I`m a Gambling Man....with my Nintendo Electro Roulette

 

I got a roulette set in the mail last week.  I don`t play much roulette but I like this one.  Its electric and it says Nintendo on the wheel.!

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)!

Famicom Light Gun and Wild Gunman: Yipee Ki-Yay M------- F-------.

The censored words in the title of this post are actually just "My Famicom". Not sure why I felt the need to block them out like that.

Anyway, my visit to the other Omocha Souko yesterday turned up more than just the Luigi Mosaic. I bought something too. A good thing.

At the front of the store they have a pile of old consoles. Among the Mega Drives and Nintendo 64s I found this guy snuggly nestled, awaiting purchase:
This is the Famicom light gun, the original NES zapper.

I have been searching for one of these for the longest time. Its been a craving of mine. I had maintained fantasies about finding one in a junk bin for 100 yen or something, but 2 and a half years of fruitless searching has convinced me of the futility of that dream. These things are HARD to find. Yesterday was the first time I had ever seen one in person.

So I was quite pleasantly surprised to see it there. The price was 3,000 yen (about 35-40$ US) and, as you can see, they bundled it with a copy of Wild Gunman. The box was in great condition and they said it was in working order, so how could I resist?

Opening it up, this is what I got:
Love at first sight:
I had the zapper for my NES (still have it, in fact), but this thing is just a million times better. According to the tales of internet lore, American safety regulations prevented Nintendo from making the zapper look like a real revolver, so they made that kind of generic space gun looking gray thing for the NES. I like the revolver look way better though.

I mean, when I popped Wild Gunman in for a go, I actually kind of felt like I was in the old west with this thing. Well, just a bit - my living room looks nothing like the old west (except for the dust). Still though, its way more fun to be blowing away gun shooters with an old west 6 shooter than some gray "zapper". You can even cock the hammer on this thing.
The box is great too. On the back it has a very complicated diagram. If you look closely you'll notice that the only useful information this thing conveys is "plug it in." I guess they had to put something back there:
The front of the box is great too. Its got a little cowboy in the lower left corner shooting at a TV. It looks great on my shelf, I put it right in front of my bottle of whiskey for that added touch of the old west:
The other thing I really like about this game is that it was featured in Back to the Future II. Apparently the filmmakers took some liberties as the arcade cabinet they show in the film didn't exist and the gameplay they show is a bit different from the actual game. Still though, take a look at that gun Marty McFly uses to shoot the bad guys. Spitting image of the Famicom light gun!

Not only can I pretend to be an old west gunslinger, I can also pretend to be late 80s Michael J Fox. Sweet!

Anyway, I'm quite happy with this thing. It is one of the rare times when I buy something and it turns out to be every bit as good as I thought it would be (Family Trainer - that barb is directed at you).

Related Posts:
- Famicom Cart Mosaics: The Luigi Wall
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Family Basic, Family Trainer and Climber Stick