[ Retro Scan of the Week ] A High-Powered Christmas

December 17th, 2012 by Benj Edwards

High-Powered Greetings Nintendo Power Christmas Ad - 1992Nintendo presents deliver themselves. No Santa required.

[ From Nintendo Power, November 1992, rear cover]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever received a Nintendo console for Christmas? Tell us about it.



8 Responses to “[ Retro Scan of the Week ] A High-Powered Christmas”

  1. RC Says:

    I got an NES for Christmas in 1990, I think, that I had to share with my 3 brothers. I was getting it years after all my friends at school had one. It was the core set so it didn’t come with any games. Instead I got Tetris, Silver Surfer, and Win Lose or Draw. Despite those games, it is still one of my favorite Christmases.

  2. Jaybee Says:

    I received an SNES for Christmas.
    Well, technically, I got Zelda 3. My sister got Mario World, and my parents got the SNES, thereby making them the arbitrators of all fights about usage. But as it happened, I was far more interested in gaming than she was.

    As the kid that DIDN’T have an NES or Genesis, it was a moment of great celebration. No more would they be look at me with confusion when I said something about Mine Storm or Cosmic Chasm* before they went back to talking about Contra and Legend of Zelda! I could play the same games all my friends were talking about!

    I remember sitting in the car poring over the Zelda manual. I took the game box with me when we left the house to visit family, when there was a pile of perfectly new toys to be broken in. Manuals were so nice back then. Full-color, and loaded with backstory and art.

    *Yes, I went from a Vectrex to a Super Nintendo. No, I’m not making this up.

  3. technotreegrass Says:

    I got a NES for Christmas in 1990. It only encouraged my lifelong love of video games, as two years prior I received a hand-me-down box stuffed with an Atari 2600 and 40 games from my aunt and uncle. Mom didn’t like the idea that I christened the system with Duck Hunt rather then Super Mario Bros, since I was using a virtual gun at the age of 5, and on Christmas Day no less, but Dad thought it was hilarious that I was offering virtual duck carcasses for Christmas dinner.

  4. Mikein208 Says:

    Wow seeing this ad brings back some great memories! My brother and I received the exact same Gameboy and SNES pictured in this ad for Christmas ’92. That was probably one of the best Christmas, gift wise at least, that I’ve ever had. As I recall my family actually took a Christmas vacation that year, something we had never done or have ever done since, and on Christmas Eve our parents gave us each a present to open which turned out to be Gameboys! As if that was not awesome enough the next day, when opening the rest of our gifts, the last one I opened was a Street Fighter II SNES cartridge! I was so excited because I was crazy about SFII back then and, I like many others, wasted tons of my Dad’s quarters at the local liquor store and Pizza Hut playing the hell out of that game (and getting whipped by teenagers on a regular basis). However I didn’t have SNES and had no more gifts left to open so I was worried that some how my parents made a mistake. Later that evening when we arrived home my parents told me to check under my bed because they thought Santa may have forgotten a gift. Low and behold their was a brand new SNES with Super Mario World and two controllers there waiting to blister my little thumbs! I guess what made this so special was the fact I had no idea these gifts were coming and that I got two game systems in one Christmas, something that cause my 8 year brain to nearly explode.

  5. JackSoar Says:

    I received Nintendo consoles on no fewer than four Christmas mornings: a Game Boy, a Super Nintendo, another Game Boy (to replace the first one after it broke), and a Nintendo 64, in that order. My parents didn’t really approve of video games, but they finally capitulated with the Game Boy. My brother gave me a NES after that, and the SNES followed the next year. It remains my favorite console ever, so I’d say it was a good gift. I had to wait until a year after the N64’s launch to get my hands on one, but I was very excited to get one…even though I never owned more than five games for it.

  6. Benj Edwards Says:

    Great stories, guys.

    JackSoar — I’m wondering. Since you loved your SNES so much, what were those five games you owned for it?

  7. SirFatty Says:

    JackSoar’s 5 games were for the N64

  8. Benj Edwards Says:

    Looks like I need to brush up on my critical reading skills.

    In that case, what were your favorite SNES games, JackSoar?

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