cap’n LeChuck from The Secret of Monkey Island and you know what? He does look a lot like Davy Jones from Pirates of The Caribbean 2)

I did like the design plans for GTA3. Post-It notes everywhere!

Final Verdict: It’s all right if you have a tenner to burn or there’s a game that you know is there and really want to play (like TheFluffyFist and Tikipod on R-Type and, uh… Tweenies ;)). I wouldn’t make any sacrifices for it.

I have now tracked my problem down to something probably caused an old Norton AntiVirus installation that didn’t completely remove a dependency from the DHCP client (the Windows service that manages network configuration) when I uninstalled it. This prevented the DHCP client from starting when the Nintendo installation requested it. Evil thing!

WinSock XP Fix sounds like a program that might fix it - I only found it after I fixed mine manually. Try that program first but if you don’t like running unknown programs that don’t let you know exactly what they’re doing then follow my manual instructions below.

Even if you haven’t used Norton AntiVirus, you may still have the same DHCP client problem.

To check if your issue is caused by the same thing as mine was, do the following:

1. Right click on My Computer.
2. Click on Manage.
3. Expand Services and Applications in the left sidebar.
4. Click on Services.
5. Find DHCP Client in the right window. Under Status does it say Started? If not, keep going. If it does then this is not your solution, sorry. Try here.
6. Right click on DHCP client.
7. Click Start. Do you get “Error: Could not start the DHCP Client Service on local computer. Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start.”? If so, this is your solution. Well, part of it anyway. I can’t help you if you have additional problems.

Warning: This involves messing about with the Windows Registry, so create a Windows System Restore point NOW. Or backup the registry manually if you know how to do that.

Creating a System Restore Point:

1. Click Start
2. Go to All Programs
3. Go to Accessories
4. Go to System Tools
5. Click on System Restore
6. Click Create a Restore Point
7. Type in a description (Trying scary Nintendo WiFi dongle solution)
8. Click on Create

The actual solution is from Ramesh’s Site: Windows Troubleshooting. He has kindly given me permission to reproduce the solution in full here:

The DHCP Client Service in Windows XP, depends on these three components:

• AFD
• NetBios over Tcpip
• TCP/IP Protocol Driver

If one of the above drivers fail to start, then the DHCP Client Service may not start.

Step I - Make sure that the three driver files are present

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Windows directory’s \System32\Drivers folder (usually C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers) .
2. Make sure that the following files are present in the folder:
• afd.sys
• tcpip.sys
• netbt.sys
3. If one or more of the above driver files are missing, extract them from the Windows XP CD-ROM or from the ServicePackFiles\i386 folder, whichever is the latest version.

[I believe running Install Optional Windows Components when you put in your WinXP CD and checking Networking Services should replace these for you automatically]

Step II - Verify the number of Dependencies

From other sources in the Web, I’ve found that some versions of Norton Antivirus (NAV) adds an entry to the DHCP Service Dependencies, and removing NAV does not remove the appropriate value from the DHCP Dependencies.

1. To quickly determine the Dependency services for DHCP Client Service, type the following command in Start, Run dialog:

CMD /K SC QC DHCP

2. Verify the output. It should be exactly as below:

[SC] GetServiceConfig SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: dhcp
TYPE : 20 WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS
START_TYPE : 2 AUTO_START
ERROR_CONTROL : 1 NORMAL
BINARY_PATH_NAME : C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs
LOAD_ORDER_GROUP : TDI
TAG : 0
DISPLAY_NAME : DHCP Client
DEPENDENCIES : Tcpip
: Afd
: NetBT
SERVICE_START_NAME : LocalSystem

If additional entries are listed under DEPENDENCIES…

If any other additional drivers or Services are mentioned in the DEPENDENCIES section, you need to remove them via the registry. Follow these steps:

1. Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe
2. Navigate to the following branch: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Dhcp
3. If you set up a system restore point when I said to then you can skip this setp. Otherwise backup the registry branch to a REG file or create a system restore point.
4. Double-click DependOnService MULTI_SZ value and set its data as follows:

Tcpip
Afd
NetBT

5. Close Regedit.exe

Step III - Verify that the Dependency Service / components are running

Next step is to verify that the three dependency components are running. As the three components are actually the Kernel Drivers (Driver Service), you need to manage then via the Device Manager. Follow these steps:

1. Click Start, Run and type DEVMGMT.MSC
2. In the View menu, click Show hidden devices
3. Double-click Non-Plug and Play drivers section
4. Double-click the entry AFD, and click the Driver tab
5. Set the Startup type to System.
6. Start the service. Note down the error message if any.

Repeat steps 4-6 for the two other drivers, TCP/IP Protocol Driver and NetBios over Tcpip.

Close Device Manager and restart Windows.

This is the end of Ramesh’s solution.

Once you’ve done that, follow Nintendo’s instructions for removing the USB software from previous attempts.
This post is getting quite long and you’ve probably done it a few times already so I’ll just point you towards the instructions on Nintendo.com. Start from “Check Local Area Connections to determine what the ICS options are set to.”

Now run the USB connector’s installation program. Hopefully it will install like it did for me! Hope this helps someone.

If only my copy of Animal Crossing: Wild World would arrive from Lik Sang and I could actually test the thing…

[Note: If you want to restore your settings then instructions on restoring to the System Restore Point can be found here.]

1. Puppies can only learn up to 14 voice commands so choose ‘em wisely
2. Make sure your puppy is happy before he goes for a walk - he’ll find more good items
3. Double-tapping on the screen will call all your puppies. Essential for commuter Nintendogging!
4. The hunger-measurement thing pauses when they’re on a walk, so leaving it in sleep mode during a walk can save your butt if you won’t have time to feed your puppy for a day or two. Keep your DS charged though! (I haven’t tried this with multiple puppies. Let me know if it still works!)
5. Long voice commands are more easily recognised than short ones
6. Puppies won’t learn a command over time. I told my puppy to jump once a day for a week and got nothing. 5 times in one day and he got it.
7. Check both shops whenever you go on a long walk. Sometimes they get in cool stuff like a keyboard or balloons or doggie treats when you have happy puppies!
8. Puppies and balloons do not last long together. They’re pretty funny though.
9. On long walks, yank your puppy’s leash to the right edge of the screen and hold it there. He’ll run along at a speedy pace to his next interesting point (or choke and whine, but just keep doing it and give him some lovin’ afterwards). Yank it to the top-right corner and he’ll jump like he’s hurdling! Pointless but cute.
10. If you want to win at championship level, you better practice every day.
• Disc competitions: Use the same disc every time, throw it far and throw it straight ahead. That’s all you need to know.
• Agility trials: Just practice and be ruthless if your puppy does his little heartbreaking unhappy tail-down thing. Tough love works best and that little bugger knows exactly how cute he is.
• Obedience trials: I don’t know, sorry. I suck at these.
11. Lots of puppies means lots of food. 2 puppies will eat 2 bowls of food at a time.
12. Lots of puppies also means lots of lovin’. You better have a lot of spare time if you want three championship puppies!

BTW, where are all the Nintendogs?? I’ve been walking all over London in Bark Mode, haven’t met another Nintendo DS in bark mode! No sausage-dog or rat-dog for me… Oh well, no great loss.

Also, what is up with the dictionary box? What’s that supposed to be? “Clicka-clicka-clicka-clicka-CLONK!” Huh?

Other Nintendogs posts.

Updated 20th Jan 06: Added a few extra tips.