Nintendo takes down Nintendo Power collection from Internet Archive after noticing it

More than 100 issues of the beloved, defunct Nintendo Power magazine have gone back into the vault after a brief period of availability on the Internet Archive. Archivist Jason Scott uploaded the collection back in February, but it amassed widespread popularity last week, when Nintendo fans happened upon its wealth of nostalgic treasures.

One hundred forty-five issues dating back to 1988 were fully accessible at no cost, giving former readers a chance to rediscover more than half of Nintendo Power’s backlog. There’s no notice as to why the collection’s gone empty, but Nintendo told Polygon in a statement that it must "protect our own characters, trademarks and other content."

"The unapproved use of Nintendo's intellectual property can weaken our ability to protect and preserve it, or to possibly use it for new projects," the company said, repeating comments it made earlier today regarding the takedown of a Metroid 2 fan project.

We also reached out to Scott by email, but his latest tweet seemed to suggest that Nintendo had a hand — or Power Glove — in his Nintendo Power archive’s unceremonious removal.

For the five months that it lasted, the archive served as a reminder of Nintendo Power’s different features, from game reviews to exclusive comics to special countdowns of the best Nintendo games ever. (Not included in the archive was a copy of Dragon Warrior on NES, free to every new subscriber in 1990.)

Nintendo ceased production on the magazine in December 2012 after 24 years and 285 individual issues. The company declined to renew its licensing agreement with Future US, who took up printing the enthusiast magazine in 2007 and also runs publications about Xbox and PC gaming.

Since then, Nintendo has kept up communication with fans online through Nintendo Direct presentations, Nintendo Minute videos and the Iwata Asks series, which ended upon its namesake’s passing. Few gaming magazines, official and otherwise, remain in the shrinking print publication space.