DATE: Wednesday, November 26, 1997          TAG: 9711250115

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   82 lines

A VISIT FROM THE NINTENDO LADY VAN STOPS HERE TO PLAY A GAME OF MARKETING

Monitors flashed. Speakers blared upbeat music. Play stations and joy sticks lay idle, linked by cords. Numerous Game Boys, awaiting play, were stuck to the wall with Velcro.

The Nintendo van, literally a promotional vehicle for video games, may be the dream of every teen-age boy, and not a few young ladies.

And Jean Crothers has the keys.

With Katy DeRosier, a Nintendo marketing person, Crothers is leading the customized van through the major cities. Starting in Seattle, they had logged 6,500 miles. Last week in Virginia Beach, she promoted Nintendo's winter releases.

The van made a showing outside studios of The Point radio station. Crothers did the morning show with Eric Worden, Mark Goodman and Devon.

``I have a question for the Nintendo Lady,'' became a common refrain from callers.

Dropping game titles wherever possible, Crothers, who works a Nintendo phone line as a ``game play counselor'' when she isn't crossing the United States, told people about which number to call in a jam and blurted out obscure trivia, such as: ``Who was the hero of the original Metroid. Was she male or female?''

(She, of course, was Samus.)

Crothers offered only one bit of non-partisan advice.

``The best decision,'' she told a caller, ``is to choose the system which has the games you want.''

Goodman himself was sucked in by a Game Boy version of those fake pets you have to take care of constantly until they ``die.''

``Is that like a Tamagotchi game?'' Devon asked.

``Yes,'' Crothers said.

All was not well in Goodman's Tamagotchi effort.

``Apparently bad things are happening over here,'' he reported.

``The good thing about this one is that you can turn it off,'' Crothers advised him. (Tamagotchis stay on until ``death.'')

Soon Goodman turned his off.

With Goodman, they moved from the studio into the van, and Crothers fired up gadget after gadget.

Nintendo Co., based in Kyoto, Japan, started maufacturing playing cards a century ago. Now it leads the $15 billion retail video-game business. The company pulled down $3.5 billion in sales last year.

Recent Nintendo success is largely due to Game Boy and Nintendo 64, which has twice the power of most of its competitors and has reclaimed much of the marketplace the Japanese company had lost in recent years to systems such as the Sony Play Station and Sega Genesis.

The downside to the new Nintendo 64 system is a scarcity of titles, though the company has released several new games this year.

The big push, Crothers explained, is for a game starring a monkey named Ditty Kong. He is a member of the Donkey Kong/Mario Brothers stable, which is to video games what the Jackson family is to pop music. Ditty will soon star in his own video game, and there is a lot of pressure for the primate's adventure to sell a whole lot of stuff, as others in the family have done.

``It's called `Ditty Kong Racing,''' Crothers said. ``He's been in other things as a sidekick.''

``It's his first starring role,'' DeRosier explained.

``It's a hot new game,'' Crothers predicted.

There are 20 levels to race on, Crothers explained, and players can use three vehicles and eight characters (plus two hidden characters). It's sort of complicated.

Super Nintendo is still around, though somewhat dated by Nintendo 64 standards. It's a good set for a ``video game beginner,'' Crothers explained.

``So if you don't like your kid, you get 'em that,'' Goodman supposed. He does not have children.

Then there's the Nintendo 64 Rumble Pak, which, attached to a joystick, shakes when you hit stuff. Powered by two AAA batteries, the Rumble Pak is said to ``deliver approximately 50 to 60 hours of vibrating action.''

Just in time for Christmas.

By the end of the morning, Goodman goaded Worden into promising in front of 90,000 listeners to get his son Andrew a Nintendo system for the big holiday.

Another sale in the bag, the Nintendo Lady packed up the van and hit the road. ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Jean Crothers shows off a Flying Mario inside the Nintendo van last

week during a stop in Hampton Roads. When she isn't touring with

the van, Crothers works the phones as a Nintendo game counselor.

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