https://archive.org/details/mego-time-out-toss-up-1980-nintendo-game-and-watchMego Time Out Toss Up (1980) Nintendo Game and Watch Commercialhttps://gamehistory.org/mego-time-out-commercial/Color correction by Garrett Gilchrist to bring back the faded color. Blue remained tricky, often turning into green or black here. My first draft was too saturated so I've mixed it with the original here. One damaged frame has been corrected. The color is inconsistent in some scenes. Theoretically I could fix that but haven't.
This 16mm film by DuRona Productions comes to the VGHF from game historian and Nintendo expert Chris Kohler, who stumbled across it in an online auction listing."Thanks to Buck Bito and Anne Marie Smatla at Movette for their expert digitization and restoration work."Chris offered up some background on what this “Mego” business is about:
Before Nintendo of America was established, Nintendo did a licensing deal with Mego, where the popular toy company would release four early Game & Watch systems in the U.S. While the machines themselves were manufactured by Nintendo and are identical to the original Japanese models—the Nintendo logo is still embossed into the back—the printing on the front has the Mego logo and the new series branding, which was called “Time-Out.”
Mego put out four “Time-Out” games—Toss-Up (originally called Ball), Exterminator (Vermin), Fireman Fireman (Fire), and Flag Man (Flagman). Mego ran television advertising for these games, which were probably the first TV ads for Nintendo products ever aired outside Japan!
"One day while browsing eBay, I happened upon a film reel containing a TV commercial for Time-Out, the first game in the series. I reached a deal with the seller and handed the film over to the VGHF right after I got it. The box notes that the film is credited to “Lion Rock Ltd.,” which was a division of Mego. It is dated to June 25, 1980, just a couple of months after Nintendo of America was incorporated."