WiiNoob

Nintendo Before They Made It Big – The Mamaberica

Come with me in the way-back machine to see what Nintendo was doing back in 1965. And it wasn’t video games, that’s for sure.

Before Mario, Game Boys, and even Nintendo Entertainment Systems were ever an epiphany, Nintendo started out as a tiny Japanese business of many tried and failed endeavors. From taxi cabs to love hotels, the great gaming stalwart of today had its hand in every possible venture, including baby products.

As shown above in this extremely vintage (it has to be with those clothes) advertisement from Japan, Nintendo even made baby strollers. This one in particular, is called the Mamaberica, and was produced in 1965 as a light fold-away carriage that cost 8,900 yen when it was released. It even came in pastel colors that only a psychedelic trendsetter could love!

By this point in time for Nintendo, they we’re mostly know for their handmade hanafuda cards, a specific kind of card used in Japan for games like Koi-Koi — which if you’ve seen the popular 2009 Japanese animated movie Summer Wars (and you should because it’s ever so awesome,) plays a climatic part of the film towards the end.

Unfortunately here with the Mamaberica, and despite the convincing portrait of a confident mother about to whisk away into the day with her loving joyful child, it was considered a huge dud. It seems many people who bought the Nintendo-made stroller complained that it would pinch them when folding it. Ouch!

Don’t feel too bad for Nintendo though, a couple of decades later the company would create one heck of an 8-bit gaming console that would save the industry from the grips of the North American video game crash of 1983. And really, wouldn’t you rather they’d be successful in this line of work than in some rinky-dink line of baby carriages — my thoughts exactly. Give me Zelda or give me death! (Not really… maybe.)

Via: Tiny Cartridge