Today's post features two games from the early 1960s, that are both based on the Disney animated film 101 Dalmatians.
101 Dalmatians Game
The first of these games is simply called 101 Dalmatians Game, as is written in English on the side of the box.
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| Nintendo 101 Dalmatians Game |
The Japanese name of this game is '101-biki wan-chan dai kōshin gēmu' (101匹わんちゃん大行進ゲーム), which translates to 'March of the 101 Dalmatians Game'.
'March of the 101 Dalmatians' was the name under which the movie was originally released in Japan, in 1962, one year after its premiere in the US.
The movie tells the story of dalmatian Pongo, who hooks up his owner with a wife, and in the process lands himself a lady dalmatian, called Perdita.
After giving birth to 15 dalmatian pups, the two dogs get caught up in the evil plans of the aptly named Cruella De Vil, who conspires to create a set of dalmatian fur coats. She has her accomplices round up 99 pups from all around the country, including Pongo's and Perdita's offspring.
Long story short, the good forces prevail in the end, and Pongo and Perdita adopt all pups, creating a family of a whopping 101 dalmatians in total.
The 101 Dalmatians Game uses great illustrations from the movie, but is otherwise a pretty standard affair.
Players race around on the board, meeting prosperity and adversity on their way.
The outcome of the game is determined by a spinner and a set of chance cards.
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| Chance cards can bring good luck or bad luck |
Like more Nintendo board games from this period, the game was not originally designed by Nintendo.
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| Nintendo 101 Dalmatians Game (left) and original by Whitman (right) |
Instead, it is a licensed localisation of the 101 Dalmatians Game by American company Whitman.
The Nintendo version follows the original closely.
When placed side by side, you hardly notice any differences.
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| Nintendo 101 Dalmatians Game (right) and original by Whitman (left) |
Apart from the language used, the Nintendo version is virtually identical to the original by Whitman.
101 Dalmatians Game B
The second Nintendo game based on the canine adventure movie is called 101 Dalmatians Game B (101匹わんちゃん大行進ゲームB).
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| Nintendo 101 Dalmatians Game B |
The box art style, including the Nintendo logo font, are similar to Mickey Mouse Adventure Game and Disneyland Adventureland Game, which we saw in, respectively, part 2 and part 3 of this series of blog posts on Nintendo's board games.
Contrary to the first game, it appears that this game is an original design by Nintendo, although it is still based on licensed Disney characters, of course.
Nintendo may have introduced this game to reduce their dependency on licensed games, and with that reduce the license fees it had to pay to Whitman.
The game structure is based on a walk in the park. The park where Pongo and Perdita initially performed their matchmaking.
Players need to collect squirrels and rabbits.
These are placed on the yellow circles on the board, at the start of the game.
The player who makes it back to the house with the most furry friends, wins the game.
As with the first game, the outcome is determined completely by luck.
There are two box versions of this 'B' game, one of which actually does not include the 'B' on the box.
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| Two box versions of Nintendo 101 Dalmatians Game B |
The box art of the alternative version is a mix of the original game's box and the other 'B' version.
The content of these two box versions, however, is completely identical, with both boards referring to 'Game B'.
Previous parts of this series about Nintendo's board games:
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