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.

A Treasure in Kyoto: Rediscovering Nintendo’s First Ad from 1894

Discovering a Rare Find—Twice!

A few weeks ago, on October 2nd, I was in Kyoto, Japan, to visit the newly opened Nintendo Museum.

The day before my museum visit, I was lucky to view a historic document recently uncovered by a fellow researcher: Nintendo’s earliest known advertisement, an astonishing 130 years old.

And a day after the museum visit, the discovery of a second copy of that document was truly remarkable.

The earliest known advertisement by Nintendo, 130 years old

I was visiting Japan with fellow Nintendo historians and enthusiasts Florent Gorges and Fabrice Heilig. The night before the museum opening, we stayed at a special location in Kyoto: Hotel Marufukuro.

This was Nintendo's first stone-built headquarters, now renovated and remodeled as a hotel. On the second floor is a room called the "dNa Library," which houses books and artifacts that tell the story of Nintendo’s history. We are honored to have our books—one by Florent and one by me, with contributions from Fabrice—displayed in this library.

Earlier that day, Fabrice had picked an old book from a Kyoto-based antiquarian bookshop.

The shop owner had contacted Fabrice, who lives in France, a year earlier about this book in his collection but, in the end, wasn’t comfortable selling it over such a distance.

Now that Fabrice was in Kyoto for the museum opening, he seized the opportunity to acquire it in person.

As the proud new owner of this historic find, he shared it with us in the library. There could be no better place for this unveiling than Nintendo's former headquarters, located on the very site where the company was founded back in 1889. Florent recorded a video of this moment, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

While visiting the Nintendo Museum the next day, I spoke with Japanese playing card aficionado Marcus Richert, who knew of a Kyoto bookseller offering a second copy of this rare book.

Barely believing our luck, Florent and I set off the following day to investigate. Finding even one copy was a rare stroke of fortune—but discovering two seemed almost unbelievable.

Nintendo Museum's 2024 Ultra Hand Remake: honors and improves the original

The Nintendo Museum has brought back the iconic Ultra Hand from 1966! But how does this new version stack up against the original classic? Let’s dive in and find out!

The Ultra Hand within the Nintendo Museum collection

The Nintendo Ultra Hand is an important product in the history of the company. It brought Nintendo its first million-selling success as a toy maker in Japan, similar in impact at the time to how, in the early 1980s, the Game & Watch series became a sales hit on a global scale.

Back in 2011, when I started this blog, some of the earliest posts focused on the Ultra Hand and its inventor, Gunpei Yokoi.

A few years later, when releasing the Before Mario book—like the blog, also about Nintendo's 'toys and games' period before the release of the Family Computer in 1983—it was clear what should be on the front cover: the Ultra Hand.

Visiting the Nintendo Museum, October 2024

As you can image, when I visited the newly-opened Nintendo Museum a few weeks ago (a full report of which will follow later), I was curious to see how the Ultra Hand is covered there.

The second floor of the museum features a large exhibition of all of Nintendo's products, from its earliest days up to the present. I was glad that the Ultra Hand, along with many other vintage items, was on display here. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed in this area, so I can't show it here, but it was great to see that all vintage products from before the video game era were given the attention and space they deserve.

On the first floor is a large display called 'A Succession of Ideas' (アイデアの継承). And luckily, on this floor pictures are allowed.

This display visually demonstrates how the ideas behind some of Nintendo's key products have endured and evolved over time.

The Ultra Hand, shown in the top left corner, is one of these 'primordial' ideas, alongside the Ultra Machine (bottom left), Game & Watch (top right), and Love Tester (bottom right).

All four products, I should add, came from the minds of Gunpei Yokoi and his R&D team.

As an aside, the museum contains all sorts of little Easter eggs. If you look carefully at this display, you’ll spot Pikmin gathering objects—specifically, balls from the Ultra Hand set.