Between 1995 and 2007, Nintendo hosted Camp Hyrule, an online “summer camp” where fans of the company could take part in Flash games and other activities. Players were sorted into cabins and teams, and could earn points for completing various games. Some of these games were based on Nintendo trivia, others featured rhythm-based challenges, and more. Smaller games such as these are often lost to time, but Nintendo fans will be happy to know that they have now been preserved on the Internet Archive. This should be welcome news to those that never had the chance to participate, or those that would just like to relive those great camp memories!
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Camp Hyrule events often reflected what Nintendo was promoting at the time. As such, these games act almost as a time capsule for the era. The games preserved are based on titles like Nintendogs, Donkey Konga, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, and the Legend of Zelda franchise, naturally. Newcomers shouldn’t expect to find anything too deep from these games; the game based on 1080: Avalanche, in particular, consists of a single snowboard jump! However, there’s something to be said for the historical value.
It’s also worth noting that not all of the games on the Internet Archive run perfectly. Notably, the “Classic NES Series Trivia” game is missing the questions, though other games seem to work just as they did back in the day. It remains to be seen if any of these issues will be fixed, but potential visitors will want to keep this in mind.
The video game industry is notoriously bad at preserving its own history. Development notes, promotional items, and even whole video games often end up lost to time. A number of preservationists have devoted themselves to making sure that these types of things remain intact. The Camp Hyrule games certainly fall into that category, and it’s nice to see that fans of those older distractions can now revisit them.
Camp Hyrule closed its doors in 2007, much to the disappointment of some Nintendo fans. While the days of these kinds of promotions seem to be long in the past, fans can now enjoy them at the Internet Archive, which can be found right here.
Were you a fan of Camp Hyrule? Are you happy to see these games preserved? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
