EVR Race was a 1975 betting simulator, and Nintendo's first ever video game. While it did not use sprites as its contemporaries did at the time, it instead used the Electronic Video Recording System, an experimental predecessor to the likes of the VHS tape. Its cabinet utilized a mechanism that randomized between pre-recorded Full Motion Video reels of either a four-way race involving horses — the default setting — or cars, which could be swapped out at the decision of the cabinet's owner, and there were reels available for every possible finishing order. Players would choose one of the four horses (or cars), and put in a coin. Then, they would watch the chosen reel, and the player who bet on the horse in first place would win.
While Nintendo acknowledges it as its first release, no cabinets are known to have survived.
This game had examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Only one of the horses was a natural color — brown. The other three were red, blue, and yellow.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Nintendo would later go on to use contemporary 4-bit graphics for the rest of their arcade days. While the Full Motion Video of EVR Race was a neat gimmick, it didn't allow for much player interaction.
- Full Motion Video: Served as the entire gimmick. Yes, you could just flip two coins for a similar experience to the gameplay itself, but during a time when video game graphics primarily consisted of featureless white squares, it was revolutionary.
- Luck-Based Mission: The game was very simple with almost no player input. It was all about the graphics.
