When you consider iconic imagery from Nintendo's earlier days in North America, in particular, there's a good chance that Nintendo Power magazine will spring to mind. From memorable covers to quirky features, to cut-out crafts and posters, it was a key part of many young gamer's regular routine; in the pre-internet days it was also a definitive source of information on all things Nintendo.
The magazine closed for good in late 2012, but in this modern era there are often ways to enjoy magazines and content from times gone by. Regular Nintendo Life tipster Ryan Millar has pointed out this substantial online archive that includes scans from the magazine's history, with over 140 issues from the very first right up to Spring 2001. You can browse them in the online viewer or download them, and in those we checked the quality is excellent.
It's a fantastic resource, which has been brought together by Jason Scott and 'Sketch the Cow' since February this year. Check it out and let us know what you think.
[source archive.org]
Comments 60
I'm really glad there are people out there doing stuff like this.
I know what I'm doing tonight...
LOL.
The power of Turnip introduced by Mario....XD
I never had Nintendo Power growing up, so I don't have much in the way of nostalgia for it, but this archive seems like it'll be a really cool way to see the perception of games during their relevency.
But can I still get the free poster inside?
They are missing quite a lot of issues. There were 285 issues of Nintendo Power, not counting special editions.
Is there any way to download these? I'd really like to be able to read all these and I doubt my internet would hold long enough to read them all.
@ReshiramZekrom Same here. I LOVE how someone did this. I am so thankful!
The feels of nostalgia are comfy
I miss getting Nintendo Power in the mail... however, there really is no need for the anymore with the internet. Great to see this collection up. I'll definitely go through some of them later.
Wow this is great! I never read Nintendo power, but I will have a look at some issues
Nintendo should sell a Nintendo Power App on the eshop. You should be able to turn in your My Nintendo points, or whatever the new Club is called, into free digital retro issues.
I still use my hard copies, for tips & tricks, when playing my retro games. Great deal of info in those! The celebrity interviews are hilariously ridiculous as well.
Retromags has Nintendo Power as well as many others, another nice resource to have. You can download them, although you need to create a free account with I believe 5 downloads per day.
there was a link here, but Megumi ate it
That skinny, blue-hatted Mario is a bit disturbing to me...
I live in Euroland but was very lucky to buy several boxes of the US Nintendo Power mag before prices and international shipping spiralled out of control. Most are from the SNES and N64 era and it's a real trip down memory lane to browse through them.
The Interweb brought us a lot of good things but I really regret it also caused the demise of so many great magazines.
I never did get to order a Nintendo Power Magazine before so I'll give these a read later as magazines are always fun to look at.
When I get the chance, I'm rereading so much classified information and old Howard and Nester comics. And all the other comics.
Instant bookmark! It couldn't be better!
reading Issue 141, the one with Paper Mario on it
Reunited, and it feel's so good. I'm so glad about this, finally re-reading the Nintendo Power I had since I was young. Too bad I started subscribing in it's later years.
Pretty frikin' sweet!
THIS IS SO AWESOME. Thank you.
This link is to the issue that talked about pokemon for the fist time. I still have it. https://archive.org/stream/Nintendo_Power_Issue_108_May_1998#page/n55/mode/2up
Cool, I gotta find the issue in the way-back with my name in it for beating Legacy of the Wizard. Holy crap that was a long time ago.
Edit: Found it! Nov/Dec 89. Wow that brings back some memories. Thanks for posting the heads up about the link NL.
I've looked at the Nintendo Power Advance issues before. It is quite an interesitng site. I started looking on the site when they released that Arcade.
An ad-supported hosting of this stuff on their own site would almost certainly make Nintendo some money.... Begging the question of why not do it themselves? I say that out of concern that Nintendo will slap them with a C&D and/or DMCA takedown or something. Can't imagine it wouldn't be profitable, or if nothing else, offer access for free as a way to advertise things like, say, nostalgic fun like one might have with the NES Classic Mini...?
Kinda wish I still had my NP collection.
man this is so sick, I always wanted to flip through the early issues. It's so much fun to see how all of these ancient games were promoted back in the day.
Edit: LOL NOPE C&D NO FUN ALLOWED GOTTA PROTECT THOSE CRUCIAL IPS
It seems Retro is all we have to look forward too now.
i just scanned thru the first issue im just like wow
I love reading issues released months before a new console is released. All hype and promise of what it features. Thanks for the tip!
@ajcismo legacy of the wizard. Holy moly that game was good and that stupid password. I want to play that one again.
You could make a game of spot the mistakes in that photo. That's from way, way back when certain things weren't set in stone. Blue cap Mario, skinny Mario, yellow toadstools, carrots?
By the way, for those who aren't aware, that's the cover from the first ever issue.
Wow, I am romming out right now.
SMB2 was and is one of my favorite Mario games of all times and that NP cover is one of the best ones.
@NintendoFan64
Yep... How good is your printer?..
This is amazing! The official Nintendo magazine of my country is still being published, thankfully enough, but I wouldn't mind taking a peak at these for nostalgia purposes.
@SH007ME It's all out of colored ink. Is that an issue?
Nintendo Force magazine is obviously not as late breaking news as the net but it captures much of the Nintendo Power magazine feel. It has some of the NP editors working on it. Check out the current issue: http://www.nintendoforcemagazine.com/
Could swear I had them all saved somewhere on my PC
I'm bookmarking this for sure!
btw, I wonder how many people saw "Zelda - Second Quest" on the cover and thought that it was the name of the upcoming Zelda sequel?
Retro: Bask in Nostalgia With The Nintendo Power Archive
Eh.... it should be written "Back" instead "Bask" .... XD
My childhood lives on digitally now.
@NintendoFan64
..lol, not if you print b/w and can color inside the lines..
..presto...itsa poster..
You do know that there's another little site that focusses on pixel perfect restorations of UK classic videogame magazines, right.
http://www.outofprintarchive.com
@River3636
All I can really remember about that game was how difficult it was and spending hours and months getting through it. Then taking a screenshot (on film, of course), and waiting an extra day for processing before mailing the photos to Nintendo for proof.
Nice to seeing the past preserved. But Nintendo closing it down in 3...2...1!
@meppi That's quality,cheers for making me aware of that.I've still got a lot of these mags up the attic back home and sometimes dig them out when I'm back visiting.
Hey, how did my magazines get online?
Wow this is really awesome, I'll finally be able to read the issues that came before the Super Mario Bros. 3 one!
I had some fun downloading some of these earlier, I have bought some in the past from either ebay and NYC. I had a nice nostalgia fix from one issue that a supermarket can't remember who were advertising different coloured N64's for sale at $100. It's a shame I never bought one in the UK if they had been £100 here, oh well you can't go back in time.
I would like to thank Jason Scott and 'Sketch the Cow' for putting these up.
Better download some of these people before Nintendo or future 'ask' to have them removed.
I remember being so giddy when my letter got published. Its here.
https://archive.org/stream/Nintendo_Power_Issue_140_January_2001#page/n11/mode/1up
I wrote asking how to get a job at Nintendo Power as a writer. Haha. Glad I didnt see that one through. I would be out of a job. Haha
I wish to find a copy of the final volume of Nintendo Power in an archive like this one.
@OorWullie
You're welcome.
There has been a problem with our file hosting site last year, so if any magazine that you're trying to download is offline or corrupted, just let me know on our forums and I'll re-up them the same day if possible.
I'm also working on redoing all the old scans I've done over the past 8 years so that they are picture perfect with exact colour calibrations and everything. I've started doing this at the beginning of this year, so the magazines you'll find on the 2016 new page are the best ones so far. All the older ones will be redone if time permits. A single 100 page issue takes close to 50 hours to complete, from scanning to restoring and getting everything just right. If you'd like to see some examples of the work that goes into certain pages, take a look at this special: http://www.outofprintarchive.com/articles/features/out-of-print/the_restoration_process.html
The last 5 examples are clickable and are animated gifs, comparing the untouched scans compared to the finished ones.
A more user-friendly, dedicated, official app with this stuff produced by Nintendo, that's something I'd pay money for right there.
They seem to have taken it down.
Looks like its been removed. Dang I bookmarked it for later use. I still have some of my old issues but they are past the millennium.
Why was it taken down? I'm glad I got the first 20 issues before it was removed, but I wanted a lot more of them.
@Hordak My guess is that those first 140 issues were distributed by Nintendo themselves which is why they had the rights to take them down. Not sure but if they had the Future US published versions of the NP magazine, maybe Nintendo would leave those alone as Nintendo had nothing to do with those.
Darn, just saw they were gone. This is why we can't have nice things.
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