Nintendo Power is an iconic part of Nintendo history, and gaming history generally. Its 24-year, 285-issue run spanned multiple generations of gamers, and helped us finish tough games played on systems from the OG NES to the Wii U. Many of us have fond memories of flipping through it, but didn’t have the forethought to save them (or hide them from our decluttering parents before heading off to college). But that’s OK, because in another reminder there’s no better cure for nostalgia pangs than the internet, every issue is available to download right now.
As reported by Nintendo Life, a group of archivists have been working on a project dubbed “Retromags,” an endeavor to upload retro magazines to the internet for fans to peruse and reminisce. Nintendo Power is the latest magazine the archivists have targeted and finished uploading. Now, you can download each and every one of those 285 issues to your computer to enjoy at your leisure.
One user, Gumball, even added the entire collection to Archive.org. They note that there isn’t one site or location on the internet where you could download and view all issues of Nintendo Power, rather they were scattered, forcing you to jump from site to site to find the issues you wanted. But this move changes things: Now, you can easily save the entire 40GB collection to your computer—either issue by issue, or all in one big batch. What a time to be alive.
These issues are stored as cbr (comic book reader) files, which can’t be read using a standard image viewer. You’ll need to download a comic book reader to open them. You can try something like Simple Comic on Mac or iPhone, or CDisplayEX on Windows or Android.
Be warned, though: The downloads are temperamental. I’ve had plenty go belly up halfway through, forcing me to start again. I’m not sure if that’s because there are a lot of people trying to download these files at once, but it’s something to consider if you are prone to becoming unusually irritated when you are slightly inconvenienced while taking advantage of free resources.
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Another thing worth considering: We don’t know how long this collection will stay online. Nintendo is famous for siccing its legal team anything it doesn’t like, from fan-made versions of its games to YouTube videos including its original soundtracks. It’s possible the company will leave this project alone, but just in case, try to grab them as soon as possible.
By the way, Nintendo Power isn’t actually dead. Well, the magazine is. But the name lives on as an official Nintendo podcast. There have been 54 episodes since its launch in 2017, so give it a listen if you’re missing that Official Nintendo Seal of Quality flavor in your media diet.
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