Blast from the past: Nintendo trading cards

I was doing some cleaning the other day and stumbled upon an old unopened pack of Nintendo trading cards. Pictured to the left. If you're younger and unaware, trading cards like this were a big thing in the late 80's and early 90's. You could find just about any kind of trading cards from sports to Ninja Turtles to Video Games.

Dubbed "GamePack" cards, published by Topps in 1989, each pack of these includes 3 scratch game cards and 2 sticker cards. I hadn't planned on opening this pack, but due to it's age it appears that the adhesive has deteriorated and the paper is open. So for any other Nintendo fans interested in old memorabilia, let's take a look.













This is the contents of the package:


These are the scratch game cards:


There are rules on the back of each card that tells you how to play. They're essentially like lottery scratch cards and the results of the circles you scratch plays out the encounter with the enemy. For example in the Legend of Zelda card you have to find 3 sword strikes to defeat the enemy. In the first group of circles surrounding Link there are possibilities of sword strikes or attacks from the enemy. If you scratch 3 enemy attacks you lose. If you find an arrow moving forward then Link advances and you're allowed to scratch the circles around the enemy for more chances at a sword strike. Kind of a neat idea I guess, except each card is good for one play only.

These are the stickers:


Also on the back of the sticker cards are these completely useless gameplay tips. They pretty much just state the obvious.



They're kind of a neat piece of Nintendo memorabilia I guess. I used to have a whole bunch when I was a kid but I scratched them and tossed them. Somewhere at my parent's house is my card folder decorated by the many bonus Nintendo Stickers from each pack. It was worth it for those.

This pack will probably go back into storage. If I decide to put them on ebay or something I'll post a notice about it for the hardcore Nintendo collectors out there.