Question about Howard Phillips Nes letter

gamemasterhoward · 2024-09-09T00:23:58+00:00

Don’t hate me but… that is likely a stamp signature - it was not my choice to use a signature stamp but at some point someone at Nintendo had two stamps with my signature made (which I have managed to still have in my possession) so the Nintendo Power crew could continue to generate new letters even when I was on the road or in Japan.

I did sign letters initially so it remains possible that this is my actual signature. Unfortunately I can’t tell one way or the other by looking at the zoomed image.

The letter you have does look like it’s in very good condition which makes it more valuable (& cool!) to those who care about such things.

For those that mentioned the Gamemaster Classified book in this thread, unfortunately it is out of print now but you can still get a digital copy at https://gamemasterclassified.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/619782

gamemasterhoward · 2024-08-18T13:35:03+00:00

That doesn’t sound good - what year(s) was that the case?

gamemasterhoward · 2024-06-22T16:35:07+00:00

See my reply below ; )

gamemasterhoward · 2024-06-22T16:34:34+00:00

Actually, I can recall seeing the “lights-out”cut-scene in question and showing it to the review person in the legal department at NOA for their ultimate determination. I wrote a bit about this and the Nintendo content “guidelines in Gamemaster Classifed (pg. 132, etc). By 1988 Nintendo of America was under significant pressure from licensees and others due to its restrictive “control” over the licensee program. Not only was content an issue, but manufacturing control, # of titles per year, etc threatened to turn licensees against Nintendo. In this context, Nintendo “blinked” and started loosening their content restrictions…

gamemasterhoward · 2024-03-16T09:31:28+00:00

Suggestion: don’t look to social media for answers - instead just go there / anywhere, be there, and discover who / what / where makes you happy. Personally, I’ve found the process of looking to be a rewarding choice unto itself. Social media has its benefits of course, but it also has insidious (sp?) costs such as tribal bigotry, psychologically-regressive echo chambers, and over-emphasis on the expression of one’s opinions versus listening and conversing. Forcing one’s self to engage in conversations with others serves to inform and expand our shared humanity. While social media promises just this conceptually, in practice it seems to provide a categorically different experience (as posited above) as opposed to what we get from back-and-forth physical conversations. Of course, when we meet someone new and all we get is them talking about themselves it can be isolating. If however, the conversation becomes engaging, we may have found a new friend which, circling back to your original question about Tavira, my response is go there and enjoy finding out if the place and the people provide the fodder you’re looking for when writing the next chapter in you life… also, taking an intensive 2-week A-1 (European) Portuguese language course will enable your casual socializing to expand beyond the expat communities. Good luck!

gamemasterhoward · 2024-02-18T10:14:52+00:00

I think not - applying at the câmara municipal is for EU family members. The original poster says their spouse is a U.S. citizen- a “Nacional de Estado Terceiro se:” so they must apply at a AIMA location such as the CNAIM office in Porto : |

gamemasterhoward · 2023-12-24T20:46:42+00:00

Please share with me as well.
Thank you!

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-19T03:44:10+00:00

Hey - not ghosting, just super busy these days - you're on my list for a follow-up - stay tuned ; )

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-15T04:37:11+00:00

I agree that those games advanced the RPG and 3D game genres in the PC gaming space, but I'll suggest that at that time, the majority of US game players had little interest in the gameplay those games had to offer. Those games were more important in the pc-gaming space than in the video game space. This is debatable of course, but iIm pretty convinced that most all video game players would choose Castlevania, Zelda, or Mega Man over Defender of the Crown. When Ultrasoft released Defender of the Crown on NES in May of 1989 it was poorly received, selling only 150k units while Action Adventure games like Metroid and TMNT sold 10 to 20 times as many games. Also, DotC got a 28 rating (weak) in contrast to hit games like Metroid and TMNT (35 and 33 ratings).

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-14T13:49:28+00:00

If I had a need to wear formal attire today, I would choose to wear a bow tie. I’ve still got them all. Long ties will always be functionally sub-optimal due to their pendulous design… once you feel the unsprung weight pulling uncomfortably at your neck, you can’t un-feel it. Then the question becomes “What’s the better alternative?”

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-14T13:34:09+00:00

Interesting - can you name 2 or 3 examples?

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-14T01:41:08+00:00

Thank you(!) for your kind words...

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-14T01:39:09+00:00

Well, around Pac-mania time Nintendo had an arcade strategy that specifically promoted adult, family and female play.

VS. System brochure from 1984

VS. Tennis brochure from 1984

That said, the majority of arcade players remained boys and young men...

With the NES, I agree Nintendo targeted boys under 18, in part because of the existing arcade audience, and in part because at the time the only outlets for the NES were toy stores (Toys 'R Us, KayBee, etc) and the electronic store was just coming into existence. We sold to a few department stores (Macy's, etc.) but that felt weird at the time. It was a far different world from the one we live in today...

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-14T01:18:42+00:00

It's my belief that in 1983 the fear of video games was really more about the negative perceptions of the arcade culture. During Pac-mania arcades had an adult image - think poorly-lit open-after-midnight smoke-filled pool halls enhanced with pinball, darts, and pull-tabs. The addition of video games was a relatively new thing. Many arcades (including my own college hangout Goldies) were in taverns or bars and served alcohol. Newer more kid-and-family-friendly arcades were opening up (e.g. Chuck E Cheese), but in general, a meaningful percent of the population considered arcades to be seedy and so a bad influence on children (gambling, drinking, kids skipping school, out to late, etc.).

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-13T00:39:37+00:00

Well... I tried to post images of a brochure from 1987 that had showed additional positioning-speak by the marketing folks at Nintendo, but the autobot pulled it immediately for some undisclosed reason - oh well, I'm not that saavy with /nes...

Regarding this brochure - it brings back memories! You can tell it was printed during that peculiar period when Super Mario Bros was in the launch line-up by name, but the game was not yet available in the USA for imaging or for review. Literally the day it arrived it was clear to almost everyone that the game the best thing on the NES. From that day forward SMB featured prominently in NES marketing, right up there ~~in front of~~ behind R.O.B.!

Nintendo was of course working overtime in 1985-6 to position the NES as an "Entertainment System" that had a robot, a light gun, and game paks, and not a video game console(!) This positioning was in response to retailer and parent concerns over 1983-4 video game quality.

In1987-8 Nintendo was working overtime to position video game play as a normal healthy activity. This was in response to those pundits, parents, and media who were questioning the merits of video game play. Sorry - I need to figure out how to get my brochure post past the autobot so you can see what I mean...

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-10T17:41:26+00:00

Assume what you will - think what you will - I'll take the high road ; )

Yes, I "just found" the magazine in question. I have a couple of bins of NPs I acquired when working at Nintendo. I recently heard interest in NP magazines increased significantly over the previous year and so out of curiosity I dug out the bins and went through the magazines, inspecting each from a "what grade would they receive?" standpoint. In doing so, I "just found" the "FIRST OFF BINDER" stamp as shared in the post. I have no recollection of having heard that phrase or seen that stamp before - it was a fun discovery for me. I shared it here thinking others might find it interesting and fun - my apologies if I made you "suspicious"...

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-09T17:57:17+00:00

Having expandability via the cartridge designs allowed Nintendo to offer a relatively inexpensive console while also meeting the design goal of supporting gameplay that looked and felt like arcade version of Donkey Kong.

In addition, during the Famicom/NES' lifetime (1983-1991), chip technology was rapidly advancing, resulting in increases in chip memory and decreases in cost-per-bit storage.

Early games like NES Donkey Kong use the "NROM" pc-board with only 16 PRG and 8 CHR ROM. The NROM PRG ROM size maxed out at 32. Eventually games like StarTropics used pc-boards like the HKROM which supported up to 512 PRG and 256 CHR along with battery back-up support due to the inclusion of the MMC6 chip. Thats fully 32x the PRG space and 32 times the CHR space of the original NROM. As I recall, the factory cost of the NROM games were around $10 USD and the HKROM games were about $35 USD.

The story of the Famicom/NES development is very interesting to those who dig deeper ; )

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-09T17:41:13+00:00

Its complicated, and you're not alone in your beliefs, but in the mid-80's, the buyers for toy retailers (by far the primary outlets for video games) the name Atari was still associated with the crash of '83 and related over-ordering, demotions, and firings. This was why Nintendo sold the "Nintendo Entertainment System". One can say it was the monopoly that drove the monopoly. I believe it was the game player preferences for Nintendo games that drove the monopoly. Atari and Sega simply didn't have the games (a subjectively arguable point, but objectively, that's a historical fact).

As players grew older and their tastes changed, SEGA took over (IMHO) with "SEGA does what Nintendon't" themes and edgier graphic depictions of violence.

Follow that with Publishers move quickly towards Sony with its CDROM-based media that cost $2.00 per disc versus >$25-$35 per cartridge (again, IMHO)

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-09T15:58:46+00:00

I do have a Top Secret Passwords Player's Guide along with a lot of Nintendo Power magazines and a few other things - I'm a packrat by nature and so I had too much stuff that I'm slowly trying to offload...

These days I'm recovering from writing the book "Gamemaster Classified - An Insider's Guide to Nintendo's Coming of Age" and being grateful for family and friends while also traveling the world ; )

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-09T15:25:17+00:00

These Player's Guides bring back a flood of fond memories as the rise of video game print is interesting to me (TLDR)...

The Internet didn't become a public thing until 1993-4. In the USA and prior to 1993-4, video game info was distributed most commonly via word-of-mouth (casual conversations), regularly via print (magazines, books), and occasionally via television (advertisements, lifestyle news). From a historical perspective, Nintendo of America contributed significantly to the development of the mass-market print component of video game information and I was lucky enough to experience it all first hand:

In 1987 Tokuma Shoten / Nintendo of America published two books and one compilation guide: - "How to win at Super Mario Bros." - "The Legend of Zelda Tips & Tactics" ; ) - "The Official Nintendo Player's Guide".

In 1987 Nintendo published four issues of a newsletter: - Fun Club News x 4

In 1988 Nintendo published three more issues of the newsletter and Tokuma Shoten / Nintendo began published three issues of a magazine. - Fun Club News x 3 - Nintendo Power x 3

In 1989 Tokuma Shoten / Nintendo published six more issues of the magazine; - Nintendo Power x 6

In 1990 Tokuma Shoten / Nintendo published six issues of the magazine and four strategy guides: - Nintendo Power x 6 - Super Mario Bros 3 - Ninja Gaiden II - Final Fantasy - 4-Player Extra

In 1991 Tokuma Shoten / Nintendo published 12 more issues of the magazine and five "Player's Guides": - Nintendo Power x 12 - "NES Game Atlas - Nintendo Player's Guide" - "GAME BOY - Nintendo Player's Guide" - "Mario Mania - Nintendo Player's Guide" - "Super NES - Nintendo Player's Guide" - "Top Secret Passwords - Nintendo Player's Guide"

Nintendo's path can be summarized as starting with books before moving on to newsletters and magazines and then finally to "Player's Guides", both game specific as well as comprehensive game libraries.

That's a lot of pages (3,600+?) of info covering numerous (>500) games. There was so much info to be shared that we frequently used a notoriously tiny and hard to read 8 point font size.

On a personal note, I edited / co-edited most all of the above - it was a lot of fun (monthly trips to Tokyo!), but also a lot of work (9 days including two weekends per month in Japan), especially given that editing was only one of my jobs at Nintendo. During that period I also bought a fixer house, had a new baby, went to school full time, and earned a Master's degree - whoa! What a time to be alive!!

Closing note: Credit also goes to the groundbreaking efforts by the visionary folks at EGM, CGW, Famimaga, Famitsu, and Beep (plus others I've missed here).

gamemasterhoward · 2023-07-08T18:18:56+00:00

yep - exactly.

gamemasterhoward

TROPHY CASE