The retro adventure continues!

When we found those old gaming mags, I uncovered another rare gem. Not quite the crown jewel of a game magazine collector's finds, but definitely close to it:



Issue number 3 of the Nintendo Fun Club News magazine. Barely more than a dozen pages of pure paper, no gloss, fan magazine goodness! Issue three was a big deal, if i remember, because it was the first time the Fun Club News came in a stapled, magazine-let iteration. Previous issues were pamphlet type news letters at best, and had roughly two colors: pink and gray.

This was the first Zelda issue, and contained a pretty useful map of the over world. What this issue also had, was a wicked teaser for the next installment: The Adventure of Link.



Before fan trailers, before announcement press conferences, THIS was the announcement and introduction of the next installment of the classic series, and for all each reader knew, everyone else was pumped about it! Of course we want to know what happens to Link when he grows up! That's awesome! Look how cool grown up Link looks! Side scroller view?! Well that's gotta be great. I like Mario, so I KNOW I'll love this!

The internet would have eaten that game alive.



Fans of the Legend of Zelda would have to wait at least another year before getting their hands on this hit-and-miss sequel. In what would become a trend for Nintendo games, The Adventure of Link was delayed to meet quality standards. No worries, of course. Gamers had plenty to occupy themselves with in this nifty gold cartridge.



Nearly all Zelda games have come in some form of gold painted cartridge or disc form, but it all started with that first gold cartridge. Though not real gold of course, something about it was just mystical as a kid. Aside from being the shiniest, coolest game pak you'd ever seen, it was the first on the NES to have a battery backup save. Unlike Metroid before it, Zelda did away with the burgeoning password continue system and allow the gamer to save their progress to the cartridge, which had been unheard of in the many years earlier of cartridge based gaming.



When The Adventure of Link came out, I was all over it. Even though it was a very different game, something about the world and the adventure was still very appealing. For a kid like me though, all I needed was that gold cartridge "Of course its a Zelda game. Its got the gold cartridge! How cool!" And there was that awesome artwork again!



The game book also contained its own partial overworld map, to help the player get used to the brave new world of Hyrule. The big "Oh Wow" moment of this game world though, came when you got just a little bit lower than what this map showed you. Tucked away in a small corner of the map, was a miniature version of the world from the original Zelda! Death Mountain, Spectal Rock, the Eastern Beach and the Graveyard were all there, represented as only a fraction of the larger Adventure of Link world!

And there it was, the beginning of so many game trends. Fan obsession with grown up Link, the second-game change up, and the first Nintendo/Miyamoto quality delay. There's plenty of good memories from that era, and i've got a few more to share!

Next up on Tubatic's Vault: The Spondylus Solar System and Dracula's Best Buddies?!

Links to previous Vaults!

Tubatic's Vault: Retro Magazines and Pics