I've been collecting Menko & Video Game cards for many years. Through all the years of collecting, I've always wondered in the back of my mind.....what came first? What & when was the very first time a video game appeared on a trading card? I can now confirm the 1978 Space Invaders Menko Mini Card set is the First Video Game Trading Cards Ever Made!!
These 1978 Space Invaders Menko pre-date any Western Video Game trading card sets. The Fleer Pacman sticker cards from 1980 have always been understood as the first video game trading cards....until now. These Space Invaders cards have an interesting history. Lets's begin with how we know these Space Invaders cards date to 1978.
Actually, this story doesn't require much explanation, as the historical background on these cards are quite simple. These Space Invaders Menko were made by Amada, the same company that produced Mario's famous 1981 rookie card for Nintendo. We know this because it's proudly stamped on the top of the box. It's widely understood in Japan by collectors & dealers these Menko were released shortly after the release of the Space Invaders arcade cabinet in Japan in 1978. Also, Amada released a "second version" of these Space Invaders Menko cards in 1980. This proves "Vital" in how we are able to date these cards.
The front & back of the "2nd" version cards are different in comparison to the "1st" version. The 1st version cards have sprites of the game on the back of the card, where the 2nd version has No sprite pics & only has Japanese writing on the back. The front of both versions have screenshots of the game, but there are still differences. The 1st version literally looks like a screenshot of the game with original looking pixelated font of the letters on the top of the card. The 2nd version still has the same looking screenshot of the game on the front, but the aliens look larger & more animated rather than pixelated & the font of the letters on top of the card are larger. Without going into more detail, you can see how easy it is to recognize a 1st version from the 2nd version. If it has a sprite pic on the back, right away you know it is the 1st version. If it has no pic & only Japanese writing on the back, you know it is the 2nd version. These are the differences on the cards, but there are many distinguishing differences on their boxes as well.
This is quite simple as well. The boxes of the 1st & 2nd versions are different sizes, but what the boxes have stamped on them tells the story. On the bottom corner of the 1st version box it translates 10yen 50 pieces, indicating each pack cost 10yen & there are 50 total packs in the box. It is commonly understood in Japan starting in 1980 the vast majority of these Mini Menko Pull Pack boxes went from 10yen in cost to 20yen. And this is exactly what we see on the 2nd version box. The bottom corner of the 2nd version box translates 20yen 50 pieces. This is how we know which box & cards came first. Obviously the 10yen box is the first version. But how can we confirm which cards came out of which box? I've got this one covered for you!
Several months ago I was lucky enough to acquire a box of the 1st version of these Space Invaders cards! It helps to have friends in Tokyo. To my surprise, the box was complete with all 50 packs!! Even had the 3 winner books that could be won by pulling a winner card & exchanging it for a winner book that you could put your collection of cards in. By the way, rather than a small winner book with sheets to put your cards in, the 2nd version came with a large book with all the slots to "glue" your cards in to collect. I knew right away I had to open this box at some point. The chase card is obviously card No. 1. It is considered the 1st Video Game Trading Card ever printed. Basically, every Video Game Trading Card Ever Made can trace its Roots right back to the No. 1 card in this set!
Below are pics of the 1st & 2nd versions of the cards & boxes so you can easily see the differences. I recently opened this box on camera while I was set up at the 2026 Cincinnati Comic Expo. There are 2 videos, a Part 1 & Part 2 of the box opening. I had a blast opening this Space Invaders box from 1978. Click the links below to watch this Historic First Ever Recorded Opening of the First Video Game Trading cards ever made! Check back in often as this Historic Discovery will certainly have updates. Soon I'll be posting more pics of the cards I pulled in the video. 11-4-26
Coming Soon!! More Pics & Information on the Historic No. 1 Video Game Card, as well as a few other discovered Chase Cards in the Set!!
1978 First Version Space Invaders Menko
Card 1 of Set. First Video Game Card Ever
Card 1 of Set. First Video Game Card Ever
1980 Second Version Space Invaders Menko
Space Invaders History
When it comes to the beginnings of video game history, what comes to the mind of many is the NES and the Mario franchise. And rightfully so. Actually, we must go back further to understand how even Nintendo got its start in video games. The first video game home console was the Magnavox Odyssey released in 1972. The Odyssey was unsuccessful. Not just because of the limitations of the technology of the time, but partly because later that year in 1972 Atari released Pong in the arcades. Pong was extremely successful and helped launch the video game industry. By Christmas of 1975 Pong was released as a home console and now anyone with a tv could enjoy playing Pong in the comfort of their home. For some reason Atari never licensed the game, so over the next couple of years the market was flooded with many different consoles sporting different variations of the popular game. Due to all the Pong home console clones, the video game industry experienced its first crash in 1977. But little did anyone know, by the following year a man named Tomohiro Nishikado would change the video game industry forever.
Tomohiro Nishikado worked for Taito Corporation in Japan. Taito specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets, and game centers based in Tokoyo. Nishikado wanted to develop a new video game. He drew inspiration from games like Breakout, Gun Fight and from science fiction narratives like The War of the Worlds, Space Battleship Yamato and the famous film Star Wars. He wanted to make a shooting game and originally wanted to be able to shoot tanks, airplanes, and people. Taito didn’t want a violent game involving shooting people, so he had to take a different approach. What he came up with was nothing short of genius. Space Invaders, released April 1, 1978 in Japan, is a shoot’em up game that enables the player to shoot aliens out of the sky. There are multiple levels in the game and there is also a UFO that occasionally crosses the top of the screen that can be shot for extra points. Nishikado realized, due to the software limitations, the aliens were not moving as fast as he wanted. Then he found as you killed an alien, the software had one less sprite to account for therefore making all the others move faster. The more you killed, the faster the game got. Even the daunting music would get faster making the suspense of the game even better. This was an innocent mistake that Nishikado decided to keep, which ended up playing a major role in the game's success. This type of gameplay was the inspiration of many video games and game designers across different genres that have stuck even to this day.
Many don’t realize it, but Space Invaders changed the video game industry forever. Space Invaders had many “firsts” in the video game industry. Here are a just a few:
1) First fixed Shooter game
2) First game with music
3) First game to keep a high score
4) First arcade game to be ported to a console
5) First game where enemies would shoot back
By the end of 1978, Taito had installed over 100,000 arcade machines and grossed around 700 Million in Japan alone. By the end of 1979 Taito had manufactured 400,000 machines in Japan, and an additional 750,000 machines worldwide after Taito licensed the overseas rights to Midway for distribution outside of Japan. By the end of 1979, Space Invaders became the arcade industry’s best selling game of all time. In 1980 Atari received the licensing to sell Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 console, making Space Invaders the first arcade game to be ported to a console. Atari sold 2 Million units in its first year, over 4.2 Million by the end of 1981, and 5.6 million by 1982. Atari’s port of Space Invaders quadrupled their console sales and at least doubled their company's net worth. By 1982, in four short years, Space Invaders had grossed over 4 Billion which is equivalent to more than 13 Billion in today's dollars. One game! Space Invaders through the years has had many versions and ports to many different consoles, even to the Nintendo Switch.
Yes, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong helped save the video game industry from the crash in 1983, but we can’t forget what happened 5 years earlier in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders. Believe it or not, it is possible if Space Invaders had never been developed, Nintendo might not have entered the video game industry.
Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was quoted as saying, “About a year or two after I joined Nintendo, Space Invaders came out and became a huge hit, and so Nintendo decided to go into the video game business.”
If it wasn’t for Tomohiro Nishikado, Taito Corp and Atari, we might live in a world without Mario....and what kind of world would that be?! So, my hat goes off to one of my childhood favorites. The best shooter of all time.....Space Invaders. 2025
Card 1 of Set. First Video Game Card Ever!!
Space Invaders Menkos
