Camp Hyrule
 | |
Type of site | Virtual Camp / Internet Forum |
|---|---|
| Owner | Nintendo of America |
| Created by | Nintendo and Lithium Technologies |
| URL | http://www.camphyrule.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | August 15th, 1995 |
Camp Hyrule is an annual, week-long virtual camp sponsored by Nintendo of America. Camp Hyrule offers many Nintendo fans a fun, creative, and secure setting for interacting and making new friends. Furthermore, Camp Hyrule is Nintendo's largest official online function.
Basic Information
Camp Hyrule is essentially a virtual reality simulation of a summer camp. The camp’s counselors, are primary made up of a roster of Nintendo of America employees and various columnists from Nintendo Power. While attending camp, all participants are ordered into specific cabins, and then advocated to compete with each other in online contests for prizes and bragging rights. This inter-cabin competition is the highlight of every camp, and encourages a friendly rivalry between members of different cabins.
While a majority of participants are attracted to Camp Hyrule by special emails from Nintendo, a substantial number of participants come from the Nintendo’s official online community, the Nintendo NSider Forums. Furthermore, in recent years, Nintendo has turned to the NSider community for additional moderators to help supervise and regulate chatrooms and forums.
The camp itself is eponymous to the fictional land of “Hyrule”, the homeland of Legend of Zelda protagonist Link. Although the camp promotes many other Nintendo-based franchises, it should be noted that the camp’s main themes heavily revolve around the Legend of Zelda franchise. Also, throughout the course of the camp’s session, there will always be a streak of planned supernatural mysterious occurrences, which help add a sense of humor and suspense to the camp’s already playful atmosphere. Despite these occult happenings, the camp still retains a genuine out door feel, by allowing campers to partake in various athletic activities and crafts.
The camp's official mascot is Stumpy, a cross between a horse and a cow. Stumpy debuted in 2000 and has returned every year since.
Activities
Camp Hyrule is home to a plethora of fun activities. It allows participants to chat with their peers on its Live Chat Rooms. Participants are allowed to chat in their designated cabins, and on various other chat rooms located throughout the website.
Also, cabin moderators will encourage their cabin mates to participate in various activities, including Photoshopping Nintendo themed images, writing fan fics, and playing Adobe Flash games. In doing so, participants will earn points for their cabin. At the end of the week, the Cabin that earned the most points will receive various prizes, such as commemorative championship Stumpy T-shirts (2005), Majora's Mask posters (2000), and downloadable material such as screensavers and desktop wallpapers.
Themes
Every year, Camp Hyrule features a new theme, which usually revolves around an upcoming Nintendo game or console. Furthermore, the counselors of the camp will always engineer a witty and humorous set of mysterious events, which often lead to a shocking climax and resolution towards the end of camp. This is known as the yearly "end-of-camp disaster." Examples include the moon from Majora's Mask crashing down in 2000, and an avalanche (a reference to 1080 Avalanche snowboarding) in 2003.
Registration
Nintendo usually opens registration for Camp Hyrule in July. In order to register, one must first acquire a "My Nintendo" account, and then visit the official Camp Hyrule website for further instructions. Usually, Camp Hyrule will receive much hype from Nintendo Power, and the Nintendo NSider Forums. Furthermore, Camp Hyrule will greatly augment activity on the NSider Forums, as most of its members and moderators will temporarily leave to participate on Camp Hyrule's online community.
Notable Landmarks
Camp Hyrule features several landmarks which have appeared year after year on the campgrounds:
- NOA HQ, a chatroom exclusive to Nintendo of America employees. It also serves as the camp's command center.
- Trading Post, an area where updates regarding announcements, contests, and other miscellaneous information are disseminated to users by camp counselors.
- First Aid Hut, an area which offers users technical support.
- The Amphitheater, a chatroom which hosts special events, such as interviews from Nintendo officials, and the camp’s annual closing ceremony.
- Lake Webaconda, an area which features games related to water sport activities, such as fishing and boating.
- The Bonfire, usually the camp's largest "general discussion" chat room.
- Stumpy's Stable, where users can play a game in which they feed Stumpy, the camp's mascot.
- The Lost Woods, a chatroom for discussion of the Legend of Zelda series.
- Mr. Pickle's Crib, NOA_Shaun's chat room. At Camp Hyrule 2005 it was a secret chat while in 2006 it was a public room.
- Maniac's Cave, a secret chat inside Camp Hyrule.
History
- Camp Hyrule was first held from August 15 to August 19, 1995 on AOL.
- In 1997, Camp Hyrule was moved from AOL to www.nintendo.com
- In 1999, Camp Hyrule moved to the more familiar "www.camphyrule.com".
- In 2002, registration quotas were finally removed due to popular request. Prior to 2002, Camp Hyrule was limited to the 500-2000 registrants, thus causing intense competition and often overloading the servers.
- In 2002, a majority of the Camp's themes were renamed to make the camp more Nintendo related.
Summary of past camps
| Year | Held | Signup | Theme | Highlights | Winner
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 (12th) |
August 14-18 at www.camphyrule.com | July 25-28 | Outer Space | The camp was moved into outer space, only to be attacked by viruses,meteors and a blackhole in yet another "invalid login" year. On the last day, the camp slipped through a wormhole and was warped back in time to the 1998 campground. | Cabin TBA |
| 2005 (11th) |
August 15-19 at www.camphyrule.com | July 26-28 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | All of Camp Hyrule has fallen under the dark shadow of the Twilight Realm. A fire broke out on the last day, burning the camp. | Cabin 9 |
| 2004 (10th) |
August 16-20 at www.camphyrule.com | July 27-30 | Nintendo DS | The Solar panels on the DS factory were destroyed, and the campsite suffered a flash flood on the last day of camp. Camp Hyrule 2004 Map. | Cabin 1 |
| 2003 (9th) |
August 15-19 at www.camphyrule.com | July 27-29 | 1080º Avalanche | The infamous King K. Rool devastated the camp with a massive earthquake; Also, a mysterious metroid haunted the camp's loft Camp Hyrule 2003 Map. | Cabin 2 |
| 2002 (8th) |
August 17-21 at www.camphyrule.com | July 28-30 | Super Mario Sunshine | The campsite was plagued with graffiti and litter, which was gradually cleaned up as the week progressed. | Cabin 5 |
| 2001 (7th) |
August 13-17 at www.camphyrule.com | August 2; first 2000 only | Nintendo GameCube | The Nintendo GameCube's blueprints were mysteriously stolen; on the last day Bowser wrecked camp. More 2001 CH info. Archived '01 layout. | |
| 2000 (6th) |
August 7-11 at www.camphyrule.com | first 1000 only | The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask | On the last day of camp, the moon from Majora's Mask fell on the campsite, forcing an abrupt "evacuation | |
| 1999 (5th) |
August 16-20 at www.camphyrule.com | ? | ? | Known infamously as the "Invalid Login" year. More 1999 CH info. Archived '99 layout. | |
| 1998 (4th) |
www.nintendo.com | ? | ? | ? | |
| 1997 (3rd) |
August 18-22 at www.nintendo.com | ? | ? | A mysterious fiend flew NOA Dan's boxers. They were stolen the stolen the next day, resulting in desperate scavenger hunt to reclaim them. More 1997 CH info. | |
| 1996 (2nd) |
AOL | ? | ? | ? | |
| 1995 (1st) |
AOL | ? | ? | ? |
Awards
Each year, a special award ceremony is held at the end of camp. Usually, the award categories are revealed to users on the fourth day of camp. Despite the prodigious number of participants, all users are eligible to win a specific award. In order to cast a vote, one must send an email to the counselors, and provide a complete list of users, of whom they feel are most worth of each award.
After all the votes are counted, the master of ceremonies will reveal the results on the final day at the award segment of the closing ceremonies. The closing ceremonies are by far the most popular event of the week, drawing large crowds, often leading to bandwidth issues.