Camp Hyrule 2006's winning cabin wallpaper

From 1995 until 2007, Nintendo of America and Nintendo Power held an online event called Camp Hyrule. It was a virtual summer camp with simple games, activities, chats with special guests, competition between cabins to have the most participating members, and, of course, lots of promotion for upcoming Nintendo games.

I attended Camp Hyrule in the summers of 2005 and 2006 (if I recall correctly).

In 2006, the theme was Super Mario Galaxy and my cabin voted to name itself The Cabin at the End of the Universe in honor of Douglas Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe. My cabin won and as a reward, we got this beautiful wallpaper featuring our cabin name and the camp's mascot, Stumpy. Here it is:

Click to enlarge and download full size.

Er, yeah, that's about it. I thought the internet might like to have this for posterity's sake. Check out the Nintendo wiki for more info on Camp Hyrule, though there isn't too much info recorded about it.

Update: Cory S. shared some more Camp Hyrule wallpapers via Google+. Thanks for the contribution!

For more weird stuff Nintendo did, you should check out 7 of Nintendo's Best Practical Jokes That Were Actually Completely Serious.

FTW: TwitchPlaysPokemon Essential Links

Art by Anneuh

TwitchPlaysPokemon is the latest gaming and internet craze to sweep the would-be bored populace. Surely you've heard of it already. It's tens of thousands of people typing directions into the chat, which are then fed as inputs into an emulator playing Pokemon Red. There are articles about it all over the place and there's not much more to say about it that hasn't been said already. 

So, here are all the most helpful relevant links regarding TwitchPlaysPokemon. I can't guarantee that these links will remain up to date in the months to come, but I'll do my best. Let me know in the comments if a link is broken or if a new link should be added.

Streams & Videos

• TwitchPlaysPokemon - The actual, original stream.
• Time-lapse and highlights - Youtube playlist of sped up footage from each day of TPP with the highlight slowed down for your viewing pleasure.
• Video archives with chat included - So you can relive the hype.

Planning and Progress

• The Plan - Document with the current goal, party members, items, and major milestones and events.
• Live updates - Put together by Reddit users. Check it to see what you've missed.
• Archive of Pokemon Red information
• Archive of Pokemon Crystal information

Statistics

• Sanqui's TPP Stats - Lots of stats on button presses and viewers.

Memes

• /r/TwitchPlaysPokemon - The Reddit sub for TPP. Mostly memes, sometimes strategy and discussion.
• Imgur album of fanart - A rather large collection of memes and fanart related to TPP.
• AskHelixFossil.com - All hail the magic conch Helix Fossil.

That's all for now. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

GCN Interactive Mutli-Game Demo Disc Version 34

Remember 2006? That was the year Twitter launched and the Winter Olympics were held in Turin, Italy. Yeah, I don't remember it either. Perhaps this will jog your memory:
I'll be straight with you, there's nothing extraordinary about demo kiosks in 2006. There've been demos of games set up in stores for as long as I can remember. What's interesting is when they have special discs and cartridges made only for them, often including older versions of games. These discs and cartridges can end up being quite (or just somewhat) rare since they were supposed to be retrieved by the game company when a representative updated the kiosk.

The only thing special about the GameCube demo from 2006 is that it's one that I own. Here it is:

Front

Back

The disc itself

Now, bear with me for a sec, because I don't have a way to directly capture screenshots from the GameCube or older consoles, but here's what it looks like when you boot up the demo disc on a GameCube and check the menu screen:

There you go, pretty standard. It does have its own preview thumbnail though. From there, up comes the GameCube logo and the sound of some woman creepily whispering "GameCube" before you get to the demo selection menu.

There it is running on a Wii, though it doesn't really make any difference. Other versions of Interactive Multi-Game Demo Discs had variations in appearance and available demos which also varied across regions. This is a US version, by the way.
Version 34 contains playable demos of Chibi-Robo, Sonic Riders, Naruto, and Super Mario Strikers and trailers for Odama, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Fifa Street 2, Major League Baseball 2K6, Chibi-Robo, Sonic Riders, Curious George, and ESRB.
If left idle on the main menu, a trailer is played. The demos also have restrictions on certain features or areas and eventually time out and reset back to the main menu.
And that's about it. If you can't get enough of game demos, check out my DS Download Station which is even more cool than this.

FTW: Animal Crossing Valentine's Day Cards

You love Animal Crossing, your valentine loves Animal Crossing, and you and your valentine love each other. Containing all that love for extended periods can't possibly be good for your heart, so share some of it with these fantastic Valentine's Day cards made by Redditor, mynamejt. The quality of these cards is good enough that I'm surprised Nintendo isn't selling something similar as an official product. And if quality is job #1, quantity is job #2, and we've also got that here. Mynamejt made more cards than you can shake a fishing rod at, more than you can fit in your inventory, more than the number of comparisons I can come up with.

You can click these images to enlarge them or head on over to the Reddit thread or the Imgur album for lots more. Also, here's a shout-out to mynamejt's tumblr page - give it a look!

Keen-eyed Redditor, Sleipnoir, noticed that these are the actual lyrics
 to K.K. Love Song. Bravo for that attention to detail!

So, you like Animal Crossing, eh? How about a pun? And in case you didn't read the top, check out the creator's tumblr page for more Valentine's Day cards.

How to Survive Falls of 100+ Feet

Broncos Win Super Bowl XLVIII 10 - 7 Over Seahawks

With both the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos having good seasons, it was exciting to see them battle it out at the Super Bowl this year. The Broncos seem to have the superior offense, but the Seahawks ranked better overall and had a stronger defense. It was sure to be a good match up.

The weather in Denver was unseasonably warm and sunny, making for the perfect day for a football game.

The Seahawks received the opening kickoff, but made little progress before being forced to punt. Both teams were evenly matched throughout the first quarter and neither was able to score.

It wasn't until late in the second quarter that the Broncos made the first score thanks to J. Elam's thirty-one yard field goal attempt. They were only prevented from a touchdown thanks to a holding penalty and the Seahawks' stellar defense.

The Seahawks made a swift recovery, with C. Warren easily catching the pass for a touchdown and extra point, bringing the score to 7 - 3. The Broncos struggled for the rest of the quarter as a result of penalties and sacks, but ended up with possession of the ball at the start of the second half.

The third quarter mirrored the first somewhat, with several turnovers and no points, but ended with the Broncos in position to score.

Denver was able to follow through early in the fourth quarter with a touchdown and extra point thanks to a successful pass from J. Elway to S. Sharpe bringing the score to Seahawks - 7, Broncos - 10 with 4:38 left in the game. From there, it was a gruesome stalemate and both teams faced injuries and substitutions.

Seattle's star player, L. Smith suffered a stubbed toe and had to be switched with the team's less stellar reserve Smith. On the Broncos' side, D. Clark fell victim to a near fatal paper cut and his place was taken by D. Carswell.

During the final minute, Seattle started making rapid progress down the field and seemed poised for a comeback until Denver's L. Washington intercepted a pass and sealed their fate with only 12 seconds to go. The final score remained low: Seattle 7 - Denver 10. Congratulations to both teams on another great season!

Game predictions were provided by computer controlled teams in Madden NFL '97 for Sega Saturn. See also, Wii U's TVii Sports functionality.