Hi Folks. Sorry it took a while, as many have been interested in seeing the items below for some time. Some of you may recall I had a lot going on recently with multiple health issues and surgeries and such, and I'm not totally outta the woods, but on my way.
Apologies ahead of time if some pics are a bit potato. My phone camera sucks. I can try to get better pics of any details or whatever if you want.
Anyway, all the items below are items that former Nintendo Game Play Counselor Ben Smith gave me. I met him at NWC 1990, and later on, met him again online around 2004-5. He had googled himself and saw a story I had posted online, part of which included when I met him. He remembered me, oddly enough!
In any case, he was cleaning out a bunch of stuff and was literally gonna throw all this away, so he shipped it to me when he asked if I wanted it. Of course, I did! I was absolutely blown away at his kindness and generosity. If you ever run into him, pay for his drinks. You will never wanna hear the end of his amazing stories of working at NOA and the NWC. Ben is one of the kindest, thoughtful and interesting people I have ever met and a true class act.
So, first item is this red jacket. Lemme just give you Ben's own words on it from my old emails from him:
"The red jacket is from 1991 when NOA bought all NOA employees jackets. It just has the Nintendo logo on the breast. I have a few pins I left attached to it as well as a patch from the NWC."
So, yeah, this is an official company-issued NOA red jacket Cool as hell, I think. And check out the pins! We've got a golden Mario on his golden Yoshi, a Nintendo/MLB 125
th anniversary pin, which is rather interesting because I've seen the MLB pin without the Nintendo logo a few times online, but I can't say I could find any info on this one. Then we've got a Donkey Kong pin and I'm sure you are all familiar with the NWC patch on there. It's got Nintendo embroidered in the front, and even the inside tag has the Nintendo logo on it! It's got an inside pocket, and the two outside pockets allow you to either hide the flap with a button to cover the opening or, well, use the flap and button it closed. Jacket it in absolutely excellent shape. It look brand new.
Next, here's a Banjo Kazooie golf/polo or whatever shirt. The Rare logo is on the front, and some seriously nice embroidery on the back. Doesn't look like it was ever worn.
Oh boy, this leather coat. This thing would definitely have been a very expensive thing to buy if it were ever sold, but it wasn't. In Ben's words,
"One [item being sent to me] is a leather jacket that I got from a contact I had with a distributor in Sweden. I think there were only 5 jackets made. The inside label is N64 and on the back is the Nintendo racetrack logo. Nothing too big."
Now, the light reflectivity in my pics kinda made the jacket look like cheap vinyl, but it's just artifacting. It definitely doesn't look like that in person.. This is a seriously nice, and kind of heavy leather coat. Ben even managed to find the original pro forma invoice that it shipped with! The coat certainly seems like it was never used and is a thing of beauty. Was the N64 logo called a racetrack logo? Never heard that before. But anyway, behold.
Next, there's a Nintendo golf towel. Kinda cool and super-random. It's got a little hook sorta carabiner-ish thing to hook it to your golf club bag, I'm guessing, Nintendo logo is embroidered.
A Killer Instinct Gold baseball cap. A little dusty, but seemingly unused. I was too lazy to grab my tape roller and clean the bit of dust off it, haha.
This next item is really cool. In Ben;s words, it is:
"a little ticket/invitation to the Nintendo formal private party that I got when I did the E3 show in LA in 1996 where we first showed the N64. I had bought a suit just for that damned show but then we ran behind setting up our huge display area so I ended up working rather than going to the party. I think they had Cir De Sole perform.
Pretty cool!
This is just a keychain with the Super Nintendo logo on one side and Super scope 6 on the back.
This pin is cool as hell. In Ben's words:
" I put that Nintendo party invitation in there along with a pin that says "I Survived Dragon Warrior"., which is a pin NOA gave to all its call center phone reps back in the early 90s I think. They had a giveaway of Dragon Warrior through a promotion with Nintendo Power which I don't remember exactly what happened but it was a hellish couple of weeks for the phone reps. The pin was just one of the things NOA did to express appreciation for those who went above and beyond for that promotion. LOL...it was a rough one for sure."
I remember getting a free Dragon Warrior copy via subscribing to another year of Nintendo Power. RPGs of that type were mostly unknown in the States then and that was Nintendo's first try at bringing them over here to make them catch on. I think it worked.
So yeah, the guy in the seat is basically a GPC getting his face blown off. Hahaha.
Next, we gave Ben Smith's own personal All Access laminated NWC pass and lanyard, and autographed too! An actual GPC's pass. Too cool.
Next, we have the super OMGRARE!!1eleventyone! rare pen for Ben's own personal business. Betcha don't have one of these! lolol
So let's get to the games he gave me!
First, look at this beauty. It's a Super Famicom from Nintendo's own employee library (employees could borrow games and system and such to bring home so they knew what they were talking about when giving game advice on the phone). Check out the bar codes. Nintendo's library had em on all their stuff. Or, at least eventually did. I believe they started using the barcodes once the ELMO system was in place (not sure what year that was), where they previously had a bunch of binders and such n their desks for game tips and such. Per Ben:
"ELMO was the solution to the big manuals at the desks. With so many
games released and being released it was a challenge to get new GPCs up to
speed on the games and it was getting harder for the experienced GPCs to
stay caught up. Each desk had 4 big binders full of typed and printed and
handwritten notes on the games. With over 50 stations, you can just imagine
the challenge to keep all the binders updated. We need to get a system in
place that allowed us to offer consistent and accurate information to our
callers. It was a nightmare and it was getting worse. My GPC team lead,
Geoff Mahaffey was a computer nerd. Him and a customer service lead got
together and came up with the idea for an electronic information system.
While trying to come up with a catchy name they decided to use ELMO,
Electronic Manual Organizer or something like that.
As soon as I got wind of the ELMO project I knew my next goal. I was
already writing quickplays on my own time and loved doing it. I was getting
burned out on the phones and was looking for way off and knew that this ELMO
project had fun written all over it. I worked hard and worked closely with
Jeff and it was a very difficult transition but we finally got ELMO up and
running.
ELMO was based on a program called Folio Views. It was pretty much just a
web page with links on an internal system. This was before web pages though
and the rise of the Internet. You'd have a main menu with options like,
Weapons, Levels, Common Questions, Codes, and you would click on one of
those items to open another menu with more info.
I finally became a full time writer for ELMO, then Jeff's assistant and when
he left I finally became the supervisor and responsible for the GPC
information for the ELMO system. It was considered an elite project for the
reps that were selected for the team as they got to be off the phones and
play the new games not out yet. It would take us months sometimes to write
the quickplays for games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior and such as
our goal was to have any GPC be able to answer any question on any game even
if they hadn't played it. It took us over two years of hard work and
dedication to get ELMO caught up. It was an awesome project."
But then he also said in a separate email:
"If I remember right, those are preproduction protos. We got some advanced
copies from Japan prior to the SNES being released.
The labels were for the checkout system. I think it was for the ELMO Team.
After we got our production SNES stuff in we stopped using the Japanese
versions. I was given so much stuff over the years. I didn't even know I
had that until I started unpacking."
So, I'm not totally sure why the ELMO system was tied into the library, but whatever.
Check out the SMW proto. Super Famicom case, US release, hahah. And with the library barcodes too.
And here we have F-Zero and PilotWings. All three release titles for SNES US debut. Bar codey goodness.
That covers two big boxes of stuff. The final box was the NES games he sent, and you might shit yourselves when I get to the coup de grace...but let's show the simpler stuff first.
Battle of Olympus, but dammit, the barcode is ripped off. Grrrr.
A sealed Crystalis with hangtab!
Final Fantasy with box and Styrofoam, but none else. No barcodes. Sigh.
Baseball Stars. No barcode. Waaah.
Castlevania with ripped off barcode. GRRRR.
Willow, where the top edge has label glue residue. Goddammit again.
StarTropics where the letter from the uncle is still glues to the instruction manual and seemingly never unfolded.
Donkey Kong Classics with manual. Nothing crazy.
Boxed Mike Tyson's Punch Out. Missing Styrofoam, but has the instructions and the letter from Iron Mike!
Sealed Dragon Warrior!!
Boxed Dragon Warrior IV, but with pre-ELMO "Enix Library" handwritten labels! Has map and monster list, or whatever. I didn't want to unfold it because I don't think it ever has been.
This is a boxed Tetris with plastic insert bag, styrofoam, sleeve and instructions, and also, the outer cellophane, though not sealed. But what is really cool about this is the orange outside label. Eventually games from the library were sold off as demand for given carts decreased. This was bought in an employee sale!
Next we have a proto of Mickey Mouse Dream Balloons. Never released outside Japan, and as far as I know, this is the only known English-language copy.
OK, I promised you a coup de grace, and here it is. This is no ordinary copy of Tengen Tetris. I believe it is THE copy of Tengen Tetris. You know, from the stories we all know retold all over about NOA aiming for rights to Tetris via the USSR? As retold in David Sheff's
Game Over? Let me explain with Ben's own words:
"A quick story about my first meeting with Howard Lincoln. I had a friend
who owned a video store. Back then Nintendo wasn't keen on video stores
renting games out and there was a lot of litigation concerning it. My
friend called me one day and told me he had a copy of the Tengen Tetris and
said he'd give me first chance to rent it. I drove over there immediately
and got a copy. I was still very new to NOA and wasn't aware of the Tetris
rights battle (which is very well documented in the book Game Over by David
Sheff) and so I took my copy of Tengen in the next day. We played games
while we took calls. It got easy to do after a bit. That's when we learned
new games. I fired up my copy of Tengen Tetris and showed a couple of
people. I played it all morning then went to lunch. I got back to my desk
and there are a couple of ladies standing there. They introduced themselves
as working in NOA's legal department and said Howard Lincoln would like to
see me and would like me to bring my Tetris game. I didn't know who Howard
Lincoln was. I was still trying to learn the NOA food chain. I followed
the gals downstairs and they led me to Howard's office and introduced us.
He invited me in and offered me a seat. He then asked me where I got the
game from. I told him it belonged to a friend of mine. He told me he
needed it. I told him I couldn't do that, it wasn't mine to give up.
Now at this point he very well could have exerted a little authority and
probably have confiscated it or something. Instead he smiled and asked me if
I could get him any copies. I said I'd call my friend and check. My friend
said he had three he would sell. Howard had a check made up and asked me to
go pick them up and to make sure to fill out an expense check for my
mileage. It wasn't long after that Tengen was ordered by a court to stop
making Tetris and to pull them off the retailer shelves. I still have mine
copy. :-)
I was impressed by Howard! Working in the industries I had always worked
in, nobody handled things like that. Later, after I found out who Howard
was I was even more impressed. But that was the whole philosophy of
Nintendo and how they treated their employees. It was as laid back as could
be for a corporation and they really really took care of us. If you screwed
up they'd try to work with you and get things on the right track. It was a
great company to work for.
So, what does this tell us? It tells us Howard Lincoln did not have a copy of Tengen Tetris and didn't know where to get one. It also tells us he probably didn't know about it because if Nintendo wanted a Tengen Tetris, I'd bet some big money a huge company like them would know how to get one. Ben wrote me a signed letter explaining this is the exact cart. ItBelongsInAMuseum.mp4
Speculation? Circumstantial evidence? Possibly, sure. Smoking gun? Not without Howard Lincoln chiming in. Ben wasn't sure what Lincoln knew or didn't know. But holy crap, there's a killer chance this is the cart that changed history. Would Nintendo have eventually found out anyway? Probably, but I think this is where it started.
Thanks for reading!
-Rob
