For many years there has been discussion among Game & Watch collectors about the existence of a black cased Vermin MT-03 Game & Watch. Recently I discovered a black cased version of the Vermin MT-03 game for sale at a shop in Japan which sparked my curiosity.

In the manual for the Nintendo silver series Game & Watch FL-02 Flagman game the MT-03 Vermin game is listed as being black in color.

• Scan of an early Vermin ad
  (from the Japanese version Flagman manual)

The widely released version of the Vermin MT-03 game comes in a white colored casing, and the boxes and manual for the game are illustrated with pictures of the game in a white case.

• Here is a picture of the widely released white Vermin game.
• Samples of the packaging for Vermin and other silver games
  

When I saw this 'Black Vermin' for sale I thought that I had found something really unique, so I decided to take a few photos of it and do some research.

• Photo of the front of the black Vermin game
• Photo of the back of the black Vermin game
  (Serial #00325804)

After some careful inspection of the game and searching on the Internet I came to the conclusion that this game was probably made by someone by combining the front plate of a Vermin MT-03 game with the black case from a Mego Time Out 'The Exterminator' game.

'The Exterminator' is a game with identical game play to Vermin that was manufactured by Nintendo for release in the North American market. The only differences between Vermin and The Exterminator are as follows:

• The metal front plates for Vermin and The Exterminator are different
• The Exterminator comes in a black case whereas Vermin comes in a white case.
• The Exterminator was sold under the brand name Time Out! by the Mego corporation, whereas Vermin was marketed by Nintendo.
• The packaging for the two games is different

Here are some pictures from collector Torsten Lindh of a Mego 'The Exterminator' game (Serial #00329690)

• Photo of the front of the Mego 'The Exterminator' game
• Photo of the back of the Mego 'The Exterminator' game
• Photo of the Mego Time Out 'The Exterminator' box
  (courtesy of Devster)

Because the serial number for the black Vermin game I saw and Torsten's The Exterminator game are very similar (only 3,886 apart), combined with the fact that the face plate of the black Vermin had some slight bending on it lead me to conclude that the black Vermin game I saw for sale might not be genuine.

Though this black Vermin game might very well be authentic, there's no way to be 100% certain unless we can find someone who worked at Nintendo in the 1980's that remembers these kinds of trivial things. So for now this is yet another Nintendo legend that remains unsolved!