Nintendo's beautiful company guides

In today's post we will take a look at a Nintendo tradition that is somewhat shielded from the eyes of the general public.

Like most other regular businesses, Nintendo produces a company compendium for internal use, with information on history, strategy, departments and management.

Cover of this year's Nintendo company guide

But unlike most companies - that usually deliver dull affairs not unlike telephone directories dipped in some branding sauce - Nintendo's company guide is eye-poppingly well designed.

Bassmate Computer in latest Nintendo Dream

This month's edition of the Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream includes an article on the Bassmate Computer.

April 2014 edition of Nintendo Dream

As regular readers of this blog will recall, the Nintendo co-developed and manufactured Bassmate fishing computer was discovered as Nintendo item some time ago by collector Sander Slootweg and introduced to the world through beforemario.com.

The article in Nintendo Dream was written by Florent Gorges, based on our joint research from June last year. The magazine is available on newsstands in Japan now, as well as at online retailers like Amazon Japan.

Nintendo Mini Game Block Puzzle (ブロックパズル, ca 1972)

The Nintendo Mini Game series from the 1970s is one of the favorite parts of my Nintendo collection.

It's a combination of the colorful designs and simple but fun game play that I like a lot. The packaging and overall game design also oozes 1970s style, which is the time period in which I grew up, so nostalgia probably is part of the appeal.

From a collector's point of view, it is also great that there so many different games to collect in this series.

Nintendo Mini Game Block Puzzle (ca 1972)

For many years, I believed that the series consisted of 48 different games in total. Until a few months ago, when a 49th game was discovered.

Just recently, I discovered yet another Mini Game. It is called Block Puzzle (ブロックパズル) and dates from around 1972.

Although the two versions shown here appear to be different games, they are actually completely identical. The only difference is the sides of the blocks that are exposed on the front.

What does the Nintendo Ele-conga sound like?

How does the Nintendo Ele-conga sound? That's a question I have been asked a number of times over the years. Multiple musicians also expressed an interest to use these vintage 1970s sounds in their music.

Nintendo Ele-conga (1972)

The Ele-conga, for those of you not yet familiar with this piece of Nintendo history, is one of the many brain-childs of Gunpei Yokoi. It's an electronic drum machine, with analog circuitry. It can produce five different percussion sounds. With the Autoplayer accessory, it can play pre-programmed rhythms.

Nintendo Ele-conga and Autoplayer

Well, for all folks interested to hear an actual Ele-conga play, your prayers have just been heard.