''Nintendo Fun Club'' was a fan club

marketed Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

. It was free to join, and its members received a free subscription to ''Nintendo Fun Club News'', a periodical that discussed popular games and games that were planned for the near future. It also offered tips and tricks, Nintendo video game news, and comics.

History

Since the NES's launch in 1985, warehouse manager and gamer advocate Howard Phillips and marketer Gail Tilden had operated a consumer feedback campaign of insert cards within packages of Nintendo's hardware and games, and built a database of customer contact information with names and mailing addresses. Phillips started a free-of-charge gameplay advice hotline at Nintendo of America, with five or six counselors on staff. They wanted to consolidate this resource-intensive gameplay counseling into mass media form. Phillips said, "When we first launched the NES in 1985, we figured out very quickly that kids were just dying to get extra information about the gamesnot just new games that were coming out, but also how to play them." In 1987, ''Nintendo Fun Club'' was started at

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...

by Gail Tilden and Fun Club President Howard Phillips, with the publication of the ''Nintendo Fun Club News''. The newsletter's first four issues were delivered quarterly starting in late 1987, with the final three issues being bimonthly. Phillips said, "Kids loved the magazine because it included screen shots. Pre-internet and

VCRs A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recordin ...

, actually showing kids the games was the only way to explain how to do tricks. They couldn't just look it up online." The ''Nintendo Fun Club'' was marketed via catalogs and flyers contained in

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

boxes, and within the content of at least one game, ''

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! originally titled is a 1987 boxing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Part of the '' Punch-Out!!'' series, it is an adaptation of the arcade video games '' Punch-Out!!'' (1984) and ''Sup ...

''. During the intermissions between rounds, when Little Mac's trainer gives him tips, Mac calls out "Help, Doc", who responds with, "" After seven issues and 600,000 subscribers, along with more than 100 telephone gameplay counselors, Phillips and Tilden wanted to further streamline and expand the resource intensive and non-revenue-generating marketing outreach. The ''Nintendo Fun Club News'' was discontinued in favor of the vastly more expansive and ambitious ''

Nintendo Power ''Nintendo Power'' was a video game news and strategy magazine from Nintendo of America, first published in July/August 1988 as Nintendo's official print magazine for North America. The magazine's publication was initially done monthly by Ninten ...

'' magazine in August 1988. Its first issue was free to Fun Club members, and otherwise a traditional paid subscription.

References

External links

* ''Nintendo Fun Club Newsletter'' on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Nintendo Company Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Quarterly magazines published in the United States Video game magazines published in the United States Defunct computer magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1987 Magazines disestablished in 1988 Magazines published in Washington (state) Magazines about Nintendo Nintendo publications Nintendo Entertainment System

History

See also

References

External links