The EVR mystery solved (sort of)

A warning up front: this post is somewhat of an anti-climax.

Nintendo EVR Race from 1975 was a video based race simulation system. It utilised the Electronic Video Recording (EVR) moving image display technology.

Two versions of EVR Race were made: horse racing and car racing.

Nintendo EVR Race cabinet - with a horse racing game

Multiple EVR Race cabinets could be linked up for multi player games (in this case car racing)

Some five years ago, I acquired two EVR Race reels in a Nintendo arcade lot. The sale included only the reels, not the EVR Race cabinet itself.

Nintendo EVR Race (EVRレース, 1975)

Recording, watching and sharing video has become so much part of our daily life, that it is hard to image a world without easy access to a 'rec' button. Of course, this has not always been so.

The first video recording and playing machines for professional use appeared in the 1950s. Since the late 1960s, electronic firms together with broadcasting companies have worked on equipement for home use.

In the mid 1970s, Betamax and VHS emerged as widely adopted competing standards, of which the latter became the ultimate victor. VHS was extremely successful, before sinking into obsolescence after the introduction of the DVD and digital video recorders around the turn of the millenium.

EVR video tape used in Nintendo arcade machines

But before the world settled on VHS, a plethora of different formats was developed. One of these was called 'Electronic Video Recording' or EVR for short.

Nintendo used this system in a number of its arcade cabinets.

Nintendo EVR Race arcade (1975)

Two different lines were created based on the EVR technology: EVR Race and EVR Baseball.