Toronto Ontario Place | ?m | ?s | Infrastructure ON

[Johnny Au]

The only video of the Nintendo Power Pod in Ontario Place that is publicly viewable:

Jump to the 0:56 mark

There are almost no other videos or photos of Ontario Place's Nintendo Power Pod available on the Internet!

It is very important this video be archived because if it gets deleted, there would be absolutely no way to know what the Nintendo Power Pod in Ontario Place looks like for generations to come.

Reddit discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ontario/comments/luzcoa

Link

 

[adma]

And because of the whole logistical "Retrontario conundrum", (y'know, dependent upon moments when camcorders and the like were commonplace), there's even *less* concrete documentation of pre-80s/90s OP attractions. (Yeah, still photos, but...)

 

[mistersg1]

The only video of the Nintendo Power Pod in Ontario Place that is publicly viewable:

Jump to the 0:56 mark

There are almost no other videos or photos of Ontario Place's Nintendo Power Pod available on the Internet!

It is very important this video be archived because if it gets deleted, there would be absolutely no way to know what the Nintendo Power Pod in Ontario Place looks like for generations to come.

Reddit discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ontario/comments/luzcoa

Link

Thank you so much for posting this. The video is taken at some points during 1996, a rather big year for Nintendo and the video game industry in general, as it was a large jump forward in game technology, and the fact the host calls it the “Ultra 64”, the prerelease name for the N64.

What I was trying to figure out looking at the clips was which pod Nintendo had.and how everything connected together.

I can post my own experience going in, and I know that Nintendo had either the middle pod of the three southern pods, or the one furthest to the west. Whichever one Nintendo had, Lego had the one directly to the east of it, I’m 100% sure of this.

The viewpoint of when the host is interviewing the representative from Nintendo of Canada I’m probably 90% certain the viewpoint of the camera is looking FROM the side where the fire escape stairs are, because right by the “fire escape” exit stairs was the stairs which lead back into the skywalk system that connected the west entrance to the Cinesphere and pods. There was also a passage to the east that lead to the Lego pod and it was a hallway showcasing Lego sets.

And the area behind where they were standing shows light, and I’m pretty sure that was the path to another one of the pods which had the laser show.

This was almost 30 years ago and I’ve been wondering on a floor plan how this all connected together.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

I worked at OP for one summer in the mid-1980s. HMCS Haida was also co-located but, as I recall, a separate venue. There was also the rental motorized innertube things in the same basin. Daytime was steadily busy; moreso when the Ex opened, but the nights were quite busy centred around the Forum and the bars. Depending on the act that was booked, attendance ranged from significant to extreme, both in numbers and behavior. Another major impact was Argo game night. Crowds came across the bridge headed for the bars and many were already well into their cups.

I worked ther in the early 200's a t a coupleof difrent resturants one of them ened up closing before the season ened due to lack of customers except for the busy nights with concerts and the symphony of fire fireworks. The other one I work for the sumer at and apart from the days in June wher you had adults from school groups or the people wholived on the baots in the maria it was only busy during major events as well. One day me and some of the other satf wer able to walk on the wilderness advanture ride becuse ther was no one els in the park for the most part.

 

[Johnny Au]

Thank you so much for posting this. The video is taken at some points during 1996, a rather big year for Nintendo and the video game industry in general, as it was a large jump forward in game technology, and the fact the host calls it the “Ultra 64”, the prerelease name for the N64.

What I was trying to figure out looking at the clips was which pod Nintendo had.and how everything connected together.

I can post my own experience going in, and I know that Nintendo had either the middle pod of the three southern pods, or the one furthest to the west. Whichever one Nintendo had, Lego had the one directly to the east of it, I’m 100% sure of this.

The viewpoint of when the host is interviewing the representative from Nintendo of Canada I’m probably 90% certain the viewpoint of the camera is looking FROM the side where the fire escape stairs are, because right by the “fire escape” exit stairs was the stairs which lead back into the skywalk system that connected the west entrance to the Cinesphere and pods. There was also a passage to the east that lead to the Lego pod and it was a hallway showcasing Lego sets.

And the area behind where they were standing shows light, and I’m pretty sure that was the path to another one of the pods which had the laser show.

This was almost 30 years ago and I’ve been wondering on a floor plan how this all connected together.

I remembered going to the Nintendo Power Pod. When I went there, it had Mario Paint being displayed.

I believe that the Nintendo Power Pod was the furthest west of the southern pods, LEGO occupied the middle, and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame occupied the furthest east. After all, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame moved to St. Marys in 1998.

1986 map:

Yes, I know that it is the 1986 map (before the Nintendo Power Pod existed), but it showed the location of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Edit: I crossed out my guesses for the locations of the attractions as they turn out to be incorrect.

 

[mistersg1]

I remembered going to the Nintendo Power Pod. When I went there, it had Mario Paint being displayed.

I believe that the Nintendo Power Pod was the furthest west of the southern pods, LEGO occupied the middle, and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame occupied the furthest east. After all, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame moved to St. Marys in 1998.

1986 map:

Yes, I know that it is the 1986 map (before the Nintendo Power Pod existed), but it showed the location of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

There’s a few missing links in my mind and why I think it was the middle pod, with Lego being the furthest east.

My first ever experience with Ontario Place and you might find this strange was a school field trip in Grade 2 to visit both Casa Loma and then Ontario Place’s LEGO Discovery Centre, at this point I had no idea what Ontario Place was. The Casa Loma field trip was related but really no relation to us reading fairy tales in school, whatever I guess. But for Lego, who knows.

Anyways, the school bus first drove up to the east side main gate, and then instead drove up the hill to drop us off at the West Entrance (the skywalk entrance). As strange as this sounds, we used the hallway just up the stairs from the skywalk into Nintendo‘a pod in the outer hallway to eat our lunch, we were not allowed to go in the area were the games were but could see them. By the outer hallway, I’m referring to where the representative from Nintendo of Canada is being interviewed about a minute into that video. After eating, we took that passage with Lego sets on the wall, into the Lego pod, When we were done in there, we walked back through the transitional hallway between Lego and Nintendo and took Nintendo’s stairs back into the skywalk.

Here’s a few things I remember from that trip that would almost guarantee it to be the middle pod. Upon walking across the skywalk, after turning left, I remember walking a bit further before walking up the stairs into the pod, if it was the west most pod, this would mean the stairs hypothetically would be very close to that intersection in the skywalk.

Secondly, we accidentally looked went out onto the “fire escape” exit with the grate like steps before realizing this wasn’t how we came up. This is important because the west most pod doesn’t have a fire escape staircase that leads onto the marina area.


I did get to the visit the space finally with my family, and we used that very fire escape to get into the main area of Ontario place after visiting Nintendo. The area by the Marina.

Furthermore, it rained hard towards the end of our day, and we took refuge up in the Nintendo Power Pod, I explicitly remember looking out that window that you can see from Lake Shore at the corner of the pod while I was in the Nintendo Power pod and looking out towards Lake Shore.

We also saw a laser show some point during the day and entered through it from a hallway that led from the Nintendo Power over, this had to be a hallway heading west as I remember big windows here between the pods.

Your map also introduces a very important point, there was a theatre of sorts in the west most of the three pods, the laser show was also shown in a theatre like area and thus would logically make sense to be in the same place.

So how the pods connected are what bother me somewhat, based on everything I’ve said, such as being able to see over Lake Shore from the Nintendo pod, the position of the outer hallway to the fire escape stairs at Nintendo, the Nintendo/Lego transition hallway, this is how I think it was set up.

The exterior hallway in the Nintendo Power pod hugged the southwest side of the pod, the southeast side of the pod contained the Nintendo/Lego transition hallway, on the other side of the outer hallway in in the Nintendo Pod, on the far side of where the fire escape stairs were was a passage that took you into the Laser Show pod. It’s really the only way it can all fit together.

 

[Johnny Au]

There’s a few missing links in my mind and why I think it was the middle pod, with Lego being the furthest east.

My first ever experience with Ontario Place and you might find this strange was a school field trip in Grade 2 to visit both Casa Loma and then Ontario Place’s LEGO Discovery Centre, at this point I had no idea what Ontario Place was. The Casa Loma field trip was related but really no relation to us reading fairy tales in school, whatever I guess. But for Lego, who knows.

Anyways, the school bus first drove up to the east side main gate, and then instead drove up the hill to drop us off at the West Entrance (the skywalk entrance). As strange as this sounds, we used the hallway just up the stairs from the skywalk into Nintendo‘a pod in the outer hallway to eat our lunch, we were not allowed to go in the area were the games were but could see them. By the outer hallway, I’m referring to where the representative from Nintendo of Canada is being interviewed about a minute into that video. After eating, we took that passage with Lego sets on the wall, into the Lego pod, When we were done in there, we walked back through the transitional hallway between Lego and Nintendo and took Nintendo’s stairs back into the skywalk.

Here’s a few things I remember from that trip that would almost guarantee it to be the middle pod. Upon walking across the skywalk, after turning left, I remember walking a bit further before walking up the stairs into the pod, if it was the west most pod, this would mean the stairs hypothetically would be very close to that intersection in the skywalk.

Secondly, we accidentally looked went out onto the “fire escape” exit with the grate like steps before realizing this wasn’t how we came up. This is important because the west most pod doesn’t have a fire escape staircase that leads onto the marina area.


I did get to the visit the space finally with my family, and we used that very fire escape to get into the main area of Ontario place after visiting Nintendo. The area by the Marina.

Furthermore, it rained hard towards the end of our day, and we took refuge up in the Nintendo Power Pod, I explicitly remember looking out that window that you can see from Lake Shore at the corner of the pod while I was in the Nintendo Power pod and looking out towards Lake Shore.

We also saw a laser show some point during the day and entered through it from a hallway that led from the Nintendo Power over, this had to be a hallway heading west as I remember big windows here between the pods.

Your map also introduces a very important point, there was a theatre of sorts in the west most of the three pods, the laser show was also shown in a theatre like area and thus would logically make sense to be in the same place.

So how the pods connected are what bother me somewhat, based on everything I’ve said, such as being able to see over Lake Shore from the Nintendo pod, the position of the outer hallway to the fire escape stairs at Nintendo, the Nintendo/Lego transition hallway, this is how I think it was set up.

The exterior hallway in the Nintendo Power pod hugged the southwest side of the pod, the southeast side of the pod contained the Nintendo/Lego transition hallway, on the other side of the outer hallway in in the Nintendo Pod, on the far side of where the fire escape stairs were was a passage that took you into the Laser Show pod. It’s really the only way it can all fit together.

Thanks for correcting me.

If the Lego Pod is the easternmost pod, the Nintendo Pod is the middle pod, then the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame must be in St. Marys at the time (but not open yet to account for renovations there). Since you described a laser show in the westernmost pod and it is logically in a theatre, it makes excellent sense!

Therefore, both you and I have done excellent sleuthing given the paucity of sources.

TL;DR:

The westernmost pod was the laser show, the middle pod was the Nintendo Power Pod, the easternmost pod was the Lego Pod, and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame was in the process of relocating to St. Marys!

Eureka!

 

[mistersg1]

Thanks for correcting me.

If the Lego Pod is the easternmost pod, the Nintendo Pod is the middle pod, then the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame must be in St. Marys at the time (but not open yet to account for renovations there). Since you described a laser show in the westernmost pod and it is logically in a theatre, it makes excellent sense!

Therefore, both you and I have done excellent sleuthing given the paucity of sources.

TL;DR:

The westernmost pod was the laser show, the middle pod was the Nintendo Power Pod, the easternmost pod was the Lego Pod, and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame was in the process of relocating to St. Marys!

Eureka!

Glad I could help you.

I was just wondering, do you know what year you visited the Nintendo Power Pod? If Mario Paint was brand new, that puts you at 1992, but even so, the area opposite where you entered the space as late as 1995 had a bunch of Mario Paint “workstations”.

I never visited OP again until 1999, my brothers did in 1998 for a concert, and I think at that point, both Nintendo and Lego were in the pods. In 1999 they commented while going to another concert before I visited that year, that Lego had moved. I remember it, Lego in its final seasons was in the Marina area just slightly east of the pods.

When they opened, I have no idea, but it would be cool to find out.

 

[Johnny Au]

Glad I could help you.

I was just wondering, do you know what year you visited the Nintendo Power Pod? If Mario Paint was brand new, that puts you at 1992, but even so, the area opposite where you entered the space as late as 1995 had a bunch of Mario Paint “workstations”.

I never visited OP again until 1999, my brothers did in 1998 for a concert, and I think at that point, both Nintendo and Lego were in the pods. In 1999 they commented while going to another concert before I visited that year, that Lego had moved. I remember it, Lego in its final seasons was in the Marina area just slightly east of the pods.

When they opened, I have no idea, but it would be cool to find out.

Yes, I saw those Mario Paint workstations! It was a long time ago, so I probably visited in 1994 or 1995.

 

[adma]

From all this recall from the 90s, it'd seem to me by comparison that the common early 70s Ontario Place experience, young and old, was "naked". Not "bereft", so much as "naked"--almost akin to Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin being open to visitors prior to the exhibits that made it an actual functioning museum.

Maybe in some ways, the fact that people were actually *compelled* to do that is a little like the common "good ol' days" meme of old photos of crowds "where nobody's looking at a smartphone".

 

[W. K. Lis]

If the grounds that the current Ontario Science Centre have a lease that specifies that only educational science use, we may consider it to be a good location for an astronomy and space museum. The current "Space Hall" at the OSC should stay. The Earth and Space exhibits at the ROM could also be moved to Eglinton & Don Mills, allowed for more exhibit space at the ROM.

Along with a new and bigger planetarium, since the McLaughlin Planetarium (which was next door to the ROM) was closed by Doug Ford's mentor, Mike Harris. The OSC's planetarium is also already closed.

 

[mistersg1]

From all this recall from the 90s, it'd seem to me by comparison that the common early 70s Ontario Place experience, young and old, was "naked". Not "bereft", so much as "naked"--almost akin to Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin being open to visitors prior to the exhibits that made it an actual functioning museum.

Maybe in some ways, the fact that people were actually *compelled* to do that is a little like the common "good ol' days" meme of old photos of crowds "where nobody's looking at a smartphone".

If Ontario Place were naked, what was on the West Island and East Island before the later "attractions". If there were no Children's Village at all, what else was going on with the islands? Were there educational exhibits in buildings or was it more like an restaurant or exhibitor space more common to what you'd see at the CNE.

Remember, I'm from Brampton, so I only made three actual visits when I was a kid/teen, and then a few visits during CNE crossovers in the late 20-aughts mainly to watch the airshow. It wasn't just nostalgia getting in the way, In this "Soak City" era, Ontario Place had clearly gone downhill from what it was in the 1990s. If the pods were abandoned in the 1970s, then I guess during airshow visits, it was the same kind of deal then, as I used to watch the airshow atop the pods.

 

[mistersg1]

Yes, I saw those Mario Paint workstations! It was a long time ago, so I probably visited in 1994 or 1995.

I do wonder when thinking back to the Nintendo and Lego pods, exactly what the deal was for them. To my memory, these two pods were glorified showrooms and they didn't sell any products from either brand. On top of that, admission into the Ontario Place grounds during this time period was free, so visiting the Nintendo or Lego pods was indeed available free of charge. maybe I guess a sort of free advertising was their idea here.

Amazingly, almost nothing exists online about either attraction in the pods as you know. It's just interesting to me that this concept with Nintendo at Ontario Place predates having any actual stores (in North America at least) by many years, The Big N since 2001 has a store in Manhattan, and let's not forget their more recent foray into the theme park business, but it seems their first try at something like this was back at Ontario Place.

 

[Johnny Au]

I do wonder when thinking back to the Nintendo and Lego pods, exactly what the deal was for them. To my memory, these two pods were glorified showrooms and they didn't sell any products from either brand. On top of that, admission into the Ontario Place grounds during this time period was free, so visiting the Nintendo or Lego pods was indeed available free of charge. maybe I guess a sort of free advertising was their idea here.

Amazingly, almost nothing exists online about either attraction in the pods as you know. It's just interesting to me that this concept with Nintendo at Ontario Place predates having any actual stores (in North America at least) by many years, The Big N since 2001 has a store in Manhattan, and let's not forget their more recent foray into the theme park business, but it seems their first try at something like this was back at Ontario Place.

When the Nintendo Power Pod was first conceived, the Nintendo World Championships were held in 1990 in various American cities and the YTV show Video & Arcade Top 10 (which featured video game competitions held in a Toronto studio, itself perhaps inspired by the Nintendo World Championships, given that Toronto never hosted those championships) came out a year later, thereby generating hype for Nintendo games.

Guests can only play each game in the Nintendo Power Pod for five minutes before resetting itself, given that guests also want to play the same games for free (as opposed to buying the games or renting them in Blockbuster or similar). Some of the games in the Nintendo Power Pod were games that were not released in stores yet.

I have been to Nintendo New York in midtown Manhattan in 2016 and it is very much a glorified showroom and museum (and the store is actually not that large, despite occupying two floors).

I would love to see Nintendo opening similar stores across the world.

 

[adma]

If Ontario Place were naked, what was on the West Island and East Island before the later "attractions". If there were no Children's Village at all, what else was going on with the islands? Were there educational exhibits in buildings or was it more like an restaurant or exhibitor space more common to what you'd see at the CNE.

Remember, I'm from Brampton, so I only made three actual visits when I was a kid/teen, and then a few visits during CNE crossovers in the late 20-aughts mainly to watch the airshow. It wasn't just nostalgia getting in the way, In this "Soak City" era, Ontario Place had clearly gone downhill from what it was in the 1990s. If the pods were abandoned in the 1970s, then I guess during airshow visits, it was the same kind of deal then, as I used to watch the airshow atop the pods.

E and W island...basically, not much more than the restaurant kiosks and the parkland and the Forum; so yes, you could eat, you could lounge, you could paddleboat around the pods and you could see music acts. OP in 1971was really still a "work in progress": the central part came first, resolution of the E and W extremities came later. (Even such things as Echo Beach and, yes, posthumously, Trillium Park might be seen as a consequence of the original long-term visioning.)

And I'm really not sure *how* much in the way of "educational exhibits" got off the ground--it almost seems like the furthest they got in that direction was with the Ontario North Now pavilion in 1980, and that was a white elephant that quickly became a ride attraction instead. (Provincial-government-sponsored fair-display boosterism was no match for 80s cynicism. Though a little-noted detail is how the multi-siloed form of Ontario North Now echoed that of the *former* Ontario Gov't Building on the Ex grounds across the way--almost as if to send out a message in vain: "maybe we should have stayed there".)

The pods, again, were mostly sealed enigmas atop the skywalks where, once in a blue moon, there might be *something* going on; but they seemed most of the time to project an "administrative space" vibe instead. The *real* heart of it all, destination-attraction-wise, was Cinesphere--and that first season, people really just couldn't get enough of "North Of Superior" (and perhaps justifiably so--after all, it *did* launch the IMAX empire)***. But otherwise, it's almost like Ontario Place in the beginning served more as a proto-Doors Open attraction; so if visitors were sort of "organically" immersed in its architectonics as the main raison d'etre, there you go...

***(which leaves me thinking of how that earlier opus of innovative/dazzling provincial cinematic boosterism, Expo 67's "A Place To Stand"--which did become a recurring attraction in the last days of the Ontario Government Building--didn't figure in early OP programming, perhaps because it was already at that "awkward age" and superseded by Cinesphere's offerings. Yet it's the kind of thing that might have more authentic "Retrontario" appeal today, were there a way to reprogram/revitalize OP with *that* retro-Robartsian spirit in mind)