5 Products Nintendo Released Before The NES

The Ele-Conga, as you may have gussed, was an electronic conga drum released in Japan in 1970. Drumming on the Ele-Conga produced electronic drum sounds via the buttons on the top on the device. It was like a very early drum machine that worked like a charm. The device also supported the Ele-Conga Auto Player, an addition that would automatically play music based on the play discs included. It was like hitting the demo button on your old Casio keyboard!

An electronic poker game isn't a new idea, but this is Nintendo and they aren't going to to anything by the book. On the surface the Nintendo Electro Poker is the quintessential '70s piece of kit. The avocado-like unit on a cone base just screams disco. Activating the device spins the cards on the slot machine giving you a neat little desktop poker game, even if it required you to write down your cards. The magic comes from how you activate the slot mechanic. In a twist, you used a light-gun to shoot the sensor on top of the device to spin the cards. Even in 2019 the idea sounds like a lot of fun!

Nintendo was never one to ignore a trend when it wasn't busy creating them. I suppose it's more accurate to say that Nintendo always loved new technology and figuring out ways to make it available to the public in the cheapest possible form. The Lefty RX is such a device that rode the new way of radio controlled cars that took off in the 1970s. It's a pretty standard RC car, but as the name would imply, it could only turn left. This wasn't crazy at the time, and I can even remember cheap RC cars in the '80s only being able to turn left. It was a way to get the tech to the masses and helped save on costs.

The Nintendo Punchbuoy (not to be confused with Punchboy) is an interesting toy/exercise device. Nintendo loves merging things, so the idea of this thing isn't far from their wheelhouse. The Punchbouy is probably something you may have seen before as the device is still floating around in the world of workouts. Billed as a device that could "Increase your stamina through fun play," the toy featured a orange "buoy" with two cords strung though it. Players take hold of the handles and extend your arms causing the buoy to fling towards your opponent. They do the same and try to get the buoy to hit the handles of the other player. Super simple, but a bit of good fun and great for a quick workout. Two for the price of one!

This is an interesting educational device that is pretty intense for such a small object. Think of it along the lines of a mathematical puzzle-game like the Rubik's Cube. It consists of a "cylinder" divided into six levels. The top and bottom levels of the cylinder form a single piece, but between them are two rotatable pieces. Each of the four central levels is divided into five chambers each containing a colored ball. The top and bottom levels have only three chambers, containing either three balls or three parts of the frame depending on the relative position of frame and cylinder. The balls in three of the five resulting columns of chambers can be moved up or down one level by raising or lowering the frame relative to the transparent cylinder. The object is to sort the balls, so that each of the five columns contains balls of a single color. It sounds wicked confusing!