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Nintendo Power Issue 1 Review: It All Started Here

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Nintendo Power's first issue was released for free to certain fan club members and in stores July of 1988. At the time Nintendo was gaining more and more traction as a pretty big household staple and to further it's reach they decided to start one of the greatest things to happen to the late 80's and 90's, Nintendo Power magazine. I first read this issue at my cousins house and immediately wanted a subscription. Nintendo Power was filled to the brim with comics, news and tips for all the games I loved. I have recently started re-reading them and decided to review them as I have time.

Nintendo Power issue 1 contained some of the best art on a magazine cover I can think... Read All Nintendo Power's first issue was released for free to certain fan club members and in stores July of 1988. At the time Nintendo was gaining more and more traction as a pretty big household staple and to further it's reach they decided to start one of the greatest things to happen to the late 80's and 90's, Nintendo Power magazine. I first read this issue at my cousins house and immediately wanted a subscription. Nintendo Power was filled to the brim with comics, news and tips for all the games I loved. I have recently started re-reading them and decided to review them as I have time.

Nintendo Power issue 1 contained some of the best art on a magazine cover I can think of. Featuring a clay scene of Super Mario Brothers 2, Nintendo Power issue 1 contains 20 pages of Mario 2 walkthrough magic. This issue also features a really interesting walkthrough for most of The Legend of Zelda second quest. The Zelda second quest walkthrough doesn't cover the last few levels of the game but follows up with the remaining information in issue 2.

Compared to a modern magazine, Nintendo Power is pretty big considering issue 1 shipped as 113 pages.

Nintendo Power featured a fold out poster in each issue and I enjoyed putting the cool ones up on my wall. This issue shipped with a poster for Super Bases Loaded which ranks it pretty high in terms of the most lame posters featured in Nintendo Power.

Counselors Corner has tips for a few released NES games such as Metroid, Ghosts and Goblins and Super Mario Brothers. I am curious how well known certain video game secrets were before Nintendo Power published them. The infamous Super Mario Brothers 1-up trick is featured in this issue but I remember first hearing about it from a friend.

One staple that I loved was the Howard and Nester comics. Howard was the comic character from the real life Howard Phillips, spokesman for Nintendo at the time. I am not sure if Nester was based on any real life person, but he was always snarky and fairly prone to doing dumb stuff. I always enjoyed reading each comic even though they don't hold up as well as my memory of them.

Issue 1 goes on to drop the classic Konami code for Contra and provides information and walkthroughs for Gauntlet, Double Dragon, Contra & Jeopardy. The last bits of the magazine feature some interesting fan letters and the Top 30, a list of the most popular NES games. As issue 1 shipped, the top 5 NES games were The Legend of Zelda, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Metroid, Super Mario Brothers & Kid Icarus. As Nintendo Power continued on and other games launched this list changed a bit, but Zelda was nearly always at the top of this list even after the Super Nintendo launched.

At the time this issue shipped an entire year of Nintendo Power cost $15. This seems like a steal now but at the time was something I didn't have an easy time doing. That said, it didn't stop me from reading as many issues as I could get my hands on.

Fish Plays Pokemon

"Hi everyone! Welcome to our stream where our fish, Grayson Hopper, plays a Pokemon game. Unfortunately, we don't have a dedicated light for Grayson at night as he lives in a tiny dorm room and we would rather not sleep with the light on. :( But in the future we will be getting him a dedicated lamp and improving the quality of the stream to include recent inputs determined by the motion tracking. Things can move a little slow, so another option we're considering is making the system distributed where we have a site where you can provide a fish stream link and we'll include it in the controlling."

Some people hooked up a webcam to a fishbowl and based on which parts the... Read All

Below Gameplay Trailer Surfaces Teases Immense Boss Fights

"Below is an adventure game viewed from a top down perspective. You are a tiny warrior exploring the depths of a remote island. The game is about exploration, though that goal is contingent upon the character's survival in a world where there is brutal combat and permanent death."

If I was excited for the release of Below, I am now even more excited-er(I realize that is not, in fact a word). At first I didn't quite understand why the game featured the main character being so small, but seeing the gameplay I see now how it works. Zooming so far out allows more scenery on the screen as well as gives the designers the ability to make for some HUGE boss fights. That and... Read All

More Story Details From Stardew Valley Surface

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Stardew Valley is one of my most anticipated games of the year and I am happy with each bit of news that comes out about it. Recently, some really interesting information surfaced about the games main story. The main character is from Pelican Town and has the option to restore the old Community Center.

"This building was once the heart and soul of Pelican Town… a place for citizens to gather, socialize, and collaborate. But that was long ago, In a bygone age when the valley was more isolated from the outside world. Now, the community center is in shambles, a forgotten relic of the past…

The community center is divided into six areas… the Pantry, the Art Studio, the Fish... Read All

Binding Of Isaac Rebirth First Look Beta Video

In a recent update, Edmund McMillen posted the following update about The Binding of Isaac Rebirth.

"the closer we get to release the less i want to spoil.. but i did promise you a video.. so here is the 1st vid of rebirth in its near final state. we are still tweaking things visually and the game is missing a few sound effects but this is basically what you will be getting on release."

The Binding of Isaac Rebirth aims to fix some long standing problems with the original Binding of Isaac, namely in the performance of the original flash version. Rebirth also adds a SNES-like pixel aesthetic, something I quite like. If you have a copy of the original game, there will be... Read All

My Name Is Max, My World Is Fire And Blood

"Oscar-winning filmmaker George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” revisits his own post-apocalyptic trilogy featuring the anti-hero known as Mad Max. Tom Hardy stars in the role of Max Rockatansky, alongside Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley."

As someone that grew up loving Mad Max I was delighted to watch the new Mad Max: Fury Road trailer. It mixes the right amount of post-apocalyptic biker punk ascetic with the dry wasteland vibe we've come to love seeing in games like Fallout 3. That said, Mad Max did all of it first and the original director of the series, George Miller is back with a new saga... Read All

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will release on Linux

Earlier in the week, Take-Two's financials were leaked, which showed Linux as a platform for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. IGN has reached out to Take-Two for confimation, and they got it. This is the biggest non-Valve game that I'm aware of to be confirmed for Linux since the OS started gaining traction on Steam. This is definitely good news for Linux users, and I can't wait to try it out.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/06/borderlands-the-pre-sequel-coming-to-linux

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/07/2014 at 05:48pm

Damn. That's awesome.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/08/2014 at 10:25pm

Are you guys getting all the recent Shift codes?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/08/2014 at 10:26pm

http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/community/articles/1203/borderlands-2-pre-sequel-inspired-heads-and-skins-shift-codes

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/08/2014 at 10:27pm

Awesome. I'm gonna nab those for sure, thanks scrypt.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/09/2014 at 12:55am

I've missed a couple that have expired. I need to check back in on them and see if they've given new ones for the ones I missed.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/09/2014 at 01:29am

They aren't expired. I just entered them an hour ago. Unless they expired within the hour.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/09/2014 at 01:30am

These are specifically for pre-sequel skins.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/09/2014 at 03:18am

I know, I'm talking about one from a couple of weeks back.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/09/2014 at 03:19am

http://orcz.com/Borderlands_2:_Golden_Key

Check the bottom, this shows which ones are expired.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/09/2014 at 03:54am

I guess what I'm saying is that all the codes from the link that I posted were active when I posted them a few hours ago :)

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/09/2014 at 04:31am

Ah, I thought that was just talking about them doing it, not actually providing codes. You have to type them in? I hope orcz has them in copy/pastable plain text :)

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/09/2014 at 02:39pm

OMGTYPETHEMIN!! ;)

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/11/2014 at 04:22am

Ok so there have been 3 released so far and I was able to redeem them all.

Thanks scrypt!

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/11/2014 at 04:22am

Err, 4. 4 have been released.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 10/13/2014 at 07:11pm

Don't mean to necrobump, but the game is pre-loading for Linux. I'm hoping it unlocks at Midnight.

Well, actually I'm kinda hoping it doesn't. I'm old and I need my sleep. :)

jdodson Admin wrote on 10/13/2014 at 11:08pm

Nah man, necro away.

A triple-a day one on Linux is really great and I believe, this is the first one. Let me know how it plays, I am still making my way through Borderlands 2 so I haven't pre-ordered the pre-sequel yet.

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Crawl Released, Allows You To Brutally Murder Your Friends

If you are interested in picking up a unique Indie couch co-op game where you can spend time killing your friends, you need to check out Crawl. Not only does the game sport a really unique pixel art look, it also comes with one of the coolest launch trailers in recent memory.

Crawl is available right now on Steam & The Humble Store for Linux, Mac and PC.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store
http://store.steampowered.com/app/293780

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable: S2 E11 The Rise of Game Streaming

In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about the latest video game craze, Video Game Streaming. We talk about Let's Plays, E-Sports streaming & the recent Twitch.tv acquisition by Google for a cool Billion. This episode features Portland Indie Game Squad's (PIGSquad) Will Lewis as he live streams the show on the new PIGSquad Twitch.tv channel.

http://www.twitch.tv/pigsquad
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/24/5934695/google-buying-twitch-youtube
http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/update-changes-to-vods-on-twitch/

What do you think about video game streaming and Google's recent acquisition of Twitch.tv?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/07/2014 at 04:05pm

One thing we didn't touch on (or I totally wasn't paying attention) is the advent of Twitch Plays, and what that means for both games and the streaming of them. It's a brilliant use of the technology, though I don't know how practical it is. With services like Twitch, the primary pull, outside of watching a stream, is being able to interact with a streamer, as well as the rest of the audience. In Twitch Plays, it seems that there is less room to interact with each other, as everyone is focused on getting the character in play to do their bidding.

Also interesting, that DMCA enforcement that we expected is here, and quite jarring:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/thousands-of-twitch-videos-silenced-as-streaming-site-mutes-copyrighted-audio/

I think it's worth pointing out that Twitch has had these guidelines in place prior to the Google buyout, they just put the onus on the copyright owner to take action. (http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/questions/987917-playing-music-in-stream)

Now, it seems that Google is nipping any future lawsuits in the bud; it's a move to CYA. This is only affecting archived streams, for the moment, but I'm sure that Google is hard at work to figure a way to mute live streams, as well.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 08/07/2014 at 04:55pm

Ha, I was just coming over to post about twitch muting videos with copyrighted audio. Looks like you beat me to it Scrypt! I'll still share my link though: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2014/08/07/twitch-muting-video-contains-copyrighted-audio

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/08/2014 at 07:01pm

Reddit AMA with Twitch CEO Emmett Shear: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2cwfu2/i_am_twitch_ceo_emmett_shear_ask_me_almost/

Via Joystiq, it is pointed out that the muting of in-game musics is a "mistake". "We have zero intention of flagging original in-game music." Shear says.

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More Skullduggery Gameplay Footage + PAX News

A few months ago I dropped the release trailer for the local Portland developer ClutchPlay's game, Skullduggery. Skullduggery is a mobile game where you play a tax collector for the underworld. This new gameplay footage trailer shows off how the basic game functions as well as more advanced moves like head-shots. The game is uniquely disturbing as you use your brain like a rubber band to rocket the skull around the screen to collect coins and accomplish goals.

Skullduggery was one of the PAX 10 selected for this years PAX Prime, which is pretty awesome so if you talk to anyone from ClutchPlay make sure to congratulate them.

http://departmentofskullduggery.com/
... Read All