13 Years of Nintendo Power Archived Online

[kupomogli]

If you’d like to catch up on some Nintendo Power nostalgia, you may want to visit a new section of the Internet Archives. Over 140 issues are now up on the website, starting with the very first magazine in 1988 up until mid-2001. You can check out the full selection here (https://archive.org/details/nintendopower&tab=collection).

Now you're playing with power.

[Tanooki]

Now I'm bookmarking with power.

Thanks, that IS a keeper. I at times still wish I had at least the first year or so of the things, but the weight and size they're long gone and now the pricing on some of them are just foolish. I do have a couple fun clubs though, would like more as they're not too bad if you're smart.

[fluid_matrix]

Now I'm bookmarking with power.

Thanks, that IS a keeper. I at times still wish I had at least the first year or so of the things, but the weight and size they're long gone and now the pricing on some of them are just foolish. I do have a couple fun clubs though, would like more as they're not too bad if you're smart.

I was a subscriber for at least the first year. Not sure if I renewed after that or not. Like you, I stupidly got rid of them.

[Tanooki]

I had every single issue even the bonus strategy guides they did to move into monthly all the way through when it turned to 100% complete shit under FutureOne when I cancelled it. That first issue was just entirely offensive reading all the print in it and coupled with the online presence. They had pulled staff from other system/magazines and clearly some were resentful a little to entirely, and I recall one of them admitting online to shitting on Nintendo games because he wasn't happy with being put on it. I'm not going to PAY to get insulted by some (he was on PS stuff) Sony fanboy troll. I called to cancel, they got defensive on the phone, I quoted what their employee had turded out in the magazine and online about his lack of professionalism, and they buttoned up fast, acted nice and just refunded me the entire balance. Nintendo had to be desperate or stupid to hand over the reins to such an awful company. Before Nintendo folded it they had put out around 150+ issues, and I think you can figure how much weight was behind that many 100-120~ page magazines with the occasional one being fatter than that in pages or tossed in comics/catalogs. The whole mess filled the inside of a bedroom closet floor in magazine holders.

[Aussie2B]

Nice. There used to be another site where you could download NP issues, among other magazines, but I think it ran into legal issues and went poof. I hope Nintendo doesn't hassle this archive and lets them stick around, but it probably helps now that NP is long dead.

I own from Issue 9 (though I'm missing the SMB3 guide) to Issue 131. My personal subscription started with Issue 78 (actually I think it started a couple issues later, but back then I paid Nintendo full newsstand price to order a couple back issues), so I read everything cover to cover from there till Issue 130, I think. By then I was getting so fed up with the downgrade in quality of the magazine that I let my subscription run out and didn't bother reading the last one I received. In retrospect, it was kind of douchey of me, considering they had just printed my art in Issue 129, haha (which you can't really see in the scan because it didn't pick up the faint background art). In the mid 00s, I bought a huge box of older NPs, so that's why I now have issues before 78. Out of those, I've read cover to cover 9 through 55. Slowly working my way to catching up to where my subscription began, but I only read a few issues a year, if that, as the box is in storage at my mom's house on the other side of the country. I'm not even going to begin to entertain the idea of transporting all those issues as my collection is probably around 75 pounds (based on the fact that I know the original box I bought off of eBay was 55 pounds and thankfully only cost me about 10 bucks to ship because it was coming from only a few towns over).

I'd love to fill in those early gaps someday, but I imagine those early issues are pricey now. I also now kind of regret not letting my subscription run longer. As sub-par as the issues were getting, I still would at least like to finish the N64 run. It'd be cool to see what the early coverage of the GameCube and GBA was like. Of course, I could just use this archive now, haha, but I like these kinds of archives more for seeing what each issue covers. When it comes to actually reading the mags, I prefer to do so with the real deal.

[leatherrebel5150]

I have the first hundred and fifty issues. I think #150 has luigis mansion on the cover and was the last issue to feature anything N64. Im not a fan of gamecube or anything after so thats where i stopped. In total i believe there are 250 issues i would like to get the last one some day

[Aussie2B]

The last issue is pretty nice. I didn't mention that before, but I did make it a point to pick that one up, even though I have none of the others from the Future Publishing run. It's a little chintzy compared to the hefty issues of the past, but it's got some nice fan service for longtime NP fans. My favorite part is the Nester comic revival, which makes me a little misty-eyed. It's kind of impressive that I liked it at all considering the Nester comics stunk after they first switched to a new artist and only got progressively worse, and the other revivals were pretty meh. But yeah, that final Nester comic was the perfect sendoff.

[Tanooki]

I had that last issue too, never had the heart to open it given how Future One ruined the thing, but I liked the cover picture. I think I still have it around here somewhere.

[YoshiM]

I was a subscriber from the Fun Club News days and then had my one year with Nintendo Power. My magazines had a watery demise a couple decades ago (poor storage on my part-didn't realize my shed had a leak) so I had rebuilt my collection over the years. I also got the Legend of Zelda guide as well, just likevI did as a teen.

I too picked up the last issue of NP. It was bittersweet. I did and currently subscribe to Nintendo Force but it's sadly not the same.

[lendelin]

I have the issues from vol. 1 (1988) to 2009, all minty mint and unread because I had always at least two subscriptions. (reason: with every renewal you got a $12 guide for free. and the yearly mag cost anyway only $15)

NP was great. It wasn't the best videogame journalism and it wasn't a mere advertisement mag as many believe, it was great because every mag contained guides for various games. That made it the best mag around for hints and tips at a time with no internet and youtube.

Nintendo saw the need of gamers for strategic help with games from the beginning, and with the Fun Club News and later with NP they created at the same time what we call today a 'community,' and both goals were achieved and contributed to Nintendo's success. NP was good marketing and a good service for gamers.

Coincidence: Just yesterday I pulled out the very well stacked first 35 issues of NP from the attic. (no space in the gameroom anymore for all the Gamepro's and EGM's to NP) It is great to read a mag from a time which wasn't more innocent when it comes to the game-business but appeared to be more innocent and certainly didn't suffer from very high expectations, sarcasm and quibbling of the gamers. The late 80's and 90's were still more about the playful bonkersness of games, something I miss a lot nowadays in the era of triple A titles, high production costs and movie-like experiences.

[badinsults]

These were all scanned by Retromags, and most of them have been online for years. They sent them to Archive.org for hosting, which is a nice place to make them easily accessible.

[SpaceHarrier]

The 36 page Dragon Warrior guide is missing from the Tetris issue :|

I remember the original, hand-drawn artwork for all the items you could obtain in the game. Wish I'd kept that issue, er, all of them..

[Eternal Champion]

Well, that's that. And AM2R, too.

http://www.polygon.com/2016/8/8/12405278/nintendo-power-issues-disappear-from-free-online-archive

[fluid_matrix]

Somebody needs to package this into a nice little torrent so it can live on forever.

[Aussie2B]

*sighs* I can understand why the Metroid 2 remake got the cease & desist, but the Nintendo Power archive was completely unaltered from how Nintendo created the issues, it didn't contain the more recent issues (it was only, what, up to the early 00s?), nobody was profiting off of them to the best of my knowledge, and let's be real, Nintendo isn't going to do jack with the issues, short of maybe showing the covers somewhere.

Does anybody know of a site that at least documents the contents of each issue, even if they don't offer scans? It's nice to easily look up what games are covered in each.

[Tanooki]

Seems legally I get it, but they appear to clearly want to alienate their older fan base who grew up and appreciated both their classic games and the magazines. There really was no good reason other than just being prickly with the DMCA attack on the magazine, the game I get a bit because they still half ass something out with Samus still, but the magazines that was sheer senseless spite.

[SparTonberry]

The only thing I see them doing with them is the comics.
The Zelda comics have been reprinted, and I hear the Mario comics have been announced for a new reprint (the old one was at like $100 when I checked!).
I'd imagine StarFox (from the 1993 issues) and Metroid (from 1994) could follow as well.

I know Nester was popular, but those were 1-2 pages per issue, right? Don't know if that's enough to fill a book.

[Aussie2B]

Oh right, I forgot about the comic reprints, that's a good point. But I would imagine that'd be Viz Media's bone to pick more than Nintendo's. I wonder if it could fly if they just left out those issues, or the scans of those particular pages.

I doubt they'll bother with the Star Fox and Super Metroid comics. Though still by Japanese artists, the style of them was very Western-inspired, as opposed to the traditional manga look of the Zelda: ALttP series and Super Mario Adventures, so it's not really Viz's shtick, and those later two aren't nearly as fondly remembered either. Nester is even less likely since barely any modern gamers are familiar with the character, and it's only really the Howard & Nester comics that are well-loved. I can only imagine what kind of legal mess it'd be since those ones have Howard Phillips's likeness. After Phillips left the magazine and it switched to "Nester's Adventures", practically everyone hated the comic and it died a slow and painful death.

[Tanooki]

I'd like to see the Starfox one redone and Super Metroid but I could have sworn they weren't totally complete but more like lead in stuff to the games so that may not work. The Mario stuff though I think was part of the Valiant comic line, that I have more or less in that hardback Best of Nintendo Comics Series Super Mario Bros (also to that red book is a blue one which has Cap'n N, Gameboy, Metroid, Punchout and more and I have that too.) I've kept my Zelda one since it was sold over 20 years ago and it's still in pretty good shape too.

[retroman]

Checked it out. Pretty cool. Thanks for the link.

[Daria]

*sighs* I can understand why the Metroid 2 remake got the cease & desist, but the Nintendo Power archive was completely unaltered from how Nintendo created the issues, it didn't contain the more recent issues (it was only, what, up to the early 00s?), nobody was profiting off of them to the best of my knowledge, and let's be real, Nintendo isn't going to do jack with the issues, short of maybe showing the covers somewhere.

Does anybody know of a site that at least documents the contents of each issue, even if they don't offer scans? It's nice to easily look up what games are covered in each.

http://www.nintendopower.comxa.com/index.php

EmuParadise has the magazine scans available in .cbr format (in other words rars of jpgs) but this link is invaluable for searching for specific games within the issues.

[Aussie2B]

Thanks, Daria! Yeah, I'd settle for just the contents by issue, but being able to look up games by title and publishers even is awesome.

The funny this is that I've use multiple sites over the years to look up the contents of Nintendo Power, but since the sites have usually offered scans too, they all had to be removed eventually. Since this one has no images whatever, hopefully it'll be up for a long time.

[JSoup]

As for the NP archive being pulled, not that big an issue. There is larger archive out there on pretty much every public torrent tracker and it's been going strong for the last five years.

I'm happy to see that searchable bibliography though, Daria, thanks for the link. I was musing about creating something like that in the NP covers thread.

[Empsolo]

Seems legally I get it, but they appear to clearly want to alienate their older fan base who grew up and appreciated both their classic games and the magazines. There really was no good reason other than just being prickly with the DMCA attack on the magazine, the game I get a bit because they still half ass something out with Samus still, but the magazines that was sheer senseless spite.

The problem here is Nintendo is beginning to resell Nintendo Power material. It's not just the comic reprints but the NES Mini will be sold alongside an Official NES guidebook that will incorporate Nintendo Power articles and interviews.

[JSoup]

About the comic reprints, is it just the Mario/Zelda stuffs? I wouldn't mind an archive of Nester strips.

[Aussie2B]

Huh, I didn't know about that guidebook with the NES Mini. That's pretty cool.

For the comics, yeah, it's just Zelda and Mario so far. The Zelda one is already out (and sold quite well as far as manga releases in the US go, if I remember correctly), and the Mario reprint was just announced. For Nester, I do know of this site:

http://hn.iodized.net/main.htm

It's not remotely complete, as it only has a single comic past Howard's departure, but it's got all of the Howard & Nester comics.

[Tanooki]

The problem here is Nintendo is beginning to resell Nintendo Power material. It's not just the comic reprints but the NES Mini will be sold alongside an Official NES guidebook that will incorporate Nintendo Power articles and interviews.

I'm obviously going to google this, but do you have some cited source on that? I've never heard of this. It would be quite understandable they'd pull that crap stunt if they were going to re-print (I'm guessing) the old NP multi-page game pictorial+printed word guides and throw it in there to assist people (my guess along with the manuals and other related articles of interest.)

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Taking old Nintendo Power off the internet? Fuck you, 2016 Nintendo. These were 15-28 year old magazines, hard to find nowadays and expensive, not to mention outdated (but masterfully written and great for nostalgia). These magazines are a snapshot of Nintendo's glory days. Nintendo is but a shell of what it was in the 1990s.

[Empsolo]

I'm obviously going to google this, but do you have some cited source on that? I've never heard of this. It would be quite understandable they'd pull that crap stunt if they were going to re-print (I'm guessing) the old NP multi-page game pictorial+printed word guides and throw it in there to assist people (my guess along with the manuals and other related articles of interest.)
Did you look at the Amazon blurb?


https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Power-Nintendo-NES-Classics/dp/074401767X/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471167103&sr=1-15&keywords=nes+guide



Exclusive embossed slipcase holds this hardcover tome in a clever package that resembles a classic NES Game Pak!

A fascinating retrospective on 17 NES classics—including Super Mario Bros. 3, Donkey Kong, and The Legend of Zelda!

Interviews and commentary from Nintendo visionaries who pioneered this era of gaming.

A showcase of vintage advertising and priceless excerpts from Nintendo Power magazine back issues!

Plus hand-drawn maps, character and game environment art, and much more!

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/the_official_nintendo_nes_classics_book_will_go_ni cely_with_your_nes_mini

[calthaer]

I was hoping to download those, too. They were a great read back in the day; today, I can't imagine them being worth anything except for nostalgia's sake. No one deterred by the price of the physical magazines would buy a reprint, I'd wager, and I'd only buy a digital archive if it were very cheap. Do kids these days even play those old Nintendo games? Even if they did, I'm sure they wouldn't read the magazine.

[Tanooki]

I did find that amazon thing after I wrote that, seems kind of gray area to kill all the NP listings over a lame little book in a slip cover that goes over 17 old NES titles and the history around them to a point. Seems more of an excuse to do what they did instead of a valid good reason (like re-issuing them in PDF format or something.) If they put them all up for $1-5 PDFs for sale through the Nintendo shop, Kindle, etc, then hell yeah I'd see a valid good reason to take them out. I wouldn't expect real print for so many issues. Even trying to do it by the system is too blurred given how far the NES reached into SNES era etc unless a lot of work went into chopping out just the pertenant bits but that wouldn't be keeping with the theme of the books either.

[tom]

I guess with Nintendo, you're not playing with power.