Nintendo Table Soccer (テーブル サッカー, 1965)

Baseball has long been one of Japan's premiere sporting pastimes, for spectators as well as for participants. This is reflected in a number of baseball related toys and games that were released by Nintendo, including Baseball Board and the very successful batting practice Ultra Machine.

In the 1960s, soccer (football) also became popular in Japan. So it was almost inevitable that Nintendo would introduce some soccer based games.

Nintendo Table Soccer (1965)

The first soccer game Nintendo released is called Table Soccer. It was released in 1965 for the reasonable price of ¥400.

Table Soccer is a sports simulation game, simliar to the game of Subbuteo.

Nintendo Extra 4 (エクストラ４, 1972)

Nintendo's products have long been associated with gambling. During the first fifty years of the company's existence, their hanafuda cards were frequently used for (illegal) gambling practices by the Yakuza.

When Nintendo started producing family games and party games in the 1960s, gambling remained a popular theme - but now as activity for an innocent domestic setting, involving make-believe money.

Some examples of this are the Las Vegas and Casino board games and various standard Roulette games. Another interesting gambling game is Extra 4, shown here.

Vintage Nintendo items for sale

As mentioned in a previous post, I have been busy clearing out my collection. All doubles must go, to make some room for new items.

The first batch of vintage Nintendo items has now been sold.

This included Nintendo N&B Block sets, People House sets, Color TV-Game consoles (a rare TV-Game 6, two Block Kuzushi and two Racing 112), a Kousenjuu Duck Hunt set and an original Love Tester. Check out the images below to get an idea of what was available.

A second batch of items will be auctioned in the near future. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Nintendo Magic Roulette (マジック ルーレット, ca 1966)

In the 1960s and 70s, Nintendo released many different Roulette sets.

Some of the many Roulette sets released by Nintendo

Most of these were traditional roulette games, with a standard spinning wheel and a single white ball.

Besides these, Nintendo also designed a couple of original games that are more loosely based on roulette. One example of this is Magic Roulette, shown here.

Nintendo Magic Roulette (ca 1966)

Nintendo aimed these games at an adult audience.