Nintendo antes de la era digital

That's Spanish, in case you were wondering, for Nintendo before the digital age.

It's the title of an article appearing in the April 2012 print edition of Game Master magazine, one of the leading game periodicals in Mexico.

What is Diablo doing here on beforemario?

Look, there on the cover. Los juguetes de Nintendo, La magia ya existía antes de Mario: Nintendo's Toys, the Magic existed before Mario. Beforemario!

The magazine was granted permission to use content from this blog, and their design staff did a great job turning it into a nice six-page spread, including interview. They gave it a Western theme, inspired by Nintendo's Kousenjuu light gun games.

So, when you happen to live in Mexico, go pick up a copy of the magazine today.

Nintendo My Car Race (マイカーレース, ca 1965)

There is no shortage of racing games in Nintendo's history. And I am not talking about Mario Kart, or other virtual speedsters, but of real racing experiences, be it on toy scale.

Nintendo My Car Race (ca 1965)

The two oldest in Nintendo's catalogue are Drive Game and the set shown here: My Car Race (マイカーレース).

The year of release of My Car Race is not shown on the box or manual, but it is believed to date from around 1965, possibly slightly earlier. Retail price was ¥2,500.

The sports car on the front of the box (which I believe is a Mazda) promises an exciting, fast paced game. It also somewhat over-promises the level of detail of the model cars included, as we will see shortly.

Nintendo Mini Game Series leaflet (ミニゲーム シリーズ リーフレット, 1972)

The Nintendo Mini Games (ミニゲームシリーズ) were a series of lovely colorful miniature toys, released in the first half of the 1970s.

Read all about these toys in the following posts:

• Nintendo Mini Games Series introduction
• Nintendo Mini Games Series overview of all toys

Nintendo Ultra Scope Yukijirushi gold prize (雪印スノーラック ウルトラスコープ, 1971)

The electro-mechanical toys created by Nintendo in the late 1960s and early 1970s were innovative and advanced for their time. They must have been highly desirable for a large group of children. This is also suggested by the fact that they were used as top prizes in a number of product promotions.

How to persuade customers to eat/drink/use more of your product? Well, easy! Create a sweepstake that rewards sales of the product with a chance to win something nice. Even better: select a prize that the customers's children will like, so they will bug their parents to buy your product. Basic marketing, really.

This only works well, of course, if the prize gets your customers' children really excited. And apparently some of the Nintendo toys fitted that bill perfectly.

Advertisement for the Yukijirushi Stick Cheese campaign

It was already known that 100 copies of the Nintendo Ultra Machine were given away as a first prize in a product promotion for Yukijirushi Stick Cheese (雪印 スティックチーズ). The company Yukijirushi (which translates to 'Snow Brand') is still active today, but is now part of Megmilk Snow Brand Co.

I just learned that Yukijirushi also ran a campaign in the 1970s in which copies of the Nintendo Ultra Scope were given away as first ('gold') prizes, in a promotion for Yukijirushi Snowlac milk (雪印スノーラック).