{"id":2439,"date":"2019-02-27T12:40:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T17:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=2439"},"modified":"2019-02-27T12:44:07","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T17:44:07","slug":"retro-scan-mike-tyson-plays-nes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/2439\/retro-scan-mike-tyson-plays-nes","title":{"rendered":"[ Retro Scan ]<\/span> Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Promotional Photo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mike<\/a>Nude boxer plays Nintendo<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I have a framed print of this 8×10 photo hanging on my office wall. The first time I put it up and my kids came in, the conversation went something like this:<\/p>\n

“Daddy, why is there a photo of a naked man on your wall?”<\/p>\n

“That’s Mike Tyson.”<\/p>\n

“…”<\/p>\n

“A famous boxer from the 1980s.”<\/p>\n

“…”
\n“But why is he naked.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And so I hit upon a 1980s cultural zeitgeist I never thought I’d have to explain to anyone.<\/p>\n

Nintendo’s 1984 arcade classic Punch-Out!!<\/em> — which used richly detailed graphics for the time and dual monitors — was a masterpiece in creative arcade design. And in the 1980s, watching Mike Tyson fight (which I did a couple times on pay-per-view) was a thrilling experience. He was scary powerful. So when Nintendo combined the two together in 1987 as a game for the hottest console of the day, they cooked up the recipe for something amazing: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!<\/em> still holds a place as one of my favorite NES games. It’s dynamic, beautiful, and fun. It’s challenging, but doesn’t feel unfair. Curiously, I must have only played friends’ copies of MT’s Punch-Out!!<\/em> (or we traded it) because we also bought the non-Tyson version (with Mr. Dream) Nintendo released in 1990.<\/p>\n

This photo is a promotional handout Nintendo sent to the press in 1987. I believe I own the only known physical photographic print of this image. (I’m sure there are others out there, but we don’t know where they are). Last year I sent a high-res scan of this image to The Gaming Historian for one of his YouTube features<\/a> and also to Frank Cifaldi for Video Game History Foundation<\/a> exhibits. So you may be seeing it more often in the future.<\/p>\n

The back of the photo says this:<\/p>\n

Mike Tyson, undisputed heavyweight boxing champion, has signed a promotional contract with the world’s leading manufacturer of home video game systems, Nintendo of America. Tyson will offer his name and likeness to “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!”, a game which allows players to participate in a series of challenging matches, leading up to a battle against the champ himself. The Game Pak, designed exclusively for play on the Nintendo Entertainment System, will be available in October.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[ From Nintendo of America Press Photo, 1987 ]<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Discussion Topic:<\/strong> What’s your favorite classic boxing video game?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nude boxer plays Nintendo I have a framed print of this 8×10 photo hanging on my office wall. The first time I put it up and my kids came in, the conversation went something like this: “Daddy, why is there a photo of a naked man on your wall?” “That’s Mike Tyson.” “…” “A famous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,22,27,26,9],"tags":[995,1103,1550,1623,1620,124,1621,60,477,1622],"class_list":["post-2439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-game-info-and-history","category-nes-famicom","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-retrogaming","tag-black-and-white","tag-boxing","tag-frank-cifaldi","tag-mike-tyson","tag-mike-tysons-punch-out","tag-nes","tag-press-photo","tag-retro-scan","tag-sports-games","tag-the-gaming-historian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2439"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2459,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2439\/revisions\/2459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}