Footage from a dated 1990s ABC News segment offers a rare glimpse at the Nintendo Power Hotline in action as a gaming counselor walks a player through The Legend of Zelda.
Nintendo Power Line – Legend of Zelda Support Call
The recorded call, which was brought out of the archives by historic, captures a unique customer service experience that was available during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In the clip, a customer calls the Nintendo Power Hotline for help advancing in the original The Legend of Zelda.
Interestingly, the advice given in the call doesn’t exactly match up with the question that was asked. The caller is asking about how to receive the White Sword and the answer given is how to receive the Magical Sword. There are three tiers of swords in this Zelda: Wooden, White, and Magical.
Getting the White Sword should only require five hearts, not twelve hearts as the customer service representative claims. It’s hard to tell whether the employee possibly misheard the question or if they just had the wrong intel for this particular question. The Magical Sword is the harder one to obtain, so it would make sense that the gaming counselor jumped to that memorized answer. It was likely a much more common question than how to get the White Sword.
History of the Nintendo Power Hotline
Despite the possible mistake in this one example, the Nintendo Power Hotline was a powerful tool for gamers before Reddit, Google, and even the internet was widely available. The Nintendo Power Hotline launched in 1987 and was around to help gamers solve problems until 2005.
At its peak, the service had a call center with over 100 people answering phones and helping players with everything from knowing how many coins it took to earn an extra life in Mario to knowing which Zelda dungeons contained specific treasures. During busy periods and holidays, the call centers would reportedly staff 200-500 game counselors across multiple shifts.
Callers paid for the service per minute and could rely on the gaming counselors to walk them through just about any challenge a Nintendo console game could throw in their path. The calls were $1.50/minute for most of the 1990s, which could make a long walkthrough call get expensive very quickly.
Counselors were allowed to play games at their desks to stay up-to-date and from a distance the position looked like a dream job to many video game fans in the early 1990s. In reality, it could be a tough job that required a very strong sense of memory and in-depth knowledge. Potential hires had to pass a written test on gaming trivia and demonstrate their skills in a play test before they could be hired. Once a gaming counsel made it through training, they were encouraged to spend their breaks playing new releases to maintain their status as experts.
The Nintendo Power Hotline shutdown in 2005.
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