{"id":666,"date":"2010-06-07T12:21:45","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T17:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=666"},"modified":"2010-06-07T16:47:39","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T21:47:39","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-nintendo-scratch-off-game-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/666\/retro-scan-of-the-week-nintendo-scratch-off-game-cards","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> Nintendo Scratch-Off Cards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/double_dragon_card_1_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/double_dragon_card_1_small.jpg\" alt=\"Double Dragon Nintendo Game Packs Scatch-Off Game Card Front - 1989\" class=\"centered\"\/><\/a><span class=\"freecaption\"><em>He soon landed with an embarrassing splash.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/535\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Double Dragon<\/em><\/a> scratch-off game card came from a pack of Topps &#8220;Nintendo Game Pack&#8221; cards that I bought, likely in a drugstore, circa 1989.  Of all the cards in the pack, this one remains unscratched for whatever reason.  Perhaps I wanted to preserve the mystery and potential of a single unscratched scratch-off card.  After all, the cards become worthless and ugly after you impart jaggy scratch lines all over those silver little pads.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/double_dragon_card_2_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/double_dragon_card_2_excerpt.jpg\" alt=\"Double Dragon Nintendo Game Packs Scatch-Off Game Card Back - 1989\" class=\"centered\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The reason Nintendo and the scratch-off concept share the same milieu is that each card presents the owner with a game of sorts.  Once you scratch a pad, you reveal a graphical symbol that determines your fate depending on the directions printed on the back of the card.  In this case, you need &#8220;1 arrow and 2 kicks or 3 elbows or 4 punches&#8221; to win.  I&#8217;m not sure how many variations of the symbols Topps printed under those silver pads, but I hope there was more than one.  Otherwise, if you had multiple copies of the same card, the &#8220;game&#8221; might have unfolded in exactly the same way if you scratched the same pads.<\/p>\n<p>Nintendo Game Packs cards featured <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em>, <em>Punch-Out!!<\/em>, and <em>The Legend of Zelda<\/em> as well, although those were too irresistible for me to not scratch off, so none survive in tact in my collection.<\/p>\n<p>A number of websites examine these cards in more detail.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trsrockin.com\/gamepacks_scratch.html\" target=\"_blank\">This one<\/a> has scans of all the cards in the series.  Another one features <a href=\"http:\/\/thesurfingpizza.com\/2009\/02\/20\/topps-nintendo-scratch-off-trading-cards\/\" target=\"_blank\">photos of the stickers<\/a> that came with each pack of cards &#8212; I remember plastering those all over my walls as a kid.  I may have a couple of the uglier stickers left un-peeled somewhere.  If I ever find them, I&#8217;ll probably just burn them as an offering to Hgnagg, the God of Nostalgia.<\/p>\n<p><center><em><small>[ From Topps Nintendo Game Packs Trading Cards, circa 1989 ]<\/small><\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong>  Did you collect trading cards as a kid?  What kind(s)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He soon landed with an embarrassing splash. This Double Dragon scratch-off game card came from a pack of Topps &#8220;Nintendo Game Pack&#8221; cards that I bought, likely in a drugstore, circa 1989. Of all the cards in the pack, this one remains unscratched for whatever reason. Perhaps I wanted to preserve the mystery and potential [&hellip;]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-666","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666","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=666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}