Happy 25th Birthday Nintendo Database

28th June 2001 – 28th June 2026

It's been quarter of a century since I first put some Nintendo related content on the internet under the banner of "Nintendo Database".

I thought I'd celebrate properly this year! And what better way than to take a trip down memory lane. I've prepared some throwback content and dressed it all up in this nostalgic fascimile of the original NinDB layout from 2001.

What do you think? It's very blue! Colour contrast be damned!

Throwback Content

Read on to find out more about the origin and history of the website, or take a detour to one of these classic archives.

(The navigation on the left will take you back to Modern NinDB.)

The Origin Story

I had spent my teenage years cutting my teeth on HTML by working on defunct websites like Super Mario Bros. HQ, DarcSyde and Pocket Monster Island.

In 2000 I put together a little text file cameo guide which I republish here for your pleasure.

But it was E3 2001, and this very IGN video of the trophy mode in Super Smash Bros. Melee that made me go "Who on Earth are these guys?!".

I reached out to users on the Pocket Monster Island forums to help me identify them all. I started digging for Nintendo published games and found a plethora of early titles, Japan-only releases and obscurities.

From there, the first seeds of NinDB were sown.

The very first update

28th June 2001

- No info up yet, just testing out the layout before I start working on the whole SSI madness. Keep your eyes peeled.

Thrilling stuff and worthy of celebration, I think you'll agree! (The real updates came the following day.)

The Many Moves (and Faces) of NinDB

The website was originally hosted on Tripod. The site quickly grew too large and had a little too much traffic to stay on a freehost.

The games publishing machine Gamespy had started hosting fan-made videogame websites. In 2002, after almost a month of downtime, Nintendo Database found a new home under their Classicgaming wing and then Planet Nintendo. Here, the website greatly expanded.

A further change of address was to follow in 2006 when Gamespy consolidated its fan-site categories and NinDB was moved to classicgaming.com.

In 2009, IGN-Gamespy announced that they were closing all their fan-made servers. This time, the website's saviour was the Konfiskated Teknologies Network, who were hosting long-time affiliate The Mushroom Kingdom as well as rescuing a bunch of other sites from the closure. I coughed up for the domain nindb.net and continued tinkering with it to this very day.

Go on a Magical History Tour with the Wayback Machine

From There to Here

When I started NinDB, I was on the cusp of going to university. It was my summer project. I threw every waking hour at it. And thanks to prudent course selection, I was able to spend a lot of time working on it over the next 3 years as well.

But adulthood arrived. I got a job, had relationships, and eventually got married and started a family.

NinDB never brought in a penny. It was a labour of love. And as much as I adored the community that built up around it, the website swallowed all my time and gave very little back. It became very hard to stay motivated.

I believed I was an archivist. That by collating all this information in one place, I was performing a service for Nintendo fans. But let's be honest… that role was defunct as soon as Wikis became a thing. It took a long time for me to understand that and figure out how to get my mojo back.

Over the past few years, I've realised that what I loved about NinDB was the adventure of learning new and obscure things. I loved cameo hunting. I loved digging into old games. I loved getting excited about new games, rather than seeing them as a chore to add to my website.

And that's why I'm no longer treating NinDB as an archive, but a place for me to share my deep-dives into Nintendo's past. I'm so proud of the latest batch of game guides and I can't wait to finish some more. I also want to start filling in the missing cameos. There's so many! It'll be fun!

I don't know how many more years NinDB will be around, but quarter of a century is not a bad innings. I intend to keep tinkering and adding to it for as long as I still have love for obscure old Nintendo games in my heart.

Thanks for quarter of a century.

~Fryguy64~