Super Gold Controller Club

Does anyone else remember the Nintendo Super Power Club? The way you got in was buying issues of Nintendo Power; I had a subscription to the magazine from around 1990 through 1997. After a while you were kind of enrolled in this club - or cult, which is more like Nintendo's style - and through this, you were able to spend even more money on Nintendo products. Now, it's not the same as the current Club Nintendo, where you register your purchases and get rewards (at least, I don't believe so. There were proof of purchase tags on games and things, I think?). In any event, there are two elements to the inevitable story:

1. You would receive "Power Stamps" every so often in your subscription to the magazine;
2. You could redeem those stamps towards goods in a catalogue of neat products that would arrive periodically.

I'm a collector by nature, so I held onto these stamps for ages. I cut them out and had them in a drawer in my bedroom, safely sealed away and remembered their location to a higher degree than any GPS could offer now. I believe it was 1996, or 1997, that Goldeneye was coming out on the Nintendo 64. Around this time the magazine offered a special, limited edition N64 controller: it was all gold (coloured, mind you). I believe it was a celebration of some anniversary (100th issue of Nintendo Power), and it coincided nicely into the Goldeneye game that had taken over our lives at the time. This was the moment I had been waiting for. I saved up around forty of these precious stamps, which was enough to cover the cost of this precious controller entirely.

Filling out all the forms, and putting the pile of stamps together, I sent away for the controller. I was beaming: this was exciting. There were never very many opportunities back then to get a hold of limited edition video game stuff. I eagerly awaited by the mailbox for weeks, until one day, a wild envelope from Nintendo appears. It was an envelope, a small rectangular, carefully folded piece of paper, containing nothing but more paper. There were no electronics inside.

Running upstairs, I ripped the "package" open and read the letter inside. It was grim. I didn't include enough power stamps to cover the cost of the controller. The details escape me, but I swear I was only two or three short. Was it the taxes that killed me? Did I miscount the stamps? These things allude me to this day, but the fact was: I had to give them more money. I don't remember how, exactly - perhaps my parents wrote a cheque for the difference, perhaps I tumbled a bunch of quarters in) - but I sent it off again, and waited through more weeks of anguished excitement.

Another envelope appears. They are out of stock.

There was nothing more crushing at the time. This limited edition was limited and I missed the boat. They sent me brand new power stamps, but they were worthless to me. A short time later I think the Power Club or whatever it was, was dissolved and any opportunity to use them vanished. They still exist in a box somewhere, I'm sure, but I couldn't tell you exactly.

Fast forward more than a dozen years later and Nintendo is releasing a gold Classic Controller for the Wii, bundled with the Goldeneye remake. Of course, I buy it immediately, but it's not satisfying. I'm not sure obtaining the original N64 gold controller would make me happy anymore. I got over the loss, right? What reminds me of this is doing the pre-order for Skyward Sword, that includes the gold Wii-mote. My younger self momentarily took control in the games shop and with access to disposable income - something missing when I was a teenager - I was able to secure the newest gold controller without any doubt. I picked it up on release day, opened the package and held it in my hand. I flipped it around, looked at the decals on the front, then returned the controller to its box. That box was closed up and put on the shelf. I'm unsure at this point if I'll ever play the game, or even use that gold controller. But I can rest easy knowing it's there, and knowing that that gold N64 is out there too: for the right price.