This is one of those light gun games that Nintendo made back in the early 70s. It is called Electro Roulette, and I do like that name. Putting the word "electro" before anything makes that thing better. As you can tell from the box cover, in this one you shoot the target (the middle of the roulette wheel) to make it spin.
The gun was sold seperately back in the day so this only includes the wheel. As luck would have it, I actually own the light gun that goes with it, which I did a little write up about here. Unfortunately my six shooter doesn`t work and is for display only, so I`m not sure if this roulette wheel is still functioning or not.
I also have another one of the targets, the Electro Safari set, though I kind of like this roulette wheel better.
Anyway, open it up and this is what you get:
A roulette wheel and some chips. I am guessing that there might have also been a ball originally packed with this, but I am not sure. Normally a roulette wheel would of course have a ball, but this one mainly functions as a target intended to be hung on a wall vertically, which would have made a ball impossible to use on it. Instead of a ball it seems the number was to be indicated in this little window on the top:
The chips are pretty cool. They have the old Nintendo logo that the company briefly used in the early 70s (and which looks nothing like `Nintendo`) stamped in the middle of them:
The best part though, as with so many old Nintendo things, is the box itself. The cowboy on the front is pretty iconic:
And they have a completely different cowboy on the side. The blue and white star border with an orange brick background really make it look cool too:
Normally when I do a post about one of these pre-Famicom Nintendo finds I reference Erik`s fantastic Before Mario, but I was surprised to find that he hasn`t gotten around to dedicating a post specifically to the Electro Roulette yet (though he does have a post which overviews the Electro series and mentions the Roulette wheel). This is the first time since I got my Electro Safari that I have been able to introduce an old Nintendo thing which wasn`t already out there, so I feel kind of cool. Erik`s blog is a bit like the Simpsons for Nintendo collectors, every time you think you`ve found something new, you discover he already has it (and I mean that as a compliment of course)!
Is the light gun something you can fix or easily replace? (I've gone through 3 NES Zappers and last I checked they're all duds.) Looks wireless - maybe it just needs new batteries.
ReplyDeleteThe old ones are a bit different from the NES zappers, I they were more or less just glorified flashlights :) It would probably be possible to fix if I ever get around to it, but the actual light recepticle is missing from mine so finding one the right size, etc will probably be a pain!
ReplyDeleteHi Sean. Hey, you beat me to it! :-) But great find. This Roulette indeed didn't come with a ball. When you hit the target it starts spinning. When it stops, you can read the winning number in the small window. Talking about Electro Safari, your post about it back in February of 2011 made me start my own blog. Without you, beforemario may not have started. At least not at the time it did. So, thanks again for providing the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteThanks Erik! It is an honor to know that I had some minor role in encouraging the creation of such an excellent blog!
ReplyDeleteThis looks great for a Nintendo item. :D
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is pretty neat!
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