There are (at least) two different versions of this sheet. The oldest one has a nice full-color picture of the Ultra Machine on the front.
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| Nintendo Ultra Machine instruction sheet - first release (front) |
The Japanese katakana name for Ultra Machine is ウルトラ マシン. On the packaging this is writing in a stylized way: somewhat slanted to give the impression of speed and the three short strokes in last two characters (シン) are made to look like flying balls.
The Ultra Machine runs on a single D (UM-1) cell, and the instructions claims that one battery is good for 3200 pitches (「乾電池１本で３２００投球」).
The front of a second version of the instruction sheet is a copy of the front of the Ultra Machine box.
Maybe Nintendo dropped the full-color picture to save some cost. The Ultra Machine sales had taken off spectacularly and it was produced in such great volumes that every couple of cents shaved off the production cost mattered.
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| Nintendo Ultra Machine instruction sheet - second release (front) |
On the back of both versions, detailed assembly and play instructions are printed.
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| Nintendo Ultra Machine instruction sheet - first release (back) |
The second version of the instruction sheet additionally has an advertisement for a Ultra Machine Spare Ball set (ウルトラ マシン 用 スペルボール), with provided 12 extra balls for only ¥100.
The Ultra Machine was also sold abroad, under the name Slugger Mate, albeit with limited success and in more modest volumes.
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| Nintendo Slugger Mate instruction sheet (front) |
The Slugger Mate came with a simliar instruction sheet, with English language instructions on the back.
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| Nintendo Slugger Mate instruction sheet (back) |
Note that the international company name Nintendo still used at the time was 'Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd.'.
This is a clear echo of the company's main focus until just a couple of years earlier.
To read more about the Ultra Machine, check the following posts:
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