Nintendo's Games for Adult

Nintendo is generally considered to be making games for kids (of all ages, of course). However, in its long history, it also focussed part of its attention specifically on adults. 

Nintendo's Games for Adult (leaflet, outside) 

This little brochure is a nice example of this.

It is roughly A4 in size, with two folds, and is titled "Nintendo's Games for Adult" (sic).

It features traditional games that adults might play: Chess, Checkers, Domino, Roulette, Poker and Mah-jongg. The front of the leaflet even mentions Dice and Bingo Game, though these are not actually included inside.

There is no direct indication of a publishing date on this, but it is most likely from the early 1960s. Nintendo used the company name "Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd." between 1950 and 1963. Because this is a full color print on shiny paper, it feels more to be from the end part of that period.

Also, and more importantly, it is aimed at an English speaking audience. During the 1960s and 1970s, Nintendo increased its effort to expand its market outside of Japan (examples here and here), and this would fit right into that as an early example. [The first real break-trough abroad would come with Ten Billion and Game & Watch, but that is a different story.]

Still, I am speculating here about its age, and could be wrong.

The leaflet is aimed at importers and distributors of games, indicating wholesale box details like number of units included, size of the box and weight. 

The games listed are dedicated chess or checker sets. Nintendo also produced sets that featured both options, with a board that can be flipped depending on which of the two to play, but these are not shown here.

Nintendo leaflet in 1975 toys trade magazine

In a recent post we explored the catalogue of Nintendo products as it was back in September 1971, at which time Nintendo had completed the shift from card manufacturer to toy company, with an expanded range of products that was made up of traditional games, Nintendo's own innovations and licensed (as well as copied) existing toys and games.

In today's post we move to 1975, were we find Nintendo more established as toy company, with a product range that has evolved a bit further, but very much still in line with the products it offered four years earlier.

Nintendo was on the doorstep for further expansion, into the era of (home) video games (starting with the Color TV Games series in 1977, followed by the launch of the Family Computer in 1983) and handhelds (Game & Watch in 1980), but let's not get ahead of ourselves and see what they had to offer in the mid 1970s.

We travel back in time through the help of Toys Trader Gangu Shoho (玩具商報) magazine, in particular issue 12 from 1975. As the name suggests, it's a magazine intended for the toys trade, aimed at toy shop owners and toy buyers. The magazine consists of editorial content, describing new trends, toy fairs and related gatherings, interviews with figure heads and other information relevant to professionals in the toys business, mixed with advertisements by toy producers and wholesalers.

One of the more eye-catching ads is a fold-out leaflet by Nintendo, one of only two of such fold-outs in the magazine (the other one for a company selling jigsaw puzzles). It is printed in full colour, while most of the magazine, including most of the advertisements, are in black and white. Nintendo clearly was willing and able to spend big on marketing.

The fold-out is about 35 by 26 centimeters, and printed on both sides. It is dated June 1975.

1975 Nintendo leaflet - front

The message at the top of the front states that Nintendo's "idea products" (任天堂のアイデア商品) are "Lot's of fun" (たのしさがいっぱい).

Let's go through the various sections of the leaflet, starting with the top left corner of the front. This shows a selection of board games, that are bigger, more elaborate and more expensive than those offered a few years before.

Green Stamp's gift catalogue from 1966 reveals Nintendo toy range from before Ultra Hand

In today's post we will cover a gift catalogue from 1966. It contains interesting information about Nintendo at the time of publication.

In overviews of the history of Nintendo, the Ultra Hand released in the same year, is sometimes presented as the first Nintendo toy, that shifted the company from mere manufacturer of playing cards to a broader toy company.

And although the Ultra Hand was the first toy that was wildly successful for the company, and helped solidify their position in the market, this catalogue shows the much broader range of products they produced in the mid 1960s.

Green Stamp's catalogue and stamp booklet

The 24-page full colour catalogue is for a loyalty program called Green Stamp's (or グリーンスタンプ in Japanese).

 

Green Stamps was one of the first retail loyalty program in the United States, founded as Sperry & Hutchinson (S&H) Green Stamps in the first part of the 20th century, and brought over to Japan in the early 1960s.

As an aside, as part of the Japanse localisation, an oddly placed apostrophe was introduced in "stamp's", possibly because the last 's' was dropped in the Japanese katakana spelling 'スタンプ' which reads as 'sutampu'.

Retailers participating in the program bought stamps from the Green Stamps organisation, and handed these to customers as a bonus for shopping at their stores, thus strengthening loyalty. The number of stamps received depended on the sales amount.

Customers would stick the stamps in booklets - which involved a lot of licking of backs of stamps to moisturise the glue - while dreaming of the wonderful gifts to collect one day.

This catalogue, called "exchange list" (引換品リスト), shows all the items available to get for free, in exchange for certain amounts of completed booklets full of stamps.

These gifts could be viewed and picked up at Green Stamp's showrooms, located throughout the country, as well as at smaller collection points.

Nintendo Chiritori leaflet from 1979

The 1979 Chiritori remote controlled miniature vacuum cleaner is another idea that sprouted from Gunpei Yokoi's brain, like so many quirky Nintendo products from the pre-Famicom era.

The box art is a well designed two-tone affair. However, in my opinion it does not really exuberate fun. While this little vacuum is anything but serious. It is just a toy, a novelty item.

The accompanying trade leaflet does a much better job in showing what the Chiritori is to be used for: to play. This leaflet, dated April 16 1979, was used to advertise the product to shops and wholesale buyers.

Chiritori leaflet front and back

The scene on the front shows the Chiritori in action, with a colourful drawing.

Nintendo leaflet from the 1970s

It wasn't until the introduction of the Game & Watch series in 1980 that Nintendo really started doing significant business outside of Japan. For the 90 years that it had existed previously, it was catering mostly exclusively to the Japanese market only.

However, in the 1960s and 1970s many efforts where already made by Nintendo to expand its business abroad, be it with limited success.

The leaflet shown here is an example of such efforts. It was most likely used to hand-out to foreign game and toy buyers, and other interested sales leads, maybe at an event like a trade show. It was recently found in the archives of the United States Patent and Trademark office.

The leaflet is foldable affair, printed in color on two two-sides, with six sections on each side.

The toys and games shown include light beam games introduced in 1976, but nothing newer, so it can be dated to the second half of the 1970s.

The title on the front clearly states Nintendo's target market: "playing cards and games for adult". At this time, Nintendo also produced many games aimed at children in it's home market Japan. But for sales abroad it choose to focus on the adult market segment, with games mostly already known in the Western world, like cards, chess and roulette.

Also keep in mind that many of the children's toy that Nintendo produced and sold in Japan where adaptations of licensed American and British games, and it did not make any sense to export these back to the West.

Nintendo Computer Othello (コンピューター オセロ, 1978) - Leaflet #2

Some time ago, I posted a leaflet for the 1978 Nintendo arcade game Computer Othello (コンピューター オセロ). I recently found a second one, shown here.

Nintendo Computer Othello (1978)

Computer Othello was Nintendo's first video arcade game, though Nintendo had created other types of arcade games before (e.g. electro-mechanical games).

Nintendo Space Fever (スペースフィーバー, 1979)

When Taito's Space Invaders burst onto the arcade scene in the Summer of 1978, it became a runaway success. Multiple other arcade manufacturers quickly jumped on the bandwagon, including Nintendo.

In early 1979, Nintendo released an arcade game that was - let's say - inspired by Taito's space shooter. It was called Space Fever (スペースフィーバー).

Space Fever was a black and white game, that was an adequate copy of the original, but with very little to distinguish itself.

Nintendo Space Fever (1979)

It was all there: the marching aliens that are dropping bombs, the ship at the bottom of the screen firing up, as well as four bunkers that provide temporary shelter.

Nintendo Color TV Game Racing 112 - Leaflet

I recently found a leaflet for Nintendo's Color TV Game Racing 112. The leaflet is a bit stained on the back, but still a nice relic from the late 1970s. It is dated June 26 1978.

Nintendo Racing 112 leaflet (1978)

During these early video game days, game play was portrayed as something for the whole family. With only a single tv set in most houses, it would usually take place in the middle of the living room.

Racing 112 in double player mode, using the paddles

Nintendo Color TV Game - leaflet (任天堂 カラー テレビゲーム カタログ, 1977)

In 1977, Nintendo entered the home video game market with the Color TV Game series. The image below is taken from a leaflet announcing this series in May of that year.

The games were announced as 「見るテレビから遊べるテレビへ」, which translates to "from watching television to playing television". In 1977, interactive entertainment was still a concept that required explanation to a large group of the prospective audience.

Nintendo Space Launcher (スペースランチャー, 1979) - Leaflet

Nintendo was one of first Japanese companies creating electronic arcade games. Starting in this area as early as 1973 (compare: Atari's Pong saw the light of day in 1972), they initially focussed on arcade versions of light gun games, building on the technology of the Kousenjuu SP Light-beam series.

Despite Nintendo's first innovative steps, the Japanese company that was first to be really successful in the arcade was Taito.

When Taito introduced Space Invaders in the summer of 1978, this became phenomenally successful in Japan and across the world soon thereafter. It did not take long for Nintendo (and all other arcade game manufacturers, for that mater) to follow with their own interpretations of the 'shooting aliens' theme.

Nintendo Space Launcher leaflet (1979)

Nintendo's first response to Space Invaders was Space Fever, followed by Color Space Fever and SF-Hisplitter (all from 1979).

Nintendo Color Screen (Game and Watch Table Top) - Leaflet

The most spectacular games in the Nintendo Game & Watch series are the Panorama and Table Top games. Combining the excellent LCD based game-play that shines throughout the entire series with full color images, these were innovative as well as fun to play.

The Table Top games were shaped like mini arcade cabinets, with joystick and all. In the 80s, owning one of these must have been close to being in handheld nirvana.

Nintendo Color Screen (a.k.a. Table Top) from 1983

The original name under which these games were sold in Japan was Color Screen (カラースクリーン), with strangely enough no reference to Game & Watch, although they are clearly part of that family. They were introduced in the rest of the world as Game & Watch Table Top.

Nintendo Computer Othello (コンピューター オセロ, 1978) - Leaflet

In the mid 1970s, Nintendo started making arcade games. One of the earlier of these was Computer Othello (コンピューター オセロ), which is the topic of the leaflet shown here. [A second leaflet can be found here.]

Nintendo Computer Othello (1978)

The Computer Othello arcade allowed for one person to play the game othello (also known as reversi) against a computer opponent. It was also possible for two people to play head to head.

Nintendo Computer Mah-jong Yakuman - Leaflet

Let's do another leaflet, after yesterday's Block Kuzushi. It is a beautiful four-sided brochure for Nintendo's Computer Mah-jong Yakuman (コンピュータ マージャン 役満). The style of the image on the front reminds of the 1982 movie Tron.

According to the leaflet, the release date of this pocket game was 昭和５８年１０月１８日 (in the formal Japanese calendar notation), which means 18th of October 1983.

Nintendo Color TV Game Block Kuzushi - Leaflet

I recently acquired some vintage leaflets for Nintendo products. These leaflets were used as marketing material for distributers and shop buyers, and are very colorful and informative.

The leaflet below is the one for the Nintendo Color TV Game Block Kuzushi (任天堂 カラー テレビゲーム ブロック崩し).

Block Kuzushi is part of the Color TV Game series. It is the first home video game system to bear the Nintendo name on its front.