awilliams213
Member
The true thirst for the SNES was so real looking at those SMW/F-Zero/Pilotwings previews
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Every issue of Nintendo Power has been uploaded to archive.org
- Thread starter richiek
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I am Christina Aguilera
Member
God, during the 1990-1993 era, this magazine was just downright addictive.
I always remember though, during that sort of 1995-1996 interim, where the Saturn and PS1 were already out but the "Ultra 64" was still in development, layout duties changed from Japan to the U.S. and the magazine got kind of cluttered and ugly-looking (when the logo became 3D-rendered), and it just seemed like every issue was a combination of trying to sound excited about the Virtual Boy, printing endless coverage of the same N64 games that either wouldn't be out for a year-plus (if ever -- still technically waiting on an official North American release of what used to be Earthbound 64), and printing overlong articles on completely middling SNES and Game Boy licensed stuff after the North American market had faded on both of those platforms.
Then Pokemon happened and took over every issue and while the magazine had a second wind, I felt too old for all of it! (I still owned Blue anyway)
I always remember though, during that sort of 1995-1996 interim, where the Saturn and PS1 were already out but the "Ultra 64" was still in development, layout duties changed from Japan to the U.S. and the magazine got kind of cluttered and ugly-looking (when the logo became 3D-rendered), and it just seemed like every issue was a combination of trying to sound excited about the Virtual Boy, printing endless coverage of the same N64 games that either wouldn't be out for a year-plus (if ever -- still technically waiting on an official North American release of what used to be Earthbound 64), and printing overlong articles on completely middling SNES and Game Boy licensed stuff after the North American market had faded on both of those platforms.
Then Pokemon happened and took over every issue and while the magazine had a second wind, I felt too old for all of it! (I still owned Blue anyway)
Matt Bozon (who would go on to work for Wayforward) is also featured in the letters section.
Blak_Status
Member
This is awesome. Did someone say EGM issues are out there too?
Chittagong
Gold Member
Whoa whoa whoa hold on, Nintendo Power was designed in Japan originally? I remember their sudden Kai's Power Tools / 3D craze mid 1990s, but always preferred the earlier look.
Nomamesnomamesnomames! <33333333
BluePikmin11
Member
Is there an issue featuring Chrono Trigger, I would love to read it.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Yeah. There was a Retronauts about it.
The layout is basically the same as..... I want to say Famitsu?
Anyway it's a very Japanese 80s magazine style.
malboroking
Banned
Welp, there goes my weekend.
Yup.
https://archive.org/details/Nintendo_Power_Issue_075_August_1995 (The scans are messed up in those sections, though. Also you can see some of the early translations for stuff.)
https://archive.org/details/Nintendo_Power_Issue_076_September_1995 too
Chittagong
Gold Member
Fantastic, thanks! Listening now while browsing the archive, magical!
Interesting by the way how begrudgingly they covered Super NES in 1991. One or two game features only each month, nearly no coverage on the hardware. Mostly they just focused on NES and GB. You could tell which was paying the bills.
malboroking
Banned
Who's the artist for the old issues? I love the art for the Dragon Quest and FF2 articles. That art is really what got me interested in the games back in the day!
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Whoa! Thanks for this post. Them nostalgia feels. I had every issue from the first in 1988, until January 1995, lol.
You can download the .pdf file (or other files) on there and print them for personal use.
Though that would be a lot of color ink spent.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I remember going back to this issue after playing FFVI and becoming familiar with Moogles and being like "what the fuck".
Some of these artist interpretations of JRPG characters/creatures are really something else. The FFIV stuff was especially crazy.
It still kind of blows my mind that Secret of Mana has Moogles in it. But maybe I shouldn't be surprised since the series started as an FF spinoff (it says so right on the Japanese cart of Seiken Densetsu 1 before you assume I'm talking about the American FF Adventure naming)
earlier version actually had boats and no characters if I remember correctly
https://archive.org/stream/Nintendo_Power_Issue_038_July_1992#page/n37/mode/2up
Just looked at the comic. So Link is wearing a "zora" mask and the moon has a face. So that's where Majoras Mask got its inspriation from.
I would want them professionally printed and bound, to be honest. There is probably no way to make that happen
disappeared
Banned
It was like buying a new bible every month.
crisdecuba
Member
I downloaded a PDF version of one of the magazines, but the compression on images was really noticeable. The largest file format available to download it in is "Comic Book RAR" - is there a reader anyone would recommend for Windows?
doctordoak
Member
I tried downloading these as well as some Next Generation issues a while back, and they look pretty "off" on iPad, when viewing the PDFs through iBooks. Anyone know why?
BluePikmin11
Member
Found the Chrono Trigger Player's Guide that released alongside the issues atbigelow linked to:
https://archive.org/stream/Chrono_Trigger_Game_Guide/Chrono_Trigger#page/n0/mode/2up
I want this guide so bad.
https://archive.org/stream/Chrono_Trigger_Game_Guide/Chrono_Trigger#page/n0/mode/2up
I want this guide so bad.
AcademicSaucer
Member
Thats amazing , thanks!
Chittagong
Gold Member
Whoa, I just learned they had actually an advertising agency called Griffes Advertising design all those iconic bespoke early 90s covers for the magazine. So much effort each month.
Shikamaru Ninja
任天å ã® å¿è
There's only 145 issues uploaded, Nintendo Power ran until issue #285. So this is not every issue unless i'm missing something.
Quadraphonic
Member
The final years of NP were pretty sad.
First, they started doing a LOT of advertising in the pages, something they held off on for many years.
They got handed off to the other crew, so it was no longer the original team. The features were gone. No more tips and tricks. No contests. No comics. No more in-depth previews of games. It was just reviews of games and garbage. The reviews were fine, tough, even, especially considering it was Nintendo-sponsored.
I had a subscription since the Fun Club, but finally killed it off during their final year. It wasn't an easy decision, but I wasn't enjoying it anymore. About 6 to 7 months later, they announced it was ending. Kinda sad.
First, they started doing a LOT of advertising in the pages, something they held off on for many years.
They got handed off to the other crew, so it was no longer the original team. The features were gone. No more tips and tricks. No contests. No comics. No more in-depth previews of games. It was just reviews of games and garbage. The reviews were fine, tough, even, especially considering it was Nintendo-sponsored.
I had a subscription since the Fun Club, but finally killed it off during their final year. It wasn't an easy decision, but I wasn't enjoying it anymore. About 6 to 7 months later, they announced it was ending. Kinda sad.
brickarts295
Member
Time for a history lesson before the semester starts.
I am Christina Aguilera
Member
The Nintendo Power FF Player's Guide? I did use it, playing through FF1 for the first time on the NES version via the Wii Virtual Console around 2010 or so. I never would have known what half of the spells did (or were *supposed* to do, at least) without it. I feel like the maps probably also kept me from wasting a lot of time, inasmuch as it's possible to keep from wasting time in an RPG where basically between every dungeon I had to buy 99 potions one-by-one individually to keep from getting game overs.
eyeball_kid
Member
One thing I was always impressed by as a kid was the quality of the magazine itself. They used...I don't know what the term is...but the kind of binding that creates a flat side that you can read when stacked. The paper and inks were also high quality, with (if I remember correctly) thick stock paper and vibrant colors. It was something that you couldn't wait to get in the mail, and that quality added to the experience of the content.
I still have most of these up until about 1998 or so sitting in a closet at my parents' house. There was nothing quite like Nintendo Power back in the late 80's to early 90's. Just flip through some of them. They were innocence in its purest form. The lead up to and the glory days of the SNES have never been replicated for me.
SolVanderlyn
Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Pre-GAF hyperbole
I am Christina Aguilera
Member
Can I also mention that I feel like the short-lived George & Rob reviews read a lot better as an adult than as a screenshot-obsessed kid? The sections were so text-heavy, but I feel like their assessments were about as forthright as Nintendo Power reviews ever got during the early days. Of course, if you read NP enough, you would wind up being able to discern fairly quickly when Nintendo Power's coverage of a game was intending to damn it with faint praise. Now there's a skill that's proven useful in adulthood!
Baron Von Beans
Member
Very cool. I actually cut out every comic that was included in those issues, and I have a large binder with all the loose pages in folders and stuff. I want to get them bound, I just found out you could do that. I'll gladly look through these old issues, my inner child is screaming to flip through them one more time.
You know what they don't come with though?! A sweet Donkey Kong Country iron on shirt design logo thingy! Yea so what big whoop I don't know what they are called wannafiteaboudit??!
You know what they don't come with though?! A sweet Donkey Kong Country iron on shirt design logo thingy! Yea so what big whoop I don't know what they are called wannafiteaboudit??!
NinjaCoachZ
Member
Yo, holy crap! It's always kind of been a dream of mine to own a physical copy of as many NP issues as I can, but this is the next best thing! I'm practically drowning in nostalgia over here!
Real talk, Nintendo needs to bring Nintendo Power back during the NX's lifespan. Not having them around for the Wii U and most of the 3DS was a real shame. Whenever a new game came out, I always thought it was such a shame I'd never get to know what the NP crew thought of it. Especially sad they never got to cover Smash 4 and its crazy prelaunch, launch, and postlaunch eras.
Real talk, Nintendo needs to bring Nintendo Power back during the NX's lifespan. Not having them around for the Wii U and most of the 3DS was a real shame. Whenever a new game came out, I always thought it was such a shame I'd never get to know what the NP crew thought of it. Especially sad they never got to cover Smash 4 and its crazy prelaunch, launch, and postlaunch eras.
Pre-GAF hyperbole
Sometimes you see these photos from readers, and letters like this. Make you wonder what happened to them. Are they still gaming? Are they on GAF?
DarkestHour
Banned
Holy hell thank u!
https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Nintendo_Power_Coverage.html
These previews made me get the game on day one. It already let me know it was one of the best games ever before it came out.
"As the biggest and best RPG nears its release date"
"Destined to be the biggest game ever."
"A new standard for RPGs."
"Chrono Trigger makes dramatic improvements in graphics and sound over just about every previous traditional RPG."
"It improves on Final Fantasy in every area. In fact, once you begin playing Chrono Trigger, you'll wonder how you were ever happy with anything less."
"As for the music, it challenges Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct for the best of any video game."
"If all this sounds a little too good to be true, that's what we thought too until we started playing it and fell in love with it."
"If you love FF3, Mana, or Zelda, Chrono Trigger is guaranteed to become your new passion."
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