Nintendo Power

Did I mention that I own every issue of Nintendo Power?  I guess I forgot to mention that.

I was a continuous subscriber since Volume 52 (the Super Mario All-Stars issue), although my subscription temporarily lapsed around 2009 for some reason.  I think Future US forgot to inform me to renew or something.  But oh boy did I love that magazine.

Although I had seen Nintendo Power in the late '80s/early '90s, I never asked my parents to get it for me.  Then I came home from school one day to find the Super Mario All-Stars issue sitting on a table.  I was told I could read it once I finished my homework.  I quickly became addicted to the magazine and eagerly awaited each new issue.  Magazines were just plain fun to read and Nintendo Power was how I got my gaming news for the longest time.

You could actually back order the old Nintendo Power issues in huge batches for several years (there was an order form in the back of the magazine), but sometime in the '90s Nintendo ran of stock of their old issues, so I wasn't able to take advantage of that in time (kids don't have a lot of money, of course).

Around 2000 or so I acquired all the remaining issues (1-51) off ebay in some massive batches.  They were dirt cheap back then (it was amazing that they had no resale value) and in excellent condition.  I had to buy issues 1 and 2 separate though. 

I managed to pick up an excellent condition first issue for maybe $20 at most - with the poster and all the inserts intact.  Issue 2 was much cheaper.  Those days are now long gone and the prices have spiked due to increased game collecting and Nintendo Power ceasing publication.

All of my issues have their posters intact, and many still have the detachable inserts.  My earlier original issues (around volume 52 or so) had the posters cut out so I had to replace those.  But my issues from about Volume 60 forward are originally mine.

Anyway, I keep all the magazines stored in the closet in two huge boxes.  This one holds the earlier issues and a bunch of Player's Guides:

This other, smaller box holds that last bunch of issues and some more recent guides from Prima:

Here is just one stack of magazines from the large box (spread out into smaller stacks):

Here's a neat photo.  The first and last issues, side by side:

And the backsides:

For those aren't too familiar with the magazine, Nintendo included fold-out posters in the earlier issues, but they didn't detach easily at all.  They were part of the magazine itself and had to be cut out (which sucked).

This is the fold-out poster for the first issue:

Nintendo Power printed regular pages on the other side of the poster, so if you cut them out, you literally ripped out standard pages with guides/maps on them.  Not good.

Here's the backside of the first issue's poster:

Earlier issues also had neat contests that you could enter.  Nintendo would enter you in that issue's sweepstakes if you mailed in the accompanying postcard voting for your favorite games and whatnot (that's how the magazine gathered votes for the monthly Player's Poll games charts).

Here's the intact postcard from the first issue:

Here's the intact subscription card from the first issue (Nintendo gave away the first issue to get people to subscribe):

Here are some of the other early issues (Volumes 2 and 3 pictured here):

And here are Volumes 4, 5 and 6:

I won't post every issue since that would take too long, but I figured I should at least show off some of the earlier ones.

I also own several Player's Guides, so I may get around to posting those as well.

Super Double Dragon

I own quite a few video game posters (since they were included with so many 8-bit and 16-bit games), but somehow I forgot to post my favorite poster from my collection. 

This one managed to slip my mind.  It's sitting in my closet, stored safely in a cheap (but handy) frame.

I got this Super Double Dragon poster off ebay back around 2000.  I probably paid $20 at most.  This thing is huge.  Too big, in fact, to fit into a standard SNES game box.  So I have no idea where this poster originated.

There's also some printing on the backside.

If anyone knows where this poster came from, I'd love to hear about it.

New Desk

Everyone needs a good desk.  My old one was nice, but the PC wouldn't fit in the designated spot (since it's a larger, custom-built computer, unlike my prior HP).  So I had to put the computer directly on the carpet, which I didn't like.

I finally found a new desk that could get the computer off the floor and provide a similar style to the last desk.  This one is darker too (almost black), so it fits my black motif much better.  It took me three hours to assemble, but I enjoy doing that stuff.

Cables are everything

For a little while I had noticed that some of my SNES captures would have clearly visible diagonal lines running through them.  Others didn't.  I thought that perhaps it was an interlacing issue (capture cards pick up 240p signals as 480i, even if you're recording directly from the console), but it turns out I was wrong.

The problem was the cables.  I was using cheap third-party cables that I had picked up off eBay.  So I did a quick search and found the official S-video cable from Nintendo for the SNES/N64/GameCube.  It wasn't cheap.  I had to fork over $50 to a seller in Japan, but I got the box and a pristine set of cables.

Unlike the cheap third-party cables I was using, the official cables don't have a composite plug on them.  It's S-video only, and I hear that's higher quality than having a cable with both composite and S-video connectors.

These cables were apparently only sold in Japan.  However, I recall seeing an order form in the Super Nintendo instruction manual where you could order these cables straight from Nintendo.  So Nintendo must have sold these directly to consumers in the U.S. and not to retailers.

I've already run some tests and the quality is incredible.  No more diagonal lines.  All of my future SNES and N64 uploads will use these cables and I'll be uploading new playthroughs of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Metroid.  I also wouldn't mind redoing the Super Scope 6 footage.

Oh, somehow I forgot to post this.  I got these games some time last year (I think toward the beginning/middle of the year):

I'd love to do some two-player playthroughs, but considering their difficulty, I don't know if that will be possible.  We'll see though.

I love new old stock

If developers are going to continue to try to shove clunky dual analog controls and Call of Duty clones down my throat, then screw them, I won't buy any new shooters.  Instead, I'll buy old ones, like this!

There's nothing like getting a brand new old game.  It's wonderful.  Only $40 too!  You can't really tell from that picture, but the logo is actually embossed.

Back when this game came out Nintendo Power ran a review in which they said it was a real shame that the game would undoubtedly get overshadowed by Perfect Dark.  Unfortunately, they were right.

Well, I can rectify that problem for myself by playing this for the first time.  I hope to get some four-player action going.

More shooters

I decided to pick up some more old school shooters.

Operation Wolf and Operation Thunderbolt were arcade games that were ported to the NES and SNES.  Both games have light gun support (since the arcade cabinets had positional guns), so that's why I picked them up.  Operation Thunderbolt is one of only two SNES games that supported both the Super Scope and Mouse simultaneously (T2: The Arcade Game was the other one).  Expect an upload in the near future.

I tried a little bit of Quake II so far.  I really like the graphics, especially with the Expansion Pak.  This one looks to actually be more fun than the first Quake, which I still need to finish.  Oh how I missed out on N64 shooters back in the day.  Stupid me, I thought Perfect Dark was all I needed.

Even more new purchases

After a long time I finally decided to pick up an SNES Mouse, as well as a few old school FPS games.

The Mouse wasn't sold by itself in America (it apparently was in Europe though), so I had to buy a copy of Mario Paint if I wanted to get a Mouse brand new.  That box may look a little beaten up, but the contents inside were untouched and still wrapped in their plastic bags.  Oh, and it has its original price tag as well. 

I had thought about picking up Doom 64 for quite a while, but after Keet picked up his own copy, I knew I had to get one too.  There are a lot of classic FPS ports that I never paid attention to as a kid.  My only real console FPS experience during the N64 era was Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and a little bit of Turok.  Aside from that I didn't real bother with other shooters, and that's a real shame.  But I can certainly catch up now.  I'll be picking up more shooters for sure.

Wolfenstein was a game I never noticed or thought about getting on the SNES.  I never even knew there was an SNES port.  But when I went looking for games that support the Super NES Mouse, I saw Wolfenstein on the list and decided instantly that I had to get the game.  It turns out the Mouse works great with it.  I'll have a playthrough uploaded soon enough.

With all these new SNES and N64 games, I've been running out of space in my game storage drawers that I showed before.  So I decided to pick up another one of the drawers, except this time it's the larger 24-game model.  I got the box too.  That was helpful since I use these larger boxes to store all my games boxes and keep them safe.

I forgot to take a picture of this before, but I picked up another DVD tower for when my current one gets full (it's really close).  I found the same model dirt cheap at K-Mart and decided to pick it up just in case it gets discontinued.  I really like these things because they swivel and you can put your controllers on top of them.  Of course I'll have to assemble it when the time comes, but I actually enjoy that.

One of my Youtube subscribers asked about the CRT TV and the new Toshiba DVD Recorder that I'm using to upconvert old consoles for use on the Hauppauge HD PVR.  Here they are stuck in the corner to the left of the HDTV.