Camp Hyrule
Camp Hyrule is Nintendo of America's free, annual, five-day virtual camp, held at www.camphyrule.com since August 1995. Camp Hyrule 2005 was held from August 15 to August 19, 2005; in order to attend, campers pre-registered between July 26 and July 28. The camp is named after Hyrule, the fictional setting of most Legend of Zelda games, and its mascot is Stumpy, a cross between a horse and cow. Nintendo employees take on the role of "counselors," who host live chats with the campers, and work to make sure each Camp Hyrule runs as smoothly as possible. Since 2003, a group of moderators from the Nsider forums have become the Stumpy Stable Crew on Camp Hyrule, moderating the boards, planning minor events (such as trivia), and assisting the NOAs with running the camp.
Upon attending camp, each camper is assigned a virtual cabin. The main highlight is the inter-cabin competition, which lasts throughout the duration of the entire camp. Each day, campers are assigned tasks for which points are awarded. Some past examples include poetry submissions, "face painting" using Photoshop (see Photoshopping), and game tournaments. Thursday of camp is traditionally known as "double-point day" -- campers receive twice the number of points for completed tasks. The three cabins with the most points at the end of each camp are awarded with downloadable screensavers, wallpapers, and other prizes. Nintendo has given away physical prizes via snail mail twice. In 2000, members of the top cabin received posters via snail mail; in 2005, a T-shirt of Stumpy was handed out.
In addition, Camp Hyrule also features numerous chat rooms (one for every cabin and point of attraction) as well as Macromedia Flash games inspired by Nintendo's console video games. Some notable points of attraction include Lake Webaconda, a flash-game arcade home to fishing, rafting, and diving games; the Trading Post, where each day's events and activities are announced; the First Aid Hut, a troubleshooting and bug-report area; and the Amphitheater, a chat room for live chats, the closing ceremonies and other big events.
Before August 2002, Camp Hyrule was open to limited quotas of usually 2,000 maximum campers. However, since then, anyone who registers during the designated registration period is allowed to attend, but pre-registration is still a necessity. This year camp hyrule's registration takes place July 25 through July 27.
Each year, Nintendo designs the campgrounds on a theme, usually based off a major video game or console release that year. Examples of this can be found in the summary of past camps below.
It is also notable that on the official website, it displays a sign next to link telling the reader camp is "238,857 Miles Away". Coincidentally, that is also the distance the moon is from the earth. This may or may not refer to a possible 2006 Camp Hyrule set on the Earth's Moon. This may be an allusion to Super Mario Galaxy.
Summary of past camps
| Year | Held | Registration | Theme | Camp Highlights | Winning Cabin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | August 14-18 at www.camphyrule.com | July 25-27 | The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass/Nintendo Wii/Super Mario Galaxy (Unconfirmed) | ? | ? |
| 2005 | 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. Fire breaks out on the last day, burning the camp down. | Cabin 9 |
| 2004 | 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 | August 15-19 at www.camphyrule.com | July 27-29 | 1080º Avalanche | Cracks on the campsite enlarged as the week progressed, eventually leading to an earthquake on the last day. Camp Hyrule 2003 Map.Archived '03 layout. | Cabin 2 |
| 2002 | August 17-21 at www.camphyrule.com | July 28-30 | Super Mario Sunshine | Graffiti and litter on the campsite was gradually cleaned up as the week progressed. | Cabin 5 |
| 2001 | August 13-17 at www.camphyrule.com | August 2; first 2000 only | Nintendo GameCube | GameCube blueprints were stolen; on the last day Bowser wrecked camp. More 2001 CH info. Archived '01 layout. | |
| 2000 | 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 it to be "evacuated." More 2000 CH info. Archived '00 layout. | |
| 1999 | August 16-20 at www.camphyrule.com | ? | ? | Known infamously as the "Invalid Login" year. More 1999 CH info. Archived '99 layout. | |
| 1998 | www.camphyrule.com | ? | ? | ? | |
| 1997 | August 18-22 at www.camphyrule.com | ? | ? | NOA Dan's boxers flew high on Thursday, and on Friday were stolen. Scavenger hunt was put into place for them. More 1997 CH info. | |
| 1996 | AOL | ? | ? | ? | |
| 1995 | AOL | ? | ? | ? |
Awards
At the end of Camp Hyrule, the annual awards ceremony is held. Award categories are revealed on the 4th day of camp, at which time voting is also open. During the voting time, all campers are eligible to nominate one fellow camper for an award that the voter feels is deserved by another camper. Votes are sent by E-Mail to the NOA counselors, who then tally up the votes.
During the closing ceremony, which is held on the 5th and last day of camp, the winners of each award are announced. This attraction has drawn huge crowds to the live chat where they are held, which early on could potentially crash the system with the volume of traffic.
Awards are given for various attributes that a camper shows, such as "Fastest typer," "Best speller," or "Most knowledgeable about Camp Hyrule history." Each award has a specific name, as well. For example, in 2004 the "Triforce Award" was given to the camper voted "Camper Who Spent the Most Time in Chat" that year. However, the names of the awards can change and shift around, and are not always the same from year to year. In 2002, the award names were changed to be more Nintendo-centric. Before, awards were named after popular television shows, actors, singers, historical figures, etc.
A negative effect of these awards is that throughout the camp's duration (and particularly on the last day), there are a great number of solicitations for votes in the chat rooms and forums. However, camp leaders have never been known to take any actions to curb the annoyance.