Nintendo Ultra Coaster Game and Captain Ultra Coaster (ウルトラ コースター ゲーム, キャプテン ウルトラ コースター, 1967)

In previous blog posts we have seen that super heroes were very popular toy themes in the late 60s and early 70s in Japan. Nintendo obtained rights to use characters from the hot television shows of this era, like Kamen Rider and Ultra Man, and used these for, amongst others, the E-clock electric clocks and N&B Block building sets.

In other posts we discussed some of the first toys Nintendo created: the Rabbit Coaster Game and New Coaster Game tumbling bean games.

Today we will take a look at two games which combine these two topics: super heroes and tumbling beans.

Nintendo Ultra Coaster Game and Captain Ultra Coaster (around 1968)

The games I am talking about are Ultra Coaster Game and Captain Ultra Coaster.

Nintendo Ultra Coaster Game

The first of the two is Ultra Coaster Game (ウルトラ コースター ゲーム), which is based on monsters from the Ultra Q television show (ウルトラQ, 1966).

(Video uploaded by Youtube user bagel68)

Ultra Q was a sci-fi / monster show, somewhat similar to The Twilight Zone, but with more monsters. It is the first in a string of Ultra television shows and would be followed by Ultra Man, Ultra Seven and lots of others.

The game cost ¥1,000 when it was released, which must have been around 1967. Although it was only sold in Japan, the name is featured in English on the side of the box.

The Ultra Coaster Game includes three plastic figures: two are tasked to keep the tracks in the air, while the job of the third one is to scare the passing tumbling beans.

The hairy guy on the right most probably is Goro (ゴロ), the giant monkey (a distant cousin of King Kong).

The fellow in the middle looks very much like the Red King (レッドキング), who is actually from the Ultra Man show. Can someone confirm this?

The third one is Ragon (ラゴン), a pretty scary sea monster from the Ultra Q episode "Undersea Humanoid Ragon" (海底原人ラゴン).

Nintendo Ultra Coaster Game

Upon opening the box the first thing you notice is that the monsters are not nearly as colorful as they are pictured on the front, all going for a more-or-less single-color look, with very sparse painted accents.

Assembly instructions are provided on the inside of the box top.

As a game, it is very similar to the Rabbit Coaster Game, although it has one less track level (three instead of four).

Nintendo Ultra Coaster Game

The game is prepared by placing the beans in the starting piece; one bean per lane. Pressing one of the two white buttons releases the beans, after which they start their race down.

A shifting metal ball bearing in each of the beans makes it tumble, as it rolls down the track. When the beans drop from the top level to the middle part of the track, they pass Ragon's mouth.

Halfway the middle track, the beans speed past the Red King's piercing eyes. They appear unfazed by this.

Just before the beans make it to the finish line, they slip underneath Ragon's behind.

Note the "Nintendo" logo on the bottom left of the finish piece

The second game is Captain Ultra Coaster (キャプテン ウルトラ コースター).

Nintendo Captain Ultra Coaster

It is based on the television show "Space Special Effects Series: Captain Ultra" (宇宙特撮シリーズ キャプテンウルトラ).

Captain Ultra was a space adventure show that first aired in Japan in 1967, one year after Star Trek started in the US.

The box features the familiar "Nintendo Game" logo. All other lettering is in Japanese katakana.

Just like the Ultra Coaster Game, the Captain Ultra Coaster sold for ¥1.000 and came with three figures. But this time it wasn't only monsters: the hero of the series was one of the figures included.

As an aside, the space craft pictured on the left of the box front is Captain Ultra's mode of transportation. It was called "Spiegel", allegedly after the German weekly (although the rational behind this escapes me), and could break into three separate space vehicles.

That's Captain Ultra on the left. The monster with the funny hands is the alien Bandel (バンデル星人).

Not sure who the dinosaur monster on the right is, but he doesn't seem to be too pleased about his current predicament, with track pieces attached to his nose and inserted into his belly.

When we open the box we see the track pieces, a small box with tumbling beans and the three plastic figures.

Assembly is not too difficult. The instructions provided on the inside of the box aren't really needed.

The Captain Ultra figure is nicely painted with good detail. The two monster are a bit more basic.

This Captain Ultra looks quite young. Not sure if he should operate that space craft.

When the Captain Ultra Coaster set is fully assembled, besides a fully functioning bean tumbling track, we also created a nice space scene, with Captain Ultra facing two adversaries.

The beans follow the action as they move from monster to hero and back.

Captain Ultra has pulled his laser gun and is ready to zap. But he looks uncertain, not sure of the consequences of firing a shot. And so they stand, locked onto each other. While the beans tumble on, towards the finish line.

These early Nintendo games are somewhat strange (who ever came up with the idea to replace the track stands of the original Rabbit Coaster with these figures?) but definitely spectacular. The box designs are gorgeous and the assembled toys are fun to look at and to play with.

Nintendo Ultra Coaster Game and Captain Ultra Coaster

For more Nintendo bean tumbling fun, check out the posts on the Rabbit Coaster Game, New Coaster Game and N&B Block Coaster.

Website of the Month in Edge magazine (#228)

This blog was just selected Website of The Month by UK video game publication Edge.

Review of this blog in Edge #228

Above mini review of beforemario appeared in issue 228 of Edge, which is available on newsstands now. Nice!

Nintendo Picture Cutter and New Picture Cutter (ピクチャー カッター, ニュー ピクチャー カッター, 1966)

These days Nintendo is regarded a creative powerhouse. The gems on their video game platforms are the first party games developed either in-house or externally under very close management of the Nintendo team.

However, Nintendo also has a long established role as distributor or licensee of third party games. In particular during the "toys and games" period in the 60s and 70s, Nintendo introduced games in Japan licensed from various parties around the world, including well-known Western brands such as Parker Brothers (Hip Flip), Hasbro (Shotracer, Mach Rider) and MB (Home Bowling, Twister and Marble).

This allowed Nintendo is expand their catalog rapidly - based on toys that were a proven success abroad - while still growing and developing their own game design skills.

Nintendo handled the production of these licensed games themselves, including the localization and redesign of the packaging. In some cases the name was altered to suit local tastes (Marble was originally called "Skill-it" and Mach Rider was called "Yellow Tail Funny Car").

Around 1966 they released two hobby sets called Picture Cutter and New Picture Cutter. They are both polystyrene foam moddeling kits.

Nintendo Picture Cutter and New Picture Cutter (1966)

The packaging of these games follows the familiar design used by Nintendo in the second half of the 60s, with the grey bar on the left, the "Nintendo Game" logo on the top left, and the "Nintendo Company Japan" note on the bottom left. This design was clearly inspired by the packaging used, to this day, by MB (see also this post).

The copyright of these sets is attributed to the Japanese company JAJACO, a fellow toy and playing cards manufacturer.

Nintendo Picture Cutter (1966)

The Picture Cutter (ピクチャー カッター) set was the smallest of the two. It was sold for ¥500.

The set contains the actual Picture Cutter itself (the red tool on the left in above picture), three AA batteries, a bag with metal cutting wires and three pieces of polystyrene foam.

Two of the pieces of polystyrene foam were pre-printed with animal and transportation images.

Operation instructions on the inside of the Picture Cutter box

In order to operate the Picture Cutter, a metal wire is placed between the two metal ends of the cutter. When the battery powered device is switched on, this wire is heated. This allows the cutting of the polystyrene, as the wire "melts" through the foam.

Nintendo New Picture Cutter (1966)

A larger set was also available, called New Picture Cutter (ニュー ピクチャー カッター). Although they both bear the same copyright year, given the "New" in its name, it can be assumed this was released some time after the Picture Cutter.

The New Picture Cutter had a retail price of ¥1,000. The image on the box looks very promising, but one definitely had to be very skilled and imaginative to produce a model with the presented level of detail.

The set was advertised as "家庭電気で工作できる" which translates to "build it using home electricity". This refers to the fact that the New Picture Cutters runs on 100V, rather than on batteries.

The New Picture Cutter set contains the cutter itself (which had a nice pistol like shape), two color markers, a bag with metal cutting wires (identical to those provided with the Picture Cutter) and four pieces of polystyrene foam.

Two of the polystyrene pieces are pre-printed with animal and military images. According to a note in the sets, additional pre-printed pieces of foam could be bought separately, with themes like "Disney", "Popeye", "zoo", "vehicles", "fish" and "buildings".

Nintendo Picture Cutter and New Picture Cutter (1966)

Nintendo also released a Ultraman themed version of the Picture Cutter. More on that version can be found here.

Together with the Nintendo Paper Model sets, these items remained the only hobby kits released by Nintendo, which makes them quite unique.

Nintendo Color TV Game Block Kuzushi (任天堂 カラー テレビゲーム ブロック崩し, 1979)

The last of the four video games in the Nintendo Color TV Game series released in Japan at the end of the 70s is definitely the most interesting. The earlier Color TV Game 6 and TV Color Game 15 from 1977 are of note because they represent the first endeavors by Nintendo in the video game market, but from a design point of view (game play as well as packaging) they are not very original; just well executed pong clones. Color TV Game Racing 112 (1978) already looks more exciting and its game play is all right, but it is its successor, Color TV Game Block Kuzushi, which takes the crown.

Nintendo Block Kuzushi (1979) with CTGA-901R adapter

Nintendo Color TV Game Block Kuzushi (任天堂 カラー テレビゲーム ブロック崩し) was released in 1979 and oozes 70s design and appeal.

The Japanese word "kuzushi" (崩し) stems from "kuzusu" (崩す) which means to break or to demolish, so the translation of "Block Kuzushi" (ブロック崩し) is "Block Breaker".

Block Kuzushi manual

The model number of this game is "CTG-BK6". This, of course, is short for "Color TV Game Block Kuzushi". The "6" in the model number refers to the six game variants this game offers, as advertised on the box as well as on the game housing.

The six game variants are shown on the left side of the top of the box

Block Kuzushi was obviously inspired by Atari's 1976 arcade smash hit "Breakout". Atari's arcade release was followed by a number of home conversions by Atari and others, including this one by Nintendo.

Block Kusushi is the first Nintendo video game to feature the company's name prominently on the housing. The Color TV Game series started as a cooperative effort together with Mitsubishi, but at the time of Block Kusushi this had moved completely in-house, and the Nintendo name on the front was fully deserved.

The game was launched in 1979 with a retail price of ¥13,500.

The game retailed initially for ¥13,500

The price was soon reduced to ¥8,300, in order to address fierce competition. The price for pong clones was quickly coming down and Epoch also successfully released a block game called "TV Block".

Console price drops already occured in the 70s

Besides the fact that Block Kuzushi is the first video game to wear the Nintendo logo on its chest, it is historic for another reason: the involvement of video game genius Shigeru Miyamoto. A recent industrial design graduate from the Kanazawa College of Art, he had started in 1977 in the "Creative Section" of Nintendo and initially worked on various graphical design assignments. In 1979 his industrial design training came to good use when he was tasked with the design of the housing of Block Kuzushi.

Block Kuzushi - front

Shigeru Miyamoto did a great job. The round shapes work really well, and the design of the control panel is clean, clear and beautiful.

Block Kuzushi - back

The design is functional, playful and inviting. The colors of the orange body, black control panel and white control buttons also go nicely together.

Block Kuzushi - left side

If this shape and color does not shout "seventies", then what does?

Block Kuzushi - right side

On the right side we find the cable to connect to the TV and the connection for the external power adapter. On the bottom there is a switch to select the RF output channel.

Block Kuzushi - bottom

Like the other games in the Color TV Game series, Block Kuzushi is powered by a 9V adapter (CTGA-901R) which had to be bought separately for ¥1,500.

The controls on the front are - from left to right: serve button, power switch (up is on, down is off), reset button, game selector, number of balls selector and paddle controller.

After the console has been switched on, a game is started by selecting the required game variant from the six options, setting the required number of balls per game (3, 5 or 7) and hitting the red reset button.

Game variant "6" selected, with 5 balls per game

Next, each of the available balls is "served" by pressing the big serve button on the left. This brings the ball into play. The objective of the game is to use the "racket" displayed at the bottom of the screen (a blocky white line) to bounce the ball (a blocky white square) towards the colored blocks at the top of the screen. Upon hitting the blocks, these will disappear ("break").

Serve button (サーブボタン)

The racket at the bottom of the screen can be moved horizontally by turning the big white controller on the right.

Racket controller

Depending on the point of contact between ball and racket, the ball will take a different trajectory after bouncing, as explained in diagram below (taken from the game's manual). Please note the very square "ball" (ボール) in this picture.

Move racket, bounce ball

The six game variants offered by Block Kuzushi are all single player games. Where the multiple game variants included in most of the pong clones (including Nintendo's TV Game 6 and TV Game 15) were all very similar (up to the point that calling them variants was sometimes laughable), these six variants all offer a unique and fun challenge.

Game 1 ("Block Out" or "ブロックアウト"): The standard game. Hit a block and the ball bounces back and the block disappears. If you miss the ball when it returns, you lose it, and need to serve a new ball. Continue until all blocks are gone or you run out of balls.

Game 2 ("Block Easy" or "ブロックイージー"): Similar to game 1, except that a line of blocks is missing. As a result, less blocks need to be hit in order to clear the screen, but more importunately, this extra open line allowed for extra "rapid block breaking" when the ball would start bouncing between the blocks, something that is only possible between the top line and the top of the screen in the standard game.

Which of the six games do you fancy?

Game 3 ("Block Safe" or "ブロックセイブ"): Another variant of the standard game, this adds a line of blocks at the bottom of the screen, protecting the ball from disappearing when it is missed by the racket. Each of these "safe blocks" can only help you once, after which it disappears. This gradually reduces the safety net.

In game variants 1 to 3, points are awarded based on the color of the block (2, 4 and 8 points per block).

Game 4 ("Block Through" or "ブロックスルー"): This variant throws a whole new challenge. It is a time based game, in which the objective is to clean the screen as quickly as possible. As soon as the first ball is served, a timer starts counting up. The counter will stop when all blocks are gone, or when the counter hits 999. The lower the score, the better. When a block is hit, the ball will not immediately bounce back, but continue its course (hitting other blocks on its way) until it hits the top or side of the screen. Hence the name "block through". You have an unlimited number of balls in this game variant.

The six different game options of Block Kuzushi

Game 5 ("Block Lighter" or "ブロックライター"): Here there are four special flashing pink blocks in the middle of the top line. The objective is to remove these blocks by hitting them, leaving as many as possible of the other blocks untouched. So avoid hitting anything but the pink blocks. When all four pink blocks have been hit, your score will be calculated based on the remaining blocks; the more blocks left, the better.

Game 6 ("Block Killer" or "ブロックキラー"): Combining the concept of game 4 and 5, this game variant challenges you to remove four special flashing blue blocks in the middle of the screen as soon as possible, against a counting timer.

An interesting game feature (for all game variants) happens when the ball hits the top of the screen, rather than a block. This triggers the racket to shrink to half its size, only to regain its normal dimensions after a ball has been missed and a new one served. This makes the final stages of the clearing of the screen quite tricky.

The score is kept on the top left side. The middle of the screen shows the previous score (rather than a high score) which is updated at the end of each game. Although Block Kuzushi does not feature an actual two player game, displaying the previous score facilitates head to head play.

The game variants explained in the manual

The asymmetrical design of the Block Kuzushi console, with the racket controller on the right side, poses some problems for left-handed players. The manual offers some suggestions on how to operate the console in this case: side-ways or even back-to-front.

How to play when you're a lefty

During the introduction of Block Kuzushi, promotional competitions where staged in department stores.

Block Kuzushi medal of honor

When successful during this competition, you would be awarded a special Block Kuzushi medal.

The medal was accompanied with a commemorative note, underlining the achievement.

This medal signifies that you are a block breaking master

As part of the marketing campaign for Block Kuzushi, a colorful leaflet was produced (check it out here) as well as a TV commercial.

(Video uploaded by Youtube user ksoik)

One final note of warning to all collectors and other folks interested in obtaining a Block Kuzushi. Please be aware that the plasticizers in the RF cable of this game, added to keep them flexible, have a habit of damaging the orange casing upon prolonged contact. These plastic softeners more or less "melt" the hard plastic case, leaving ugly marks. When buying a second hand item, always make sure to check for this type of damage, which easily occurs if the cable has been stored on top of the case for a long period of time or, even worse, when it has been wound around it.