To help us with the celebration of our favorite plumber’s birthday, Dylan Ranson over at Scribd.com posted the very first issue of the Nintendo Power magazine. It’s definitely an eye opening trip down memory lane that is sure to call back late night gaming sessions in pajamas while drinking juice boxes and eating cheetoes.

Some of the games mentioned in the magazine I had, including Major League Baseball (still one of my favorite baseball games to this day). The artwork and explanation of Super Mario 2 is just laughable, but was really needed at the time. I look back and didn’t realize just how incredible it was for a game to allow you pick up enemies and chuck them?

And let’s not forget the “Powerline to the Pros”, a telephone line for gamers to call in with hard hitting questions on how to defeat Birdo. Wow. I mean, I guess I just see in my head a group of pimply faced teenagers in a tech support call center with rotary phones talking video games to kids on the other line. I wonder if something like this would fly with today’s gamers? Probably not. Most of us just search the internet anyway to find cheats, walkthroughs, FAQs, and talk with fellow gamers that way. Man how times have changed for Mario and the rest of the gaming world. Happy Birthday Mario, here’s a Rick James five finger smack to the face! POW!

[Nintendo Power Episode 1 via Dylan Ranson at Scribd.com]