mideast | 144 Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 I've been looking up old Nintendo marketing from the NES and SNES days and wanted to post this advertisement that seems to be the first one after the New York launch on October 18, 1985. Credit goes to Frank Cifaldi here for posting the magazine it was from. I found it in the November 4, 1985 issue of New York magazine on Google Books, it's on page 8-9. He thought it was the first NES advertisement at the time but a couple years later he found what he believes to be the first true one from Consumer Electronics magazine January 1985 documented here. That advertised the unveiling of the Advanced Video System, which would become the NES, at the 1985 Winter CES. After more unveiling at the Summer CES and the October 18 limited launch they seemed to have advertised it in New York magazine. On another note, I'm interested if anyone has scans of early Nintendo Merchandising Binders? I found a bunch of photos sourced from ebay auctions but I'm wondering if any members here have an actual binder that they have hi-res scans of or happen to have better scans in their database. Thanks in advance! Consumer Electronics - January 1985 New York - November 4, 1985 Nintendo Ad Template for Stores - Christmas 1985 The last template shows 15 games advertised, plus the two pack-in games Duck Hunt and Gyromite to make 17 released in 1985. Interestingly enough Howard Phillips believes Super Mario Bros was released post-launch as answered on a Reddit AMA here. Admittedly, even though a game is advertised it doesn't mean it was actually launched. There's a copy of one of the templates being used by JCPenney in New Jersey, purportedly during Christmas 1985, here in Frank Cifaldi's archive. I would check out the other files in his archive too, they're great. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aguy | 771 Posted December 8, 2020 Share Posted December 8, 2020 Nothing to add, but very cool post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor | 850 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 not the oldest, but definitely an early ad that i always loved (i even had it posted up when i worked at Target a number of years ago). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,006 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 People have always speculated Super Mario Bros. was not included in the launch titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,006 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 There was only a single question and answer posted? I would have thought other people would have asked him things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mideast | 144 Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 Nice Target ad! Do you have any info about the date? Looks to be somewhere in 1986 maybe? And here's Howard Philips full AMA from two years ago. He seems like a real genuine guy and was a great personality for the job. It's kinda funny how it gives the impression it was just a career for the guy, he doesn't know the answer to every "nerdy" Nintendo question. Like in The Simpsons when they're asking the Itchy & Scratchy panel questions at the comic con. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jfreakofkorn | 282 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 Love seeing old ads They seem a lot more busy than the ones today ( more involved of setting up the articles or hope its shown ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarzombie | 924 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 19 hours ago, mideast said: The last template shows 15 games advertised, plus the two pack-in games Duck Hunt and Gyromite to make 17 released in 1985. Interestingly enough Howard Phillips believes Super Mario Bros was released post-launch as answered on a Reddit AMA here. Admittedly, even though a game is advertised it doesn't mean it was actually launched. There's a copy of one of the templates being used by JCPenney in New Jersey, purportedly during Christmas 1985, here in Frank Cifaldi's archive. I would check out the other files in his archive too, they're great. I believe my thread proved that SMB was a launch title that day because we found a copy with chips printed early enough to be ready by Oct 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 40 minutes ago, guitarzombie said: I believe my thread proved that SMB was a launch title that day because we found a copy with chips printed early enough to be ready by Oct 18 Just because we have found chips that were printed before launch doesn't necessarily mean that SMB was available at launch. For example, they might have held off a couple of weeks because they hadn't printed enough. I just made that up but I'm sure there are other plausible reasons for a delay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mideast | 144 Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 I saw your SMB chip post! It seems to me Super Mario Bros was probably intended to be released with the launch titles since they printed PCBs and advertised it with the other ones. Whether it actually hit the shelves on October 18 at FAO Schwarz in NYC seems a mystery. This letter which was posted on NintendoAge from April 24, 1986 lists all the 17 titles including Super Mario Bros as "current game paks" and not "future game paks" coming in 1986. On another note, these 1988 1st Half Nintendo Merchandising Binder photos have Dragon Warrior listed in the order form for stores. Which seems really early for its August 1989 release. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarzombie | 924 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 1 hour ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said: Just because we have found chips that were printed before launch doesn't necessarily mean that SMB was available at launch. For example, they might have held off a couple of weeks because they hadn't printed enough. I just made that up but I'm sure there are other plausible reasons for a delay. Thats plausible. My feeling is that it was but they weren't sure how big of a hit it was going to be in the US so there wasn't a lot manufactured at first. The fact that they were pushing Gyromite or Duck Hunt lets me think they thought they needed some gimmick to push Nintendo consoles. After seeing how favorably people responded to SMB they ramped up production. So I think they were available but not in large quantities, compared to those other releases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twiztor | 850 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 12 hours ago, mideast said: Nice Target ad! Do you have any info about the date? Looks to be somewhere in 1986 maybe? i ran across it probably 10 years ago. i believe it is from Spring '86. i found it in an article researching the SMB release date, ironically enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Morbis | 2,088 Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 9 hours ago, guitarzombie said: Thats plausible. My feeling is that it was but they weren't sure how big of a hit it was going to be in the US so there wasn't a lot manufactured at first. The fact that they were pushing Gyromite or Duck Hunt lets me think they thought they needed some gimmick to push Nintendo consoles. After seeing how favorably people responded to SMB they ramped up production. So I think they were available but not in large quantities, compared to those other releases. It's easy to see, in hindsight, how SMB was an absolute game changer compared to its other launch title peers in that ad, but you've got to remember that, unlike many of the other US launch titles, SMB had just been released in Japan, and marketing and exec guys don't always know what's going to stick. Think about required lead times for factory production and whatnot... My guess is that there were roughly the same number of SMB game paks available as all of the other launch titles in October of 1985; at that moment in time, it was just one of seventeen games, not even in consideration by management or marketing for a pack-in... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarzombie | 924 Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said: It's easy to see, in hindsight, how SMB was an absolute game changer compared to its other launch title peers in that ad, but you've got to remember that, unlike many of the other US launch titles, SMB had just been released in Japan, and marketing and exec guys don't always know what's going to stick. Think about required lead times for factory production and whatnot... My guess is that there were roughly the same number of SMB game paks available as all of the other launch titles in October of 1985; at that moment in time, it was just one of seventeen games, not even in consideration by management or marketing for a pack-in... True. With that date code we do have hard proof that it absolutely would have been ready for launch. Most of the date codes IIRC were about a month out before their release. There are some instances where it isnt but im pretty sure it was about 4/5 weeks before they were on shelves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
croagunk | 798 Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 These are so cool! Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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