CAMPAIGN HUB: Operation Power Up - Before the Power!

In 1987 Nintendo marketed a fan club known as The “Nintendo Fun Club.” It was a free club and those who join received a free subscription of “Nintendo Fun Club News.” “Nintendo Fun Club News” was a quarterly (and soon later a bi-monthly) newsletter created by Howard Philips. It contained news on the latest and upcoming Nintendo games and accessories as well as tips and tricks for games, and information regarding Nintendo fans all across America.

Let’s travel back to the 1980s for a quick retrospective on the Nintendo Fun Club News!

The first volume of Nintendo Fun Club News features Super Mario Bros on the cover. This issue was only 6 pages long. There’s also coverage of the “Super Mario-A-Thon” in which fans and celebrities participated in Super Mario Bros for prizes and help raise money for the Scott Newman Foundation. (A young Wil Wheaton can be spotted there!) There’s also a sneak preview of Pro Wrestling and Slalmon coming this 1987!

The second volume of Nintendo Fun Club News features The Legend of Zelda. There’s coverage on the NES Advantage. There’s a sneak preview of Gunpei Yokoi’s classics, Metroid and Kid Icarus. There’s a scoreboard from people submitting their best scores in Super Mario Bros. It also features a list of 3rd party games that were licensed by Nintendo for the NES.

The third volume of Nintendo Fun Club News went through a drastic change. The first two issues were published as a newsletter while volumes 3 – 7 were published in more of a magazine format. More content was added to the news letter such as colorful ads for 3rd party Nintendo games and screenshots of games! The cover features The Legend of Zelda once again, and the newsletter contains a full map of Hyrule. The newsletter also has a sneak preview for Punch-Out!!, Rad Racer, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link as well as reviews for Metroid and Kid Icarus.

Volume 4 of Nintendo Fun Club News features Mike Tyson on the cover with a feature article on “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” as well as an article on Mike Tyson. There’s a review for Rad Racer as well as an offer for free 3D glasses. Also there’s a sneak preview for Zelda 2, Pro Am Racing (what R.C. PRO-AM was called at the time), and Dragon Warrior (what Dragon Quest was originally called in the US.) Most importantly there’s a sweet Zelda related rap by David.

Sincerely, this is awesome. — Sincerely, this awesome.

Volume 5 features R.C. PRO-AM on the cover and a feature article of the game. This volume also features a full article of the game Ice Hockey and sneak previews of the following games; Zelda II, Super Mario Bros 2, U.S. Golf, and the later scraped or renamed game “Return of Donkey Kong.” Furthermore there’s an article covering the Goonies II game and tips on Mike Tyson’s “Punch-Out!!”. There’s an introduction for the NES MAX controller. Also, most importantly, this issue has the debut of the best Samus Aran costume ever.

Volume 6 features Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on the cover and a feature article of the game. It also features tips and tricks for The Legend of Zelda: 2nd Quest and Punch-Out!!. More details for Super Mario Bros 2 and U.S. Golf. A nice article for Double Dragon is featured in the newsletter as well Metroid fan art for a Metroid fan art contest.

Volume 7 was the last volume of Nintendo Fun Club News. The cover features several sports games for the NES during the year 1988. The newsletter contained articles covering the NES Sports games, Wizards and Warriors and some tips for Metroid. Furthermore it contains more information of Super Mario Bros 2 and of course, a sneak preview of the new magazine, Nintendo Power.

For those Nintendo fans who want a Nintendo centric newsletter, you can sign up to get Nintendo of America newsletter, here.

Check out the continuation of our editorial, “After the Power“.

For those new to Operation: Power Up, we’re a group of dedicated fans persuading Nintendo of America to bring back Nintendo Power as a digital publication and or a website. With fan publications such as Pure Nintendo and Nintendo Force, as well as the UK’s magazine, Official Nintendo Magazine, shows that there’s still a market for a dedicated Nintendo publication. Our mission is simple; we want to get back the Power, Nintendo Power!

See you next mission!