Nintendo Electro Poker (エレクトロ ポーカー, 1971)

In a previous post, we looked at the Jumping Bottle light gun target. Now that made perfect sense: shooting at bottles, be it in a safe electronic toy format.

Today it is the turn of a slightly less obvious shooting target: Electro Poker.

The idea here is to combine playing a variant of poker with light gun shooting. A bit like an indoors biathlon.

Each time you hit the target, the five wheels holding pictures of various playing cards will start turning individually. After some time they stop and show a certain combination of cards, which then determines your score. Much like throwing dice in dice poker.

Nintendo Kôsenjû SP Electro Poker target - version 1 (1971)

Electro Poker (エレクトロ ポーカー) was sold as a loose 'target' (ターゲット), without a gun or riffle.

It is part of the Kôsenjû SP series (光線銃SP).

In order to play it, you need one of the Kôsenjû SP guns and riffles that were sold separately.

Electro Poker was released in 1971, one year after the launch of the Kôsenjû SP series.

The game comes in two color variants.

The one shown here has an off-white plastic house and a blue face-plate.

Instruction manual

The light sensor is clearly visible at the top of the face plate.

A battery door can be found at the back.

Electro Poker requires three batteries. One 9 volt block that feeds the electronics, and 2 C cells (UM-2) that power the spinning wheels.

In order to make the game a bit challenging, the shooting distance should be about 5 meters.

A plastic score card is included, which shows the points awarded to specific combinations of cards.

The top score of 30 points is awarded for a royal straight flush (ローヤル ストレートフラッシュ). The ace of spades depicts the familiar Nintendo card logo with the letter 'N' in the middle, used in most of Nintendo's playing cards.

Electro Poker comes in two color variants. They only differ in color and retailed for the same price: ¥3,800.

The second color version has a red house and black face-plate.

The box color is also different: greenish-grey instead of the bright orange of the other box.

Nintendo Kôsenjû SP Electro Poker target - version 2 (1971)

Of all targets in the Kôsenjû SP series, these targets are the most rare.

Of the two Electro Poker versions, the white one is the most difficult to track down these days.

Related post: Kôsenjû SP series introduction.