Regular Kotaku readers will of course know that Nintendo hasnāt always made video games. The company has dabbled in everything from love hotels to badass āLEGOā sets.
It also, in the early 1970s, tried its hand at electronic card games. In about the most bizarre way imaginable.
This is Electro Poker, released in 1971. It worked like this: you picked up a light gun (something the company had some experience with) and shot it at the central unit. Once a āhitā was registered, five card faces would spin for a while then come to a stop. The hand you ended up with determined your āscoreā.
https://lastchance.cc/the-gun-game-that-nearly-broke-nintendo-5794640%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
You can see more pics of Electro Poker, including score sheets and its instruction manual, below.
Nintendo Electro Poker (ćØć¬ćÆćć ćć¼ć«ć¼, 1971) [Before Mario]
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