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Last issue of Nintendo Power available now, founders look back
The last issue of Nintendo Power is on newsstands today, giving you one final trip into the magazine that kickstarted many a Mario and Zelda obsession. To commemorate the occasion, Gamasutra has a nice feature up with the magazine's founders looking back on its history.According to one of the founders, Howard Philips, the original draw of Nintendo Power wasn't the game news or the features; back then, it was the maps and the gameplay tips that really drew readers in. "I'm just gaga over it now," he remembers, "thinking of how fun it was to pull out a map of Zelda and see the entire world, and be able to go through it with your fingertip and then say, 'Okay, there's where you can burn that tree,' or push that rock, or whatever. It was so cool. Getting that in the hands of kids was – from my perspective – the real big win that we were after." Considering the industry's own thoughts on Nintendo Power and its legacy, there are probably a lot of readers out there who agree.
The NES before it was the NES (and the knitting machine that almost was)
Before the Famicom became the Nintendo Entertainment system, Nintendo of America had plans to launch it as the "Advanced Video System," a totally different looking device with weird, weird peripherals. And before Howard Phillips was the bow-tied foil to Nester in Nintendo Power comics, he was a real Nintendo executive trying to sell the "AVS" to retailers."Gamemaster Howard" posted a vintage brochure on Facebook, full of hypothetical, prototyped AVS designs that never made it to market. Some of this stuff is on display in the Nintendo World Store, but now you can see it as Nintendo wanted it to be seen back in early 1985, complete with pompous ad copy and absurd peripherals – and the weird wireless controller with the square D-pad. "Glad we punted on both the design (not as comfortable or as precise as the D-pad) and the IR (inconsistent performance) for the NES controllers (best controller ever designed?)," Phillips noted in a Facebook comment.Phillips also posted an ad for an unreleased NES peripheral from 1987 – a knitting machine that interfaced with the system for its designs. "Mr. A (Arakawa) [Nintendo of America president at the time] asked me with just 30 minutes notice to give Toys R Us Chairman Charles Lazarus a live demo," Phillips said. "Likely one of my least genuinely enthusiastic demos." See that gloriously Nintendo-centric ad after the break.
Nintendo icon Howard Phillips joins Epic-owned Chair Entertainment
Undertow developer Chair Entertainment has hired Howard Phillips as its new Studio Director. Phillips is best known for his time at Nintendo, during which he became a spokesman for the company and the star of Nintendo Power's "Howard & Nester" comic strip. Since then, he has worked at LucasArts, THQ, and Microsoft. "Howard has a remarkable history in the video game industry, and we expect the talent at Chair Entertainment to thrive under his leadership," said Michael Capps, president of Chair owner Epic. Chair is currently working on games based on Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Empire: Alpha Complex.
Promotional Consideration: Nester's return
This month's 20th anniversary issue of Nintendo Power seemed to leave everyone's head spinning with its exclusive Wii news, Mega Man 9 and Castlevania Judgment, so much so, that hardly anyone noticed the magazine's other big item: a new Nester comic!A lot has happened since we last saw him over a decade ago -- apparently, he now has a Wii, a wife, and ... a son?! Bring your memories of the smart aleck character past the post break for Nester's return!
