Nintendo Power - Nintendo's Biggest Failure

[@MaestroDrake]

And to think, the Nintendo Power was never featured in an issue of Nintendo Power.

[@grizzlywhisker]

I know Japan had a different version of Nintendo Power magazine (maybe called Nintendo Dream?) But I think it started way later than our Nintendo Power that started in the 80's, maybe they had stuff in Nintendo's Japanese magazine about it. Since it sold poorly in Japan they probably decided not to bother trying it in America. 🤷‍♂

That's because NPJP was never brought to the US, and NPUS was never brought to Japan

[@corronchilejano]

I was about to say that it had, but I read about it in a different Nintendo magazine. Club Nintendo in South America, I think it wasn't related.

[@CharlesWorkPPL]

I'm almost certain there was a blurb about it somewhere.

[@grizzlywhisker]

@@CharlesWorkPPL I had a subscription to Nintendo Power from something like 1990 to 2006 and I don’t remember ever seeing it.

[@Minty_Meeo]

I can't believe Nintendo kept the mail-in service alive for so long that it can be mentioned in the same breath as the *Wii Shop Channel*. The point that the Wii Shop channel is the successor to Nintendo Power is very poignant, those people at Nintendo have a vision and they are hell-bent on making it a reality.

[@sithlordmikeyp]

Pikmin

[@Minty_Meeo]

Peakmin

[@thatonefpsgamer1339]

Nintendo was bumped to third place in the console wars for a reason. Their incompetence

[@PikaPhantomVG]

How many people are gonna think this video is about the magazine lol

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

I’m banking on it.

[@AnamonatorLive]

@@PikaPhantomVG at first I thought is was the magazine

[@truetakofame4112]

Here, here.

[@Maceyoshiman]

That's what made me click

[@Airgearzx]

I did

[@knuclear200x]

I miss physical experiences at stores like the Snap station, those big demo displays, DS wireless and Spot Pass. Also had no idea "used games" were a problem, i was just more excited about the "new" concept in general

[@arostwocents]

Used games have always been a "problem" but it's hard to say how many of those buyers could have afforded a new game. Until the modern day when used games cost the same as new ones.

[@parrata]

It's something that has been always lobbied against by software distributors. If you read the legal disclaimer in Spectrum or C64 cassettes, some companies explicitly reserved the rights to exchange games or resell physical games. Of course, that had no legal value anywhere, but their position was still declared.

[@JoePianist]

I consider myself well versed in video game history, but I’ve never heard of THIS kind of Nintendo Power before!

[@fco64]

Same

[@lukescott3826]

Came to comment the exact same thing

[@sebastienr7852]

I had

[@ihatezgoogle6264]

Now you’re playing with it…power that is

[@RealRomplayer]

Well, I was aware of those white cartridges with numbers from 1 to 7 printed on them, but I never heard the term Nintendo Power (except for the US magazine) before and everything else in this video was also mostly new to me.

[@AtomicFolly]

This explains why Nintendo was so hesitant when dlc and digital games were becoming more of a thing. History is fun.

[@therealjaystone2344]

Live service renting too

[@pokemonduck]

I mean this is completely different and Nintendo launched the Wii with the WiiShop so not really

[@dansmith1661]

And making a good User Interface.

[@AtomicFolly]

@@pokemonduck you're probably to young to remember but when dlc and digital games were being pushed by Microsoft and Sony on their consoles Nintendo was weirdly hesitant even going as far as saying they would rather focus on making a complete game than relying on dlc. Even their early online store and services were lacking way behind where Sony and Microsoft were at.

[@eclipseRz]

@@AtomicFollyif their channel is 17 years old, they must’ve been one clever fetus

[@k-dawg7867]

Oh so THIS is the Nintendo Power referenced when talking about Fire Emblem 5's original release. Neat

Howard and Nester had nothing to do with nothing.

[@Ultimate_Charizard]

So the machine had a slot for the cartridge, but you had to print out a receipt to take to the counter where the cashier would put your cartridge in a separate machine and there actually download the game? ...Why?

[@DJIVision]

Yeah the Loppi was basically just an interface, the actual Game Writer was behind the counter with the Lawson clerk. It might have been a logistical issue with the machine, like not enough internal space (because Loppi wasn't only for games), or maybe they didn't want gamers hogging the Loppi while it was writing games for several minutes, while someone lined up behind them had to wait to buy train tickets or whatever. But yeah, regardless of the reason, it was pretty clunky, and just letting folks get the game right from the Loppi would've a lot more smoother.

[@RAHelllord]

Chances are it had to do with a mix of theft protection (no access to the CD containing all the roms to customers where the clerk might not see it), and having someone trained double check that the kid didn't accidentally delete anything improperly. As this was also aimed at kids the latter one in particularly made sense, you wouldn't want to start drama with your main target audience.

[@DJIVision]

@@RAHelllordYeah good thinkin, that was probably a factor too

[@internetguy7319]

Nintendo has always cared more about preventing piracy than selling games. Why were the Gamecube discs proprietary? They wanted it to be harder to pirate games. This led to them being inferior to regular discs.

[@HerEvilTwin]

@@internetguy7319if they cared more about preventing piracy than selling games then they wouldn’t even develop any games. What a dumb statement

[@Alphadanielmon]

This has got to be one of the best DYKG videos ever. I never knew about this chapter in Nintendo history. Fascinating stuff guys.

[@DJIVision]

thanks Dan :)

[@ThatGuy-tc6uv]

I recommend looking up the menu music for the SNES and GBC kiosks. They're pretty groovy. And the irony that Nintendo had a preservation initiative (as fumbled as it was) while Sony and co. were trying to get second-hand copies banned is such palpable irony that it feels like it came from a reverse world.

[@HerEvilTwin]

Do you have any links or something for those grooves? Can’t seem to find any

[@joshshrum2764]

Groovy you say.

[@safebox36]

It's ironic that Nintendo's success in the console market has been because of two factors they often get criticised for; having a niche in the console, and having a weaker console than competitors. Almost every generation has been "won" by the weakest console, and that's usually (though not always) Nintendo's. The niche elements in a console such as Wii's motion controls or Switch's hybridisation is what allows them to compete with the more tech-heavy consoles.

[@christiand.7930]

It is much simpler. Nintendo is an innovative toy company, sony and microsoft are not.

[@tgdm]

I'm going to have to disagree about the "weakest" usually winning every generation. In the 4th gen, the SNES thwomped the weaker Genesis/MD and TurboGrafx-16. In the 5th gen, the middle child in terms of power, the PlayStation, won out. And in the 6th generation, again the middle child (PS2) came out on top, with the weakest being the Dreamcast. It was really only with the Wii and the Switch did the technologically weaker console dominate. The WiiU got absolutely smashed by the Xbox One and PS4.

@@tgdm the problem with that is that by focusing so much on power, Microsoft and Sony continuously lose profit. They're at a point now that the cost of manufacturing is eating up all the profits made from previous consoles. The thing with the dreamcast had more to do with SEGA not taking their time to perfect their product (though there is an unconfirmed rumor Microsoft had sabatoged a key feature of the Dreamcast's functionality), in addition to several flops before like the 32X and CD systems both not performing well for similar reasons to the dreamcast. It also didnt help thhat the Saturn lacked a proper Sonic game besides Sonic R. At least the 32X had Chaotix which was a direct sequel to Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

[@tgdm]

I mean, the Dreamcast was hamstrung by several design decisions. They went with a controller design that had fewer buttons than its predecessor and only one analog stick, while all of their competitors had two. They also massively underestimated the fallout from abandoning 3dfx for NEC mid-development, and that made any potential partners extremely uneasy. And they were outright foolish for deciding to launch without DVD support, both from an entertainment perspective and game development perspective. It was a mature technology by that point and if they had been willing to lose a little more money on each console, it could have stood a chance against the incoming Xbox or even PS2.

[@SakuraAvalon]

And in return, Nintendo's weaker hardware causes them to miss out on third party games, or to have an inferior port. Sometimes even having to wait a year to get a game already out on the competitors. Hence why plenty of people see Nintendo as a side device, and not their primary gaming machine.

[@xKarenWalkerx]

I thought you meant the magazine?? I loved that mag as a kid.

[@brunosoares1500]

Man same here. Why have 2 completely different products with the same name? Weird stuff

[@joshshrum2764]

@@brunosoares1500Should have been called Nintendo overcharged.

[@JeanieBoxx]

just letting yall know captions for prices are wrong a couple times in the video (specifically around 20:25 ish)

[@thehellsage]

It's not a couple times... It's throughout the video.

[@JeanieBoxx]

@@thehellsage I was only locked in visually for part of it, unfortunate it's the entire thing :/

[@JoeContext]

The fact that Columns had an official SNES port with plans for a Sonic SNES port is melting my brain

[@cryptocsguy9282]

@JoeContext Never heard of that , I know Sega planned to port Sonic to various PC platforms then cancelled it and then since the saturn came out they've constantly ported or emulated megadrive games on new systems over and over and over again

[@JoeContext]

​​@@cryptocsguy9282 It's mentioned in the video at 15:28

[@pokemonduck]

''If you've never heard of Lawson, it's similar to 7/11'' *confused European noises*

[@zonesproductions]

We had 7/11s back in 't day

[@Saavykaas]

"If you've never had Carl's Jr. it's similar to a Mos Burger"

[@svenbtb]

I've seen 7/11 in Europe, but I guess it just depends on the country

[@cryptocsguy9282]

@@svenbtb What country ?

[@SammyEdgeINC]

7:02 hearing "let's preserve good games" in a video about Nintendo has to be some cosmic level irony

[@craftersshaft]

we got Plerm, take it or leave it

[@kirimusse]

7:26 29:12 Considering that this is what the competition was doing at the time, the bar was low enough for Nintendo, lmao.

[@cryptidm]

Nintendo will preserve games if it makes them money

[@MegaZeta]

It isn’t irony so much as this video taking a marketing claim at face value when it shouldn’t. Nintendo did not want to “preserve” games. It wanted to sell the same games twice and keep selling the same system for which its production lines were built. Profit for shareholders was the goal, _not_ preservation.

[@DontKnowDontCare6.9]

Preserving games = ARRRH!

[@KelsomaticPDX]

In my mind, both the inability to redownload and the clunky UI / writer process are the true weak links to the success of this program. Such an amazing concept that would feel so futuristic at the time, but such needlessly poor execution. Too bad.

[@catriamflockentanz]

When two big companies have an idea and implement it all across their branches it rarely goes well. Just look at the utter idiocy in the recent partnership between grocery store chain Rewe and gas station chain Aral. The idea sounds good on paper: Rewe stocking a small selection of their familiar food products in Aral Stores under the extra label Rewe to Go instead of the at best dubios food you usually get at these stores. Problem: If an actual Rewe is close to a Rewe to Go nobody is gonna bother. The Aral Tenants had to buy in either way though. And they were _pissed_ .

[@dansmith1661]

My Pikachu is pleasantly surprised when I see a poorly made Japanese UI.

[@RealRomplayer]

Yeah, when he mentioned that you had to look up a 6-digit code online before even going to the store, I was like "WHAT THE F***?!"

[@CharlesWorkPPL]

I would have loved to have this in the states, but I really don't think it would have been logistically realistic to roll them out in a country this big. Back when they released F-Zero AX in arcades, with the feature that let you download tracks and vehicles to your Gamecube memory card to play in F-Zero GX at home, I diligently carried around my F-Zero save data with me every time I was at a mall, hoping to find a compatible machine. Sadly, there weren't a single one of these machines within a three state radius of Oklahoma City. I think they only set out a few dozen of the cabinets, and they were all packed into metropolitan areas, because that was where you could find the most customers. Guys like me in the Great Plains were out of luck. I think if they'd tried to release the Nintendo Power machines here, we would have seen a few of them in New York and California, but if you were some kid growing up in Wyoming, they might as well be on Mars.

[@svenbtb]

Yeah, iirc they said in Nintendo Power or smth that there were only 50 of those machines in the USA total, and that definitely didn't translate into one per state. Probably half of those were in Cali and New York, lol.

[@cryptocsguy9282]

@CharlesWorkPPL When F Zero AX came out that was right around the time arcades died in the west so maybe that helps explain it plus companies like Atari and Nintendo loved their test markets in New York n California before releasing new products back in the day

[@CharlesWorkPPL]

​@@cryptocsguy9282 I wonder if the Gamecube game didn't sell enough to warrant more machines. I know the Gamecube wasn't their best selling system, but the game did well enough to be part of the Player's Choice program. Maybe if they'd put the machines in theme parks or something my family could have made that part of our vacation plans.

[@MizunoKetsuban]

9:10 To be clear, in case the translated title didn't make it obvious: These games are from the Shin Onigashima series. You know, the one with that metal remix in Smash Bros you never looked into.

[@CPBrownMyths]

Interesting thing about Lawsons is that it started in North Eastern Ohio way back in 40's. Stores died off, nowadays you can only find their chip dip at Circle K. That's a little fun fact old people will always tell you about round here. But no one in my life ever mentioned how big it was/the fact that it is even still a thing in Japan. I guess at one point they must have really taken a liking to the store or something 😂 I just found out how big it was in Japan like last year and I was so mind blown haha

[@mrmxypltk]

Similarly, one of the biggest Donut chains in Japan is Mister Donut - which used to be an American chain, until most of the American locations were bought out by Dunkin Donuts. There are a few American chains that thrived in Japan, or transformed into something new over there.

[@mrmxypltk]

Similarly, one of the biggest Donut chains in Japan is Mister Donut - which used to be an American chain, until most of the American locations were bought out by Dunkin Donuts. There are a few American chains that thrived in Japan, or transformed into something new over there.

[@SatansBestBuddy1]

Nintendo with a sales failure, "we will support this limited fanbase for the next decade, at our own expense" Sony with a sales failure, "it's been eight days and we haven't made a billion dollars, shut it all down and make it impossible for anyone to play"

[@everythingisterrible8862]

Consumer trust and faith really mean a lot. They really have no idea how to nurture and grow a new franchise. It's all dump hundreds of millions hoping to make a billion back, that's not how the market works. Genshin Impact didn't phase into reality from another dimension. It was built from the success of Guns GirlZ and Honkai 3rd Impact. You never really see Hollywood movies try to seed new franchises these days, either. Terminator 1 was built on some spare change in James's piggy bank...

[@cryptocsguy9282]

@SatansBestBuddy1 What about SNK we'll support NEO GEO till it makes us bankrupt and insolvent

[@safebox36]

Might want to change the title or thumbnail to include "no, not that one" cause I think a lot of people are thinking of the magazine that ended in 2012 and came back in 2017.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Mostly. They didn't revive the magazine, they reused the name for a podcast.

[@lpnp9477]

They won't change it, confusion makes people click

[@McNuggetFiend]

Welcome to clickbait. Very 2015 of them.

[@Platitudinous9000]

to be fair, the thumbnail does show the hardware that the video is actually about, and a conspicuous lack of magazines

[@zachq9005]

Nah we can let this slide. It borders on clickbait, but it's also technically correct. They stumbled across a sucker punch title, and I can't hate on em for taking it. I would.

[@EnigmaticGentleman]

It still kills me that they did this instead of the built in modem for the N64, the 64 being the first online console would have easily put it on equal footing with the PSX (if not given it a leg up), heck they could've even wrote an SNES emulator for the 64 and redistributed those games that way, heavily discounted SNES games would have been a massive incentive for the 64.

[@michaelhuss0]

N64 still would not have been the first. Sega Meganet (1990) enabled the Genesis to play online multiplayer, and Sega Channel (1994) enabled it to download games directly to the console. I'm sure there are other examples too, they just rarely made it to the US (including the Japan/Brazil exclusive Meganet). In any case, I agree with you that SNES/16-bit games on the N64 would have been very smart. The fact that the N64 controller has a wide grip use case for 6-button digital controls gives me the sneaking suspicion that Nintendo intended to do this. Why neither Nintendo nor Sega supported more classic games in the late 90s, we are left to wonder...

[@everythingisterrible8862]

It really wouldn't have been feasible, SNES emulation back then required around a 200 mhz pentium. (And of course accuracy-focused emulation on the level of BSNes takes like 2 ghz.) Even with all the time and knowledge in the world, the modern Sodium 64 emulator is quite inaccurate. And it'll have to continue to be, to continue to run at playable speeds. It'd have jack-knifed the price of the console up quite a bit for a feature that wouldn't have been very good or in much demand at the time. Buying a used SNES and games was dirt cheap in those days - only weirdos would have used such a feature. I remember having my mind blown the first time I saw a thumb drive back in ~2003, whippersnappers have no idea what absolute doo-doo floppy discs were. Nowadays you can get 16 GB drives in a ten pack for $28. Like 16,000 times the space of a floppy or one of these Nintendo Power flash carts, for three bux. The technology just wasn't ready yet. The GameCube launched in 2001, so it didn't have any time to integrate this cutting edge stuff, either. The Wii generation was really the first time that you could actually download and store data affordably.

[@michaelhuss0]

@@everythingisterrible8862 Nintendo knew more about the SNES internals than third parties, so they could have done a lot with less processing power. The N64 also had a programmable graphics pipeline that could have been set up to offload much of the rendering work. In any case, it could have been an add-in card as a last resort, like the RAM expansion. That way, it would cost nothing to other consumers and still be 100% hardware accurate.

[@cryptocsguy9282]

That would require nintendo to be too forward thinking lol . They did have that failed online service for the n64 with the N64 DD drive thingy

[@cryptocsguy9282]

@@michaelhuss0 Sega planned megadrive backwards compatibility for the saturn , that's why it had the cartridge which only ended up being used for saves n extra RAM , they also had the dream library service for the dreamcast in Jaapan in 2000 which was like virtual console before virtual console with downloaded megadrive/PC engine games plus they releases the sega smash pack for emulated dreamcast games in disc before they constant megadrive re-releases when they went 3rd party

[@legacytag]

1:29 "Nintendo Power was ahead of the times, too far ahead. While in some ways lagging behind." That was basically Nintendo as a whole from the 90s until the Wii U...

[@lucipo_]

DidYouKnowGaming gonna be eating good once they cover the pokemon gigaleak

[@electricperfume7870]

I thought I was pretty well read on obscure Nintendo history, especially their many, many ahead-of-their-time flops, but I have never heard of this. And that's why we love DYKG!!

[@uncledot1868]

Sonic the Hedgehog for Super Famicom? A 16 BIT REMAKE OF MOTHER 1??? WHHHHHYYYYY??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Mimi.1001]

They actually had another opportunity for a MOTHER 1 16-Bit (or I guess 32-Bit?) remake with MOTHER 1+2 on GBA (released in 2003, was meant to shorten the wait for MOTHER 3), but they largely kept the game as is. Considering MOTHER 3 took another three years to came out, they could've easily remade MOTHER 1 with an extra year of development then...

[@PoloKingDX]

DAMN I just LOVE to know GAMING

[@pokemonduck]

Thank you DYGK for sticking to the pixel art border for so long, I find it really distracting when people fill up the border with moving images, especially blurred out stretched footage

[@Ciguato]

You had me the first half, not gonna lie

[@BR-jw7pm]

I thought it was the awesome magazine and was relieved 😅

[@SegaMario]

So for over 20 minutes, you thought they were referring to the magazine?

[@BR-jw7pm]

@@SegaMario I think they meant the title made them think the video was about the magazine only to realize it was an obscure console/peripheral

[@willuigi64]

@@SegaMario It’s a meme quote.

[@SegaMario]

@@willuigi64 I'm aware of that.

[@Wafflepants-dl8fk]

4:18 cartridge is $30 20:28 cartridge is $50 20:59 cartridge is again $30 ???

[@DJIVision]

Yeah that middle one's a mistake, it was $30

[@NukeOTron]

The subs and vocals aren't matching up, especially with the prices. It's kinda important to keep facts consistent in a video like this. Then again, you're also speaking in USD for something paid in Yen in the '90s.

[@grizzlywhisker]

Yeah I'm kinda confused by the prices part lol.

[@DJIVision]

A conversion's shown onscreen (1000 yen = 8 USD) when prices first get mentioned at 4:42. If the video only mentioned prices in yen, a lot of people wouldn't know what that converts to in USD or the currency they use wherever they live, especially since the conversions have changed a lot since then. And I didn't wanna have to say "3980 yen, which was about 30 US dollars back then" every time a price gets mentioned. Awfully wordy. Better to just say "30 bucks," and people can do the math in their head if they want. The reason the subs are inconsistent is because I screwed up the conversion myself when I wrote the script originally (whoops), and it seems that's what got uploaded as subtitles.

[@pokemonduck]

@@DJIVision doesn't mean that the subtitles and the audio don't match up though, at that point auto generated is better lol nor does it explain if you mean current-day dollars or 90's dollars

[@dansmith1661]

@@pokemonduck 90's dollars is half today. Hyperinflation is becoming a thing.

[@spockhozzer7207]

​@@DJIVisionyeah, you wouldn't want to be too wordy. You might have actually gone over time for the video

[@Jasmine__135]

Title is admittedly misleading but riddle me this: Do you SEE a copy of the Nintendo Power magazine on the thumbnail? Blame John Nintendo for having 2 products named the same thing

[@ProtoMan0451]

its clear they didnt differentiate it in the title on purpose for clickbait (something DYKG has done before multiple times)

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Three, now they're using it for a podcast.

[@someusername1872]

I still think the title should've included something like "for Super Famicom" just to differentiate it better.

[@lpnp9477]

DYKG definitely did this on purpose. Confusion drives clicks. The dearrow title for this video is "Nintendo's Failed Japan-only Game Distribution Service: Nintendo Power". They could have said something to that effect and chose not to.

[@CharlesWorkPPL]

Maybe "Power" was a trademark thing? I know they kind of reused the Nintendo Power magazine logo in some of the amiibo marketing.

[@MichaelOKeefe2009]

NO NO!!! Not THAT Nintendo Power.

[@bayzul7405]

Tbh this does explain the many SNES remakes of NES or gb games. Was puzzled why Ninja Gaiden I-III watered down as it is, but it exists. Not quiiite the glow up it should have got, but it's there

[@mattwo7]

Man, to think it even had Columns. Which unlike the second party Puyo Puyo by Complie that got ported to SNES as Kirby's Avalanche, was a first-party game, made by Sega.

[@vexion369]

33:55 Bro I had to do a double take cuz I was NOT anticipating my country to get mentioned in the video lmao and the fact that 921大地震 was one of the major factor that lead to the end of Nintendo Power that's insane

[@DJIVision]

By some big coincidence, I finished writing this video on 9/20/2024 actually, a day before the earthquake's 25th anniversary. While researching for this video I found a lot more about the earthquake than what would fit in this video. For example, it turns out the release of the Game Boy Advance itself was delayed because of the earthquake, according to Nintendo.

[@CropDudia480p]

Such an important part of Nintendo's history that almost no one in the west knew about..? This channel is so important, amazing video :))

[@ulischmidt03]

Lol, i feel like the Star Wars project was named after the Star Wars Special edition

[@MemesToa]

That’s what I was thinking too, the moment they explained what the project’s goal was. Took me a bit to connect the dots on the timeline tho.

[@GWFanSoftcoreBrony]

This weirdly makes me more appreciative of being able to just download games from my computer or system at home whenever I want.

[@tonymastro42]

Marigul pops up again, they certainly had a lot going on behind the scenes

[@TBustah]

11:32 They’re not RC cars, they’re mini 4WDs, motorized model cars that run on a special track. There’s no input from the user beyond switching them on, they “steer” themselves using additional wheels mounted on each corner of the car. Anyway, if you want to check that anime out, there’s a fan sub of both seasons, as well as one for its predecessor, “Dash Yonkuro”.

[@Choops6969]

absolutely amazing video. proud to have a piece of my footage included. i learned so much from this. thank you so much!

[@DJIVision]

thanks Choops :))

[@mariokarter13]

5:33 They used this same strategy not even a decade later when they once again hedged their bets. "Our three pillars are the GameCube, GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS."

[@solrocknroll2563]

And again when they pledged to support the 3DS alongside the Switch, but we saw just about what happened there.

[@everythingisterrible8862]

@@solrocknroll2563 Eh, honestly that's quite different than fragmenting their resources and consumer bases. They want to keep selling the current generation of hardware as much as possible, and don't want people feeling like the obsolete console that's about to die, is about to die. Take their recalcitrance on talking about the Switch 2. There's a few final games out. And if it's backwards compatible, it'll completely kill any lingering sales of the Switch they have left to squeeze out. They'd really like it if you bought a Switch right now.

[@lukamagicc]

I think Marketing(unfortunately) is the biggest culprit. Second if not equal to that horrible storage space

[@suntaxis]

You've actually covered something that was completely, absolutely, totally unknown to me and that's amazing: I wonder why everyone mostly knows about the FDS kioks and you can hear about them quite a lot of time but I've NEVER heard about this. And what a fascinating story, also! Must admit: if videogame stores and companies, now - especially Nintendo, which still uses flash carts -, would offer a service like these, correcting all the issues, I would be kinda happy! Bravo to you, guys!

[@DJIVision]

Thanks Sun :)

[@ryanmiller9999]

Waiiiiiit.... they made an Advance Wars game for the SNES?!?

[@thenightwriter619]

the wars series has been around since the original famicom lmao, there were even games on the original game boy and a cancelled n64 entry. advance wars was just the first time it came to the west

[@Lightspeeds]

​@@thenightwriter619Super Famicom Wars was the anniversary game.

[@DJIVision]

Game Boy Wars gets mentioned a couple times in the video as well, during the GB segment of the video. There were three GB Wars games, one on Famicom, one on Super Famicom, and a cancelled one on N64.

[@Mimi.1001]

The Wars series is actually older than Fire Emblem, so I suppose FE is just a medieval/fantasy version of Wars rather than the often mentioned other way around. Funnily enough, both came to the west at roughly the same time.

[@thingsiplay]

Literally: "Now you are playing with power"

[@williamsanborn9195]

6:00 Gonna have to correct you there. The video on the Famicom Disk System by the Gaming Historian shows that there are some Famicom Disk game disks that had multiple games, one per side. It wasn’t often, but it did happen.

[@Poyostar]

I feel that if they brought this over to the west, it would've had a different name to help differentiate it from the Nintendo Power magazine... Great video! Probably one of the best videos on this obscure Nintendo platform that I've ever seen!

[@TheAustinDelgado]

I never knew about this service. Japan seriously had some cool things that I never would’ve even thought of as a kid in the US. Thanks for the great video

[@DJIVision]

thanks Austin :)

[@trailersic]

1997 "Distribution is in crisis, Cartridges are expensive to produce" "Why don't you use CDs?" "Have that man removed!!"

[@velvetbutterfly]

They avoided CDs for quite a few reasons. First their partnerships with Sony and Philips were failures. CDs also loaded a lot slower, which would have been a problem for any game taking full advantage of a 64bit system. You know how people rag on old Final Fantasy games taking 20-40 seconds just to load and move the camera every time you get into a fight? Imagine having to deal with that for Mario or Zelda. But also, they simply didn't want to alienate fans, people are comfortable with what they know. And it was a point of pride. After Sony split and made their own console to compete with Nintendo, they both wanted to succeed on their own. This is why quite few games released on both companies; and ones that did release were typically a result of companies being purchased, like Square making FF7 for Sony and then deciding to port their old games that originally were on Nintendo. Or western companies making games independently with no baring on the rivalry between the two, like Mortal Kombat.

[@Ninetaled]

This is one of the coolest things nintendo has ever done in terms of consumer value and game preservation

[@kabbusses]

Another fully complete Game Boy Color game that Nintendo had in the vault that would had been perfect for Game Boy Nintendo Power was Sutte Hakkun GB, a game which was technically ready to release in 1996, then got a Color upgraded revision,only to still not get a release afterward. It's especially disappointing considering what Nintendo Power did for the Super Famicom Sutte Hakkun!

[@Taneuma_563]

Given it ran until 2007, I wouldn't call it a big failure. It's surprising that convenience stores still had kiosks until then.

[@bewearstar9462]

Super famicons stopped being stole in stores in 2003 In japan so it ran a bit longer

[@CrimsonNineTail]

Very interesting video. Amazing how thos grew from a in store video game shopping service into what we know as the virtual store today. Had no idea Japan was against buying old or used games from what is basically a Japanese version of trade and buy stores. We really need to find a way to preserve classics.

[@SusiTerry]

My mom is from the us and she was buying snes games in 1999

[@demontamerbf18]

I was so confused, I thought the magazing was somehow a huge failure and I had never heard about it, turns out it was a completely different thing, a service to rewrite SNES games on cartridges that was not managed well, this was so interesting.

[@wesleybilly8097]

its innovation. Some things hit something miss. All of it beautiful. Nothing you own is the first revision.

[@seanmcbay]

It’s such a shame this failed. We missed out on a lot of cool 2D games in an era when they were barely being made.

[@flynnneil88]

Turns out I didn’t know gaming!

[@Yubl10]

As far as the Japanese computers mentioned goes, I know about them because I'm a big nerd when it comes to Japanese computers and video games, but I agree that most people wouldn't know anything about them and explaining them would have taken up unnecessary time.

[@Glockenspheal]

It's so interesting to see all these videos debunking things Nintendo is often criticized for, shutting down fan-games, game preservation, etc. in the end these criticisms are well-founded and are there for a reason, if anything, makes me wonder what happened for them to steer away from these amazing ideas.

[@khrisbreezy3628]

How wild would it have been to have seen this come to the DS where a rewritable cartridge would be able to hold multiple Gameboy, SNES and NES games, like, I just imagine the compilations friends could come up with and share with each other just to display their tastes and preferences. Like sharing a tape deck music playlist. Very interesting stuff, thank you for sharing!

[@DrViperVideos]

The magazine was awesome, how dare you. Oh..not that, ok good

[@The_Sage_of_Six_Paths]

This honestly feels like a "Mandela effect" for me. And i don't even really believe in that concept😮. I have been a gamer for many years, and have seen countless gaming content covering those days and I have NEVER heard of this. Mind is 💥

[@Skywardsaiyan]

This was extremely ahead of its time

[@ugarit5]

Thanks for the video,i never knew nintendo power lasted so long as a mail-in. It was kind silly tough in retrospective to thnik that they had those machines up and running at stores in 2007 :D

[@arbunder]

That is never how you pronounce Thracia, that's a real region in Greece.

[@theblubus]

@1:33 The most accurate description of Nintendo that I've heard yet. Paraphrased: Nintendo is too far ahead of its time while simultaneously lagging behind the times. I as many others have grown up living this statement with every console launch 😭

[@santiagoruizvalle5668]

So basically like the R4 in latinamerica. You buy a R4 in a pirate game shop and come back to pay for download games for like 2 dollars. But the R4 could hold a lot of games without problems. And if you ask why you didnt download it in your house, it is bc internet wasnt very good, people didnt know how to do it and also many parents bought the R4 as a way to get cheap games for their small children, without understanding anything about the DS.

[@plows2940]

That’s a solid comparison. Putting legality aside, Nintendo Power Cartridges were essentially official rewritable flash carts, making them similar to unofficial flash carts like the R4. However, beyond the piracy aspect, a key difference is that the R4 uses SD cards, meaning its storage is only limited by the maximum capacity of the SD card it supports, unlike the fixed memory built into Nintendo's cartridges. In a way, pirate game shops are essentially doing what Nintendo was doing in the '90s-except illegally.

[@Riggy2k3]

Dude, this video was so great. I never had any idea about the systems that they derived from but I remember the sprites from these "BS" games very fondly. Loved this vid!

[@DontKnowDontCare6.9]

Spoiler alert: DYKG suddenly became a business expert near the end. 31:26

[@LandonEmma]

Yeah I thought this was for the product from 87’! I never knew about this

[@Nowaydardo]

If Nintendo decided to implement this rollout in America, we would have been introduced to FE way earlier in the states. That would have easily changed the direction that series would have took all those years ago. Hell Kaga might have even stuck around and directed the next few games lol

[@velvetbutterfly]

Even if they implemented it, translating and localizing text-heavy games was expensive so it's improbable we would have gotten it. Although; maybe a few nerds who saw the FE3 OVA could have got enough people to write in asking for a translation. But that requires people who saw those episodes to know it was based on a video game.

[@Alex-95-Gaming]

37:05 This title lol

[@Mijemega]

And how he pronounce it doesn't help 🤣🤣🤣 🤪

[@bub777]

Your comment just popped up as he got there

[@Acheo_]

The title of the video made me laugh, because I knew it was going to trick people into thinking it was about the NOA magazine. I didn't know much about the service besides the fact that it existed, shared a name with that magazine, and was the manner in which some titles were exclusively distributed, so I greatly appreciate you going to the depths you did to get as much information about it that you did. It remains something I appreciate on all of the topics the writers and researchers have tackled.

[@Bro3256]

Appreciate helping on the research for this video, thanks for the FamiWiki shoutout!

[@ScarfKat]

Ayyy cool to see you here.

[@DJIVision]

Thanks Bro :)

[@cube2fox]

Never heard of this system! DidYouKnowGaming really is the best video game history channel on KZbin.

[@escaperoutebritish]

Fanastic video, I learned so much about the origin of games that up until now were just ROMs to me

[@DJIVision]

thanks ERB :)

[@Malthael2797]

I'm not sure what Nintendo's finances were like at the time but it might've just been too cost prohibitive to bring the Power to the USA, I imagine not just logistically but a ton of licensing stuff always seems to be an issue when bringing JP originals to other regions.

[@PanchoMngkn]

I thought they were talking about the magazine

[@SolarFarle]

Same.

[@Poever]

Ninty Power in Japan wasn’t a failure so much as it was an idea ahead of its time

[@krisfrederick5001]

I Nintendin't fail.

[@wildgoosespeeder]

Nintendo: Manufacturing game carts is risky and is in crisis. Also Nintendo: We sell you a proprietary medium that isn't easy and cheap to manufacture. We used to deny you ports of games to our competitors' platforms as well.

[@furryy5100]

Choops mentioned🎉

[@BeIlG]

Another amazing video! Thank you for always deep diving and interviewing people to make the videos more accurate. amazing stuff!

[@----x-----]

it's so ironic that Nintendo once thought "we have to preserve old games for history" and now they are the ones taking down roms and emulators and refusing to sell old games

[@daviddwarmachine]

As a German, I only know of Lawson because I saw some advertisements with anime characters for it online several times. (Naruto Shippuden and Fate Stay Night) Using fictional characters for advertisements is much more common in the far east, i think.

[@Vienna3080]

The irony of Nintendo being pro game preservation at some point lmao

[@thatguynobodywants3716]

I think they mean preservation only from their side and when it benefits them. Since that Nintendo Leak they are probably one of the few japanese companies that actually care about the preservation of their own products. But, the accesibility, maintenance of discontinued products launched to the general public on the other hands...that's the issue. And when they bother to try to make a profit from their old stuff and use nostalgia they end up doing just the bare minimun or below that and somehow we have to be glad that they at least did something in the first place.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

They still are. They are just pro IP at the same time. They have the ROMs for almost every single game they've ever made, even if they won't release them.

[@MegaZeta]

They weren’t, though. That was just a marketing pitch for selling the same games twice, selling the same system over and over for which they had production lines and maximizing profit for shareholders. The other specter haunting their board meetings, as mentioned, was used game sales below the price point of their own bid to sell the same games twice: they wanted to make sure Nintendo and all its corporate cronies got their cut. “Preservation” was a coat of paint slapped on this failed venture to squeeze every yen out of Japanese pockets.

[@Kateshi]

I just love how Nintendo did name some of its old services after their own regional magazines (North America's Nintendo Power and Latin America's Club Nintendo), especially considering how those services never reached the markets where those magazines were published, thus avoiding brand confusion.

[@BR-jw7pm]

“Nintendo Power-Nintendo’s Biggest Failure” Me:(Spit take) wait, what?! (Edit) thought this was about the gaming magazine, phew…

[@jennasloan396]

You can't have success without failure

[@leviwarren6222]

Nintendo actually pioneered digital distribution with the Nintendo power and micro transactions with their hourly love hotel.

[@trailersic]

What they should have done instead of getting people to buy blank carts and work out how to fill them up, they should have delivered a stock of blank cartridges to stores which the cashier can load a single game or compilation of small games onto, then they just give the customer the cart and an appropriate sticker. This is what Computer Games publishers did in the UK in the early 90s for the 8-bit computers. They had a load of blank cassettes, the cashier would record the game to a blank cassette, then give it to the customer with the appropriate cover from a folder of covers.

[@pflynn12]

Ya have to say never knew about it, the only nintendo power I knew of was the magazine

[@pio0055]

I believe at the time the magazine was probably around when this NP kiosk was so I'm sure it was a general confusion

[@CranberryFo]

I saw this video and was wondering "How in the world do you call Nintendo Power magazine a failure? I'd never heard of this Nintendo Power cartridges thing before today.

[@mchenrynick]

exactly, I thought this video was about the magazine when I saw the title.

[@BobbyMiller64]

A fascinating video! I'd never heard of this before.

[@HeadacheCentral]

There seems to be a general problem with the subtitles in this video in that almost every time an amount of currency is mentioned, the subtitles and narration don't match.

[@lowpolysunrise]

I came in and thought "No way this is about the magazine."