The Museum of Screens Research Team: Camp Hyrule

The Research Team is a serie of blog post about preserving the history of web game that are no more.

Camp Hyrule (2000)

In the early years of the Internet, the main way brands used to engage with their consumers was via their own website, and they often hosted Flash Games. Those games could go from basic minigame with images of the brand everywhere, to more elaborated ones. It was especially true for videogame companies, who often produced small Flash games to promote upcoming releases.

Most of those are well known and preserved, but there is one artifactg of the past that and can’t be replicated anymore. A true product of its time: Camp Hyrule.

Camp Hyrule was an online event hosted by Nintendo every summer from 1995 to 2007. It was conceived like a summer camp: you had to register and places were limited. When you were in, you had access to a bunch of activities themed around summer and Nintendo games of the time, released or upcoming.

The concept might seem strange but it is quite simple to understand. It was in fact a very typical website of the time dressed in an original way: There were chatrooms, forums, events and contests, and Flash minigames. The interfaces made it all look like a place to travel, and there were also events that altered the look of the camp and the available activities. And then when it was done, it was done. Each year the summer camp was different with completely different activities and games. So even though the activities were not exceptionals, being part of it felt very special.

Camp Hyrule (2003)

Today, what remains of Camp Hyrule? Well, people have archived many of the games, some of the parts of the interactive website, and the major events were listed (The Wikipedia page is very torough). But it is far from being fully preserved. And how could it be? It was a timed event that can’t be replicated anymore. Without the community, the chatrooms, the forums, the timed events, it’s now just a loose collection of Flash files and not much else. It reside in the memories of the peoples who actually took part in it. I hope some day I will stumble upon some blog when someone who was here wrote about their experience and how it was at the time. And I’m super bummed out those kind of things are not done anymore.