Any old Ninento Power readers here?

[DanielMack]

Maybe I should have put this with my other thread. I remember reading this also. The Nintendo was always my favorite system. In fact, it still is. I used to read those magazines also.

[twiztor]

"Nintendo Power" IS video game magazines, as far as i'm concerned. in my later teen years, EGM was the other mag i'd always check out, but NP has always and will always be the epitome as far as i'm concerned. had a subscription for years.

[DanielMack]

I used to like EGM also. I used to go to the arcade and then to the news stand to pick up those magazines. Since they were both pretty close together back in the day.

Edited August 13, 2015 by DanielMack

[Leathco]

I read a LOT of Nintendo Power in it's early years. Loved the NES and SNES era mags/

[RetroDefense]

I read the magazine often during the 8-bit and 16-bit eras too - back when every issue was essentially a strategy guide. I read only occasionally during the N64 and Gamecube eras but became a regular reader again during its last few years.

[venz]

Nintendo power was one of the mags that for some reason i never subscribed to but would always buy in stores. Wasted a lot of money that way. Great magazine.

[EightiesNES37]

EGM and GamePro were cool and I would occasionally buy issues of both from the magazine racks, but this was by far my favorite gaming magazine. I had a subscription starting with issue eight. I always wanted to back order the original seven issues, but I never got around to it. I never owned any Sega systems and stuck with the NES and SNES before upgrading to a Playstation. Coming home from school and seeing the new issue sitting on my bed after the mailman delivered it was always really exciting. I loved this magazine and would pour over every issue several times. I stopped subscribing after I mothballed my NES and SNES and really started getting into Playstation. My parents moved the magazines down from my bedroom to the basement after I moved out. Then the basement flooded and the magazines were ruined. Finding them again on this site was really cool. I use them all the time while playing roms.

[RexRogers]

I think my first issue of NP was either the third or fourth issue. When I saw the commercials on TV for the mag I begged my parents to subscribe. I think I stopped getting new issues about half way through the snes life cycle. Just got bored with gaming for a while. Before that though I would read and read and reread each issue until I practically memorized them. Apparently I threw all those issues away which is a shame.

When the snes was first previewed in its pages it seemed amazing. The graphics seemed so colorful and detailed compared to the standard nes fare. Being a kid I never considered that they'd come out with a new updated system as technology advanced. Those were exciting times.

[Rstar1]

25 years later, I still like to browse through some of the early magazines.

[miketheratguy]

I used to read Nintendo Power religiously. It was my magazine of choice for five years.

It began when I got the premiere issue (the one with the clay Super Mario cover) in the mail since I'd been a subscriber to their "Fun Club" newsletter. I couldn't believe how jam-packed the magazine was. It covered The Legend of Zelda, Double Dragon, Gauntlet, the upcoming Super Mario Bros. 2...all classics. It was fun, it was colorful, it had tips and maps and pictures all over the place. It was a wealth of gaming goodness for a young Nintendo fan.

Back then the issues only came every two months so it was agonizing to wait weeks and weeks for each new issue, but the day when it finally showed up in the mail brought with it a sense of joy and excitement that made all the waiting worth it. The second issue explored Castlevania II in something like a dozen pages of glory. The fourth issue explored Zelda II. The fifth issue covered Ninja Gaiden. Issue six was about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By the end of the year we had cover stories about Mega Man 2, Duck Tales and Tetris. This wasn't just an awesome magazine about video games, it was an awesome magazine about arguably the best days of Nintendo.

While I got the first issue as part of their free mail-out promotion, the first official issue of the magazine that my subscription provided was March / April 1989, the 5th issue (the Ninja Gaiden one). I would renew my subscription seven more times, sometimes well before re-subscribing was necessary so I could capitalize on awesome deals like the free copy of Dragon Warrior (what an awesome reward for a first year anniversary) and the bonus strategy guides such as the NES Atlas and Super NES guide. Of course the magazine itself continued to be awesome, with the extensive coverage that announced Dragon Warrior's release as well as great new games like Mario 3, Castlevania III, Mega Man 3, Startropics, Maniac Mansion and Final Fantasy. These were awesome days to be a Nintendo fan.

By about 1991 or 1992, however, I began to grow out of the magazine. I was in my early teens at this point and started to wince when the covers of the magazine were plastered with cartoony images of Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, Lemmings, and Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt. The quality of the magazine was probably still about the same, most of the features that I loved still remained, but my gaming palate was simply expanding. I was playing more "hip" games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Toejam and Earl, and generally just growing past the age when a magazine about video games would fill me with wide-eyed wonder. I still enjoyed them, especially the issues that covered games that I really loved (Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter 2, Final Fantasy III, Super Metroid, etc.) but I no longer found them to be the indispensable treasure trove of joy to be pored over for an entire lost weekend. The fact that I now owned a Sega Genesis, as well as the fact that the magazine was more "adult", led me to start relying on Electronic Gaming Monthly much more as my magazine of choice.

But still, I managed to hang on to my love of Nintendo, and their flagship magazine, all the way until early 1996. The last issue that I remember getting in the mail was number 82, which featured the cutting-edge Super Mario RPG on the cover. It was an appropriate send-off to the magazine that began with the cutting-edge Super Mario Bros. 2, and I made sure to grab the very last issue of the publication that came out around the end of 2012. To this day I'm not interested in collecting all the issues of NP that were ever released. My digital collection stands at those 82 issues that represent such a huge, memorable, and just plain fun part of my childhood.

[x123]

Kind of funny because I went to my dads house a few weeks ago and he still has my old nintendo power magazines in a shelf in the living room. I should put them up for sale some day. I'm getting too old man.

[miketheratguy]

I know the feeling. Isn't it weird looking back on them as an adult? I've still got my original 82 issues (with the exception of one or two that got torn up or ruined). Most of them are in crappy condition though, as a kid I did a lot of doodling in them, tore out all the posters and inserts, stuff like that. I'm grateful for a site like this one which allows me to get digital replacements that are far more readable than my own.

[crillin]

I'm new to Retromags (as you can tell from the Newbie tag that will probably appear on this post lol) but I have always been a big Nintendo fan and I have successfully brought my son into the fold with Nintendo gaming, especially the classics. I wanted to show him the NP Magazines from back in the day and Retromags has been THE BEST source for this. I will hopefully track down some of the missing mags from the list and submit them (when possible) to help keep things alive.

[Zing]

I used to read Nintendo Power religiously. It was my magazine of choice for five years.

While I got the first issue as part of their free mail-out promotion, the first official issue of the magazine that my subscription provided was March / April 1989, the 5th issue (the Ninja Gaiden one). I would renew my subscription seven more times, sometimes well before re-subscribing was necessary so I could capitalize on awesome deals like the free copy of Dragon Warrior (what an awesome reward for a first year anniversary) and the bonus strategy guides such as the NES Atlas and Super NES guide. Of course the magazine itself continued to be awesome, with the extensive coverage that announced Dragon Warrior's release as well as great new games like Mario 3, Castlevania III, Mega Man 3, Startropics, Maniac Mansion and Final Fantasy. These were awesome days to be a Nintendo fan.

By about 1991 or 1992, however, I began to grow out of the magazine. I was in my early teens at this point and started to wince when the covers of the magazine were plastered with cartoony images of Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, Lemmings, and Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt. The quality of the magazine was probably still about the same, most of the features that I loved still remained, but my gaming palate was simply expanding. I was playing more "hip" games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Toejam and Earl, and generally just growing past the age when a magazine about video games would fill me with wide-eyed wonder. I still enjoyed them, especially the issues that covered games that I really loved (Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter 2, Final Fantasy III, Super Metroid, etc.) but I no longer found them to be the indispensable treasure trove of joy to be pored over for an entire lost weekend. The fact that I now owned a Sega Genesis, as well as the fact that the magazine was more "adult", led me to start relying on Electronic Gaming Monthly much more as my magazine of choice.

My story is similar. I subscribed immediately upon receipt of the free issue #1, and my first subscription issue was also #5. Needless to say, I ordered the first four issues ASAP. By 1993, my interest in video games had temporarily waned (was too busy playing Magic the Gathering and getting drunk), so my last issue was, I believe, #44 (Mickeys Magical Quest). I had all of those issues until my mother moved and threw them away.

This is the magazine that initially brought me to retromagz many years ago. I had found the NP issues on Usenet and they were labelled as retromagz. I have since read the first 100 issues again. I donated to this site to repay everyone for the time spent making this possible.

[kitsunebi]

As a kid, NP was great since there were so many screenshots and maps that even though I couldn't afford to actually BUY the games, I could play them in my imagination (sad but true). Once I was old enough to buy my own games, reviews became the most important part of game magazines to me, so I left NP behind, as I never found their reviews to be worthwhile.

[miketheratguy]

My story is similar. I subscribed immediately upon receipt of the free issue #1, and my first subscription issue was also #5. Needless to say, I ordered the first four issues ASAP. By 1993, my interest in video games had temporarily waned (was too busy playing Magic the Gathering and getting drunk), so my last issue was, I believe, #44 (Mickeys Magical Quest). I had all of those issues until my mother moved and threw them away.

This is the magazine that initially brought me to retromagz many years ago. I had found the NP issues on Usenet and they were labelled as retromagz. I have since read the first 100 issues again. I donated to this site to repay everyone for the time spent making this possible.

That's awesome that number 5 was your first issue as well. Makes me feel better knowing that I wasn't the only person who was sitting there for months, waiting to finally get his first copy.

To be fair, while I continued my subscription past 1993, I definitely recall feeling a bit embarrassed by the magazine right around that time. There was a stretch that year when the issues had particularly kiddie covers - Mickey Mouse, the Road Runner, Puggsley's Scavenger Hunt, etc. - that made me feel less like I was carrying around around a video game magazine and more like I was going around with copies of "Children's Favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons". That kind of thing is near-fatal in junior high, regardless of how good the games may or may not have been.

So Idunno. In that odd year between Street Fighter and "Play It Loud", maybe the magazine's own content helped to turn you off. Despite sticking it through, I know that it did for me.

[RobertDuncan]

Loved reading them during the era of fighting games.

[pablumatic]

I subscribed to Nintendo Power up until the Nintendo 64 era. Early issues of Nintendo Power were great. That was when Nintendo had every game I wanted to play.

Basically as soon as Sony swept up third parties with the Playstation I began to lose interest in Nintendo Power's more first-party focus content.

[mcavacini]

I love Nintendo Power and look forward to checking out a bunch of issues on here soon.

[shadefaster]

My older brothers had nintendo power magazines but at the time I didn't know how to read so I'd just look at the pictures, but with this website I finally get a chance to read them.

[CastleVanity]

I couldn't get immersed into Nintendo Power. I mean it had great materials to entertain but i was stuck on EGM.

[bostonpops]

I had subscriptions to Nintendo Power, GamePro, and EGM from January 1992 through 1994 and even though it was a blast to read, I was constantly reminded that Nintendo Power was PURE propaganda that essentially functioned as a way for Nintendo to shove its products down the throats of unsuspecting young boys.  I kept the subscription for the three years, but weighed it against the other information I was getting from GamePro and EGM; magazines that covered the broad spectrum of gaming without skewing their coverage or favoring one brand over another.  In 1992, I bought a Sega Genesis in anticipation of the Sega CD, but up until that point my gaming experiences had been solely Nintendo-based.

[Alex1]

I own most of the 100 first issues. In generally good condition. I also remember catching some flack during the high school years as me and a bunch of geek friends used to discuss particulars of games in the mag. The cooler kids would definitely dissaprove. But we didn't care. So even Mickey dressed as a fireman went to school with me. Haha.

[RYNO]

I had every issue up until 2008. My garage was struck my Lightning and burned it all down to the ground, needless to say I was/still am pretty devastated about it. Luckily that morning before I had moved every Transformer out of said garage to catalogue my collection. I wish I had done the same with all my Nintendo Power and EGM, and GamePro mags. :(

[tedart]

Like others have said, Nintendo Power and EGM. Those were the two for me. There were others, like Gamepro, but those were the main two.