Added Nintendo mini game # 50 to my collection

This being the first post of 2020, let me start by wishing you the best for this year. Granted, a quarter of it is already over. And with the global virus pandemic in full effect, it probably will not go down as one of the best years ever. But still, I hope you can make the most of it.

The last months I have been able to add some missing items to my collection, and I plan to show these in a few blog posts over the coming weeks, and included some things I have not covered before as well.

Today we start with a game from Nintendo's Mini Game series. The game is called Picture Puzzle (ピクチュアパズル). Like all of theseMini Games, it dates from the first half of the 1970s.

As reported a few month ago, I was chasing the last one of the 50 known Mini Games that I needed to complete the collection of these fun little toys. To my surprise I discovered another one, that I was not yet aware of.

Mini Game Picture Puzzle, the 50th mini game in my collection

This particular Mini Game is very simliar in style to two other Mini Games already in my collection, shown here in the middle and right in the picture below.

These two other games, although appearing to be different, both contain an identical set of three cardboard puzzles. It is just a different one of the three that is shown on top in the blister pack.

Chaotic Cube outer box from 1970

Some time ago I came across an interesting box.

The box measures about 10 by 10 by 10 centimetres.

According to the sticker on the front it retailed for US$ 3.79 by Sears, Roebock and Co.

The Sears company is an American institute (over the last decade fallen on hard times), with department shops across the country and a hugely popular mail order catalogue.

Inside is another box, with a Chaotic Cube.

Nintendo Fifteengame (フィフティーンゲーム, ca 1965)

Until recently, three Nintendo plastic puzzle games were known to exist: Challenge Dice from 1969, the familiar Ten Bilion from 1980 and the rare Crossover from 1981, seen here below left to right on the top row.

But now a fourth puzzle popped up, which predates the Challenge Dice and is even rare than Crossover. The game is called Fifteengame (フィフティーンゲーム).

Although an exact year of release is not known, given the style of Nintendo NG logo used it must be from the early to mid 1960s.

Nintendo Puzzle Dice (パズルダイス)

Another recent addition to my collection is this Nintendo puzzle from the early 1970s, called Puzzle Dice (パズルダイス).

Like the electric Panda clock shown in the previous post, it's an item that I had not seen before. Or more precisely, it is a package variant that was unknown to me.

The puzzle itself is familiar, although under a different name: the original release dates from 1969 and was called Challenge Dice (チャレンジ ダイス).

Nintendo Crossover (任天堂 クロスオーバー, 1981)

While Nintendo's head of Research and Development Gunpei Yokoi was busy overseeing the roll-out of the Game & Watch silver and gold series, he still found time to create a follow-up to his very successful Ten Billion puzzle: the Nintendo Crossover (クロスオーバー).

Unlike the Ten Billion, which was sold in large numbers worldwide, only a small quantity of Crossover puzzles was produced, making it one of the more rare and sought-after Nintendo items from the toys and games era.

Nintendo Crossover (1981)

The Crossover was advertised using the phrase「偏光スクリーン」, which means 'Polarized Light Screen'. The official English sub-title was 'Polarized Light Puzzle'. Why this is, we will get to in a minute.

Crossover was released in 1981, in three color variants: green, red or purple. It cost the same as the Ten Billion puzzle: ¥1,000.

Television commercial for the Nintendo Crossover

Nintendo Ten Billion (任天堂 テンビリオン, 1980)

In 1980 Nintendo released a toy that would become a hit in their Japanese home market as well as abroad. Some of Nintendo's toys and early arcade games had been sold internationally before, but noting on the scale of Ten Billion.

Nintendo Ten Billion (1980)

The Ten Billion (テンビリオン) is a 3D puzzle (立体パズル). It was a response to the phenomenally poplar Rubik's Cube, which Nintendo's great inventor Gunpei Yokoi used as inspiration to come up with his own original puzzle.

It was not their first 3D puzzle. Many years earlier, Nintendo had already released Fifteengame and the Challenge Dice, both much simpler puzzles.

The Ten Billion came in a plastic case, and was sold for ¥1,000.

The top of the case contained a gold colored sticker with a "N", obviously referring to Nintendo. The Nintendo name was also included in the top and bottom of the game itself.

Nintendo copyright on top of the Ten Billion

The Ten Billion barrel is filled with 23 balls: four balls for each of the five colors (yellow, orange, red, blue and green) and 3 black balls.

The objective of the Ten Billion puzzle is to get all balls back into their original spot inside the barrel, after they have been thoroughly mixed by rotating the two drums (ドラム) in the middle of the barrel while moving the black plunger (プランジャ) up and down.

The Ten Billion owes its name to the 10 billion (10,000,000,000) different permutations in which the balls supposedly can be mixed. When counted properly, the number of permutations is actually around 450 times higher (4,509,264,634,875).

Front of Ten Billion Manual

The two middle sections of the barrel can be rotated independently, which moves ten balls at the same time.

The black plunger has three protruding pieces pushing against the balls. When the plunger is moved, three of the five columns move with it (moving a total of no less that 15 balls at once).

If you compare the image above with the one below, you notice that the column in the middle (with the two yellow balls and one orange and blue ball) did not change when the plunger was moved to the right, while the other two columns moved to the right with it.

Because of the large number of balls that move at the same time, solving this puzzle is very tricky. Nintendo provided to retailers a leaflet (解説書) with information on solving the Ten Billion.

Leaflet with instruction on solving Ten Billion

The leaflet shows step by step how to solve the puzzle, starting by moving the three black balls into the correct position, and then moving the colored balls in their right column, one column at a time.

For people not content with "just" aligning the balls in their original configuration, a final section in the leaflet provided sixteen additional challenges with various nice patterns for the colored balls.

Alternative patterns for the balls in Ten Billion

As mentioned, the Ten Billion was an international success and exported to many countries around the world.

German edition of Ten Billion, called "Teufelstonne"

In Germany and The Netherlands Ten Billion was sold under the name "Devil's Barrel" ("Teufelstonne" and "Duivelston", respectively).

In the United Kingdom, it was distributed by a company called CGL, which also distributed Nintendo Game & Watch games.

Teufelstonne Manual

For many people in the West, including me, Ten Billion was the first exposure to Nintendo's ingenuity. It was a serious brain twister with a high quality design.

Box in which Ten Billion was shipped to retailers

At the time, though, not many will have recognized and remembered the Nintendo brand name, as it was still very much unknown outside of Japan.

Of course, that would change very soon thereafter; an ape-centered video game and an avalanche of Game & Watch games made sure of that. But that is a different story.

Nintendo did create a follow-up to the Ten Billion: the Crossover. An equality interesting puzzle, but commercially much less successful.

Nintendo Challenge Dice (チャレンジ ダイス, 1969) a.k.a. Chaotic Cube, a.k.a. Puzzle Dice

In the late 1970s and early 80s, the highly original Rubik's Cube created a world wide puzzle phenomenon. Nintendo quickly joined the party with the release of the Ten Billion barrel puzzle in 1980 and (less well-known) Crossover in 1981.

Many years prior, however, Nintendo already released another puzzle game - called Challenge Dice. It is a fun puzzle; not too easy, but somewhat less challenging than the name would suggest.

Nintendo Challenge Dice (1969)

The Challenge Dice (チャレンジ ダイス) was released in 1969, and sold for ¥400. Playing cards were still an important part of Nintendo's business at the time, and a puzzle game was a natural extension of their portfolio, as cards and puzzles are often sold at the same places - so existing distribution channels could be used.

The plastic puzzle cube was packaged in a transparent container, and came with a small twelve-page instruction booklet.

Nintendo patent pending message

The "one" side of the dice contains an embossed "Nintendo Patent Pending" message.

Instruction booklet cover

The instruction booklet contains a Nintendo copyright sign. The inside of the booklet cover contains a sticker with an additional copyright notice: "(c) Sato Tokushu Design". It is not known what their involvement exactly consisted of, but possibly Nintendo's role was limited to production and distribution only, not design.

Inside of instruction booklet,
with additional copyright notice

The puzzle consists of a traditional dice, with one to six holes on the six sides of the cube.

Challenge Dice and twenty-one pins to fill the holes

The holes need to be filled with a total of twenty-one pins in four different lengths. There are two pins of the largest size, eight of the smallest size and four and seven pins, respectively, of the sizes in between. The pins have different colors on their ends, depending on their size.

The four pin lengths and their number and color

To start the puzzle, all pins are removed from the Challenge Dice. The objective of the game is to put the pins back in. The smallest pins go in easily, but the longer pins can block each other on the inside of the dice, so their position needs to be selected carefully, to allow all pins to be inserted completely.

If you want to, you can even disassemble the entire cube (it comes apart in six pieces), and include the assembly as part of the puzzle. It is quite easy to build, but you have to make sure you make the correct sides face each other ("one" opposite "six", "two" opposite "five" and "three" opposite "four"), otherwise it may not be possible to complete the puzzle.

Multiple solutions exist for this puzzle. The instruction booklet provides two solutions, and encourages the puzzler to find more. Space is provided in the booklet to note another 10 solutions, as apparently there are a total of twelve different solutions.

As the smallest pieces always fit (they do not extend into the internal of the dice), the strategy is to focus on the other pins first. When these all fit, the smallest pieces can than be added to the remaining open spots.

Two of the multiple solutions for Challenge Dice

Challenge Dice was sold in three different colors: off-white, lime-green and red. The colors of the pins are the same for all three dice color variants.

All three color variants of Challenge Dice

In the early 1970s, some years after the initial release of Challenge Dice, it was repacked under the name Puzzle Dice and also sold under its original name in the Nintendo Mini Game Series.

Nintendo Mini Game version of Challenge Dice (ca 1972)

Although the name would suggest differently, the Mini Game version is 100% identical (likely repackaged old stock), except that the cube does not come pre-assembled.

The instruction booklet is also includes, as are (the same) instructions on the back of the blister pack.

Back of Mini Game blister pack, with instructions

The Puzzle Dice version is also identical, except for its plastic bag and the instruction booklet.

Puzzle Dice

The Challenge Dice was also released abroad, under the name Chaotic Cube. This version surfaced in the US.

The copyright notice on this version reads "(c) 1970 Pacific Game Company", and the brand name is "Pleaseantime Games". It came in a cardboard box.

The slogan on the box states "Anyone can take it apart...that's easy...but to put it together again - Wow; that's a real puzzle!".

When we open the box, that game that comes out is the actual Nintendo Challenge Dice game, in the transparent plastic container.

The Nintendo patent pending mark is also still present on the dice.

An English language instruction booklet is included.

The booklet states "printed in Japan", which indicates that Nintendo produced the Chaotic Cube for the Pacific Game Company.

The pictures on the box of the Chaotic Cube provide a clear step by step guide on how to go about solving this puzzle. These photos are another indication of the involvement of Nintendo in the Chaotic Cube, as the exact same photos are also used on the front of the blister pack of the Challenge Dice in the Nintendo Mini Game Series, pictured above.

Chaotic Cube was released in two different colors: red and green.

The three different Western releases of Challenge Dice

Recently a third Western release of Challenge Dice surfaced, sold under the game's original name. More on this version can be found here.

Another interesting find was this Chaotic Cube with outer cardboard box.