Ten years of Before Mario book memories

Last October (2024), I posted this image on social media, announcing that the Before Mario book was officially sold out. All stock had been depleted, and there were no current plans for another print run.

Originally published a little over a decade ago, I thought this would be a good moment to reflect on the journey of the book and share some memories from that time.

How it started

I have always been a collector first and foremost, with a growing passion for vintage Nintendo items.

The Before Mario collection back in 2007

In 2011, I started this blog, thinking it would be fun to share stories and information about my collection and Nintendo’s early history. 

At the time, there was very little information available online about this period of Nintendo, and the blog quickly found an engaged and growing audience.

The first review of the blog, in Edge magazine

Over the next three years, I covered a lot of ground, publishing 180 blog posts. Then, in January 2014, I received a proposal from Nintendo historian and publisher Florent Gorges, founder of Omaké Books, to turn part of the blog into a book.

I loved the idea and quickly reached an agreement with Florent to move forward with the project.

Getting to work

Although the original plan was to reuse content from the blog, I decided to reshoot all the photography specifically for the book to ensure the best possible print quality.

Meet the Collectors - #13 - Elijah Luttmann

Today I am happy to welcome another collector in our intermittent series of Meet the Collectors!

Let's hand over the mic to Elijah!

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"Hello I’m Elijah Luttmann and I live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania USA. I’m 19 years old and I am currently at college to learn the Chinese language."

"My earliest memories of playing Nintendo are from the early 2010s. I believed it was at my cousins’ house and we played MarioKart Wii. My cousins got me into Nintendo but it wasn’t until around 2017 when I began researching Nintendo’s history and found out how old it was. The first pre-videogame Nintendo item I got was in 2022 and it was the Ultra Machine."

"Pretty much all of my vintage collection comes from eBay but hopefully I can start using Yahoo! Auctions as they have good prices. Sometimes my computer will be full of tabs with item listings that I hope to get."

"Nintendo’s history before games is not well covered and is sometimes overlooked because of how difficult it is to find information on this era. Just hearing the stories of how certain Nintendo toys came to be is fascinating and I love talking about it with those who are interested. As a young child I would actually make my own versions of these products such as the playing cards. I would copy the images by hand."

Elijah's hand-drawn version of a Nintendo promotional item from 1915

"The Paper Model kits are one item I am fond of because I bought them from Nikita Shogov (another collector featured on this site). It's great to see collectors passing off part of  their collection to others." 

"The Color TV Game 6 means a lot to me because it was released around the same time as Shigeru Miyamoto joined Nintendo. Miyamoto is someone I admire a lot for his creativity and passion. When I see these toys I want to be able to tell the stories behind them. For example the Ultra Hand was created by Gunpei Yokoi and it was a toy he made out of scrap parts at Nintendo. Yamauchi saw the potential in Yokoi and it led to him creating some of the most innovative toys and eventually video game innovations."

Nintendo ad in 1960s Playboy magazine

When MB's Twister was first released in the 1960s, Nintendo acquired the rights to localize the game for the Japanese market.

Various box versions of Nintendo Twister

Nintendo targeted the game at families as well as groups of young adults.

As we showed in a previous post on this blog, to connect with the latter group, they sponsored editorial content and placed an ad in Men's Club magazine.

Men's Club magazine November 1967 

I recently discovered another ad that was included in the Japanese magazine Weekly Playboy (週刊プレイボーイ).

As an aside, this Playboy magazine is not affiliated with the internationally renowned publication featuring the rabbit logo (which first appeared in the Japanese market in the mid-1970s), although the content is similar. This publication simply shares the same name—likely not by coincidence.

In the August 8, 1966 edition, we find a full-page ad by Nintendo strategically placed next to that week's centerfold model (referred to, again probably not coincidentally, as a "Playmate").

Kyoto October 2nd 2024, late at night

On October 2nd 2024 the Nintendo Museum opened in Kyoto, Japan.

I was lucky to visit that first day.

Here's what I posted on Twitter that night:

It is after midnight here in Kyoto, and I finally found some time to process the (opening) day at the Nintendo Museum.

It is too early for a full report and review, but I give you 10 things that gave me joy today, and 2 things that can be improved (imo).

Good thing number 1: Nintendo!

This may be a bit obvious, but the Nintendo Museum is a Museum about Nintendo. Only Nintendo. The entire museum!

Good thing number 2: The Nintendo community!

We met so many cool, friendly and positive people today. As a place for this group of like-minded folks to meet each other, it is awesome.

Good thing number 3: the vintage games and toys collection on display!

For me very important, and I must admit I was a bit worried about this after the Nintendo Direct, but the museum did not disappoint at all in this department; it surpassed expectations.