Nintendo's 2011 company guide is a treasure trove of behind the scenes pictures

The Nintendo company guides (that I posted about before, here and here), are great pieces of design work, as well as fantastic glimpses behind the white facades of Nintendo's headquarters in Japan.

These guides are given to prospective employees who participate in the yearly job application process conducted by Nintendo in Japan. The company guide shown here is from 2011.

The front shows a colorful collage of sketches of characters like Mario, Yoshi and Link.

The collages continues on the back, which more familiar faces.

Nintendo casino tables (early 1970s)

In the early 1970s, Nintendo set up a subsidiary called Nintendo Leisure System (任天堂レジャーシステム). This part of Nintendo's business focussed on developing entertainment equipment, including a range of arcade games (like Computer Othello) and the Laser Clay shooting gallery, which was based on the light beam technology started with the Kôsenjû SP series.

The pictures shown here are taken from four leaflets by Nintendo Leisure System, advertising luxurious gambling tables.

Although far removed from the innovative electronic games you would expect from Nintendo, they show that Nintendo was interested to cater to a broad range of entertainment interests, closely following trends.

Get the limited collector edition while you can! Before Mario book now available!

[UPDATE: It's no longer possible to order the book.]

I am very excited and proud to announce that the book that I have been working on for the last nine months is finished and sent off to the printers!

"BEFORE MARIO - The Fantastic toys from the video game giant's early days"

Pre-ordering has started at Omaké Books right now.

A limited edition is available for 500 people who pre-order early. This version is numbered, has a special black cover and comes with a signed bookmark and Omaké Books trading card. It is also shipped two weeks in advance of the regular edition, for the incredible worldwide shipping rate of only 10 euro cents.

BEFORE MARIO "Black Cover" edition with gifts

I expect this limited edition will be appealing to many Nintendo collectors. However, the regular "classic white" cover has turned out very beautiful as well, so it may be hard to pick a cover version.

Content wise, the black and white versions are identical.

Below a few of pages are presented that give a good impression of the content and style of the book.