Former Nintendo employee Toru Hashimoto has been running a secret diner for years in Tokyo, which, in addition to rare items from Nintendo’s past, also served as an industry meeting place for some of the biggest names in Japanese video game development.
How this wonderful feature on Bloomberg revealed, 59-year-old Hashimoto opened 84— ”a combination of the creator’s last name, the year he joined the Kyoto-based game maker, and the final phase of Super Mario Bros. “2015, and filled the then diner with all sorts of things that he saved from destruction:
The company never expected video games to become the cultural phenomenon they grew to be and weren’t very careful to preserve its history, industry adviser Hisakazu Hirabayashi said. But Hashimoto, who viewed his colleagues’ products sentimentally, made a habit of keeping small items intended for the incinerator and bringing them home …“I put a fraction of it on display in the diner in the hope that my friends would feel nostalgic when they see them,” said Hashimoto in an interview in his cafe. “At least that made my wife happy, as our house is now better organized.”
Everywhere on the walls are now “spontaneous doodles from the makers of legendary franchises like Pokémon, Dragon Quest and Mega Man. “
84 has been operating as a restaurant for years, serving beers and Home cooked food for Japanese game industry types – like Pokémon Shigeki Morimoto-meeting and hanging out, playing games and talk about business. But the pandemic has forced change, with 84 first closure months before reopening as a cafe.
G / O Media can receive a commission
More importantly, for a place that was previously a secret and known only to industry insiders, it is now open to the public, although its address remains hidden and is only given when making a reservation.
Visitors are greeted by one Zelda ring the doorbell when they open the front door, and “Many of the items on display at 84 are unique and cannot be found anywhere else in the world, possibly not even in the official museum that Nintendo is building in Kyoto. “
Read more about 84 Herewhile there is also a video tour Here.
.