Who remembers Camp Hyrule?

As I've been reminiscing about summers past, Campy Hyrule came to mind. Campy Hyrule was a short online summer camp that Nintendo organized for 13 years straight. There were silly flash games, contests, and the promotion of video games. Most importantly, however, was the development of little communities in the form of cabins. You were assigned to a cabin, which was associated with a chat room and forum where you could meet other Nintendo fans.

I participated one year, in 2004, and loved. It was pretty dumb, but it was exciting to see what silly things took place each day, and to be exposed to an entirely new online community. The two following years I couldn't participate, and after that, they killed it. It was quite sad to see it go.

So, any bombers ever spend time in Camp Hyrule? Have any fun memories?

I didn't go but I wish I had. That sounds amazing! Any idea why they stopped doing it?

I went for 2 years. It's weird how many great memories I have from it. I still have a Stumpy T-Shirt from being in the winning cabin one year! That and the Nsider forums were some of my favorite early online memories.

That sounds like so much fun! Urgh, curses that I never knew of its existence. =[

The fuck is an "Online Summer Camp"

I don't get how that- wat

That's like, maybe the biggest misuse of a phrase I've ever seen

Never heard about it, but it sounds pretty silly - and, no offense to anyone, but it sounds like a gross misuse of "summer camp".

Yeah, I participated the summer before Animal Crossing and Mario Sunshine came out (01, 02?). Most of my memories of it involving getting chewed out by angry and obnoxious kids.

@BoG said:

The two following years I couldn't participate, and after that, they killed it. It was quite sad to see it go.

I'm getting so many weird mental images from this, of your Camp Hyrule alter-ego returning from the pixelated woods to find it in flames and then going on a Conan-esque quest of revenge on Nintendo. I also just woke up and I'm kind of hung over, so feel free to /ignore me.

@EuanDewar: @Village_Guy: No, I agree, it's a silly phrase. Of course, it was more a theme than anything else. The main page was designed like a camp, and there were summer camp and Nintendo themed pages associated with it. For example, you could go to the lake to play flash games, or go to the mess hall to chat with other "campers." It wasn't really a summer camp, and I think that we all realized this.

@ascholzk: I'm jealous! My cabin got second place. I agree with you though, about the memories. It's strange how mesmerizing it was in my youth. Though only temporary, the community felt so much more tight-knit than most long term web communities. I remember my year, they had lots of tiny little ways that you could contribute. We had to make a camp banner for the forums, and we could submit user icons. One of my icons was selected, and I just felt so cool. I told everyone in the cabin.

@Grimhild: The year that I returned to find that Camp Hyrule was dead... I think your post describes how I felt emotionally.

@SexyToad: No idea. Apparently, it died with the N-Sider community. I don't know why that died, because I never used those forums.

@BoG: Yeah I mean looking back, it was essentially chat rooms, community contests, and flash games, but it definitely culminated to more than the sum of it's parts. I remember the year Camp Hyrule and N-Sider ended, SO goddamn emotional! And all the NOAs felt like camp counselors even though they were just the mods! And each year something completely went to shit and it was so intriguing.

@ascholzk: I know! In my youth, mods were totally a lot cooler in my eyes, but the NOA dude were like gods. I mean, they weren't merely moderators, but camp counselors who worked for Nintendo, the center of my childhood universe. I also remember the disasters. I was super shocked when the camp flooded my year!

Nintendo dropped all community aspects when they licensed off Nintendo Power to Future. It is amazing just how cold and corporate Nintendo is nowadays, compared to back then.

holy fuck! I forgot about Camp Hyrule! Now that brings back some memories lol

I definitely remember participating at least once.

Few memories of Camp Hyrule, but vivid memories of the Nsider forums, particularly Trivia HQ chat. I was one of the regulars there for a long time, and then stopped going for a few months.

When I came back, much to my surprise, the forums had completely shut down. It was legitimately sad. I had a lot of friends I had made there.

I signed up once, didn't understand what the heck my purpose was so I never want back...wish I did though.

Few memories of Camp Hyrule, but vivid memories of the Nsider forums, particularly Trivia HQ chat. I was one of the regulars there for a long time, and then stopped going for a few months.

When I came back, much to my surprise, the forums had completely shut down. It was legitimately sad. I had a lot of friends I had made there.

I did it once. My cabin won! Ah, what a goofy thing. To be young again...

@MikeRD: Zoda-Z.

Hell yes I remember Camp Hyrule! That shit was on Nintendo Power every Summer. 

I never participated in Camp Hyrule, but I did spend a good bit of time on the NSider forums.

I remember lurking, but never posting, on the Nsider forums frequently. I don't recall much, but I do remember enough to know that I probably would make fun of everyone who posted there if it still existed to this day, though my 11 or 12 year old self thought it quite cool.

Never heard of it. What years did it take place?

Oh man, I had completely forgotten about that shindig until this thread. The NSider forums were the first real game forums of any sort I ever participated in and was probably where I made my first Internet friends. Pretty sure I participated in Camp Hyrule at least the same year as BoG and I think I also did it for one or two other years, although I never got super into any of the activities because of life commitments and general laziness at the time. If any of you remember HPFan from the forums, that was me. Despite not having been there in years, it was still a bit of a depressing day to discover they had shut that place down and didn't even care to archive it.

@Pepsiman said:

Despite not having been there in years, it was still a bit of a depressing day to discover they had shut that place down and didn't even care to archive it.

We've all felt that pain, in one way or another. Except for me, it was with a Fire Emblem board, back when the SNES translations were still happening.

Yes, I remember participating one year, and something about a mascot named Stumpy. It would be cool if they brought it back, especially considering how much social networking has changed since I last went there.

Hell yeah, Camp Hyrule! I did it back in 97 and 98. If I remember right, those were the first two years it was at nintendo.com instead of AOL. Yes, I'm old. Ah, fond memories of the days when nobody had quite figured out how the hell this whole "internet" thing was supposed to work.