Nintendo History

From cards to directional pads

Nintendo is a name synonymous with video games. The Japanese company went from struggling as an electronics entertainment company to becoming a true savior for an industry in peril almost overnight. All this was because of a monkey, a plumber, and a design intern.

Really old school

Though Nintendo is known for their groundbreaking videogame consoles, it started out in 1889, producing handmade Hanafuda cards for use in the traditional Japanese card game.

Through the early to mid-twentieth century, the Nintendo company attempted to expand its business into other niche markets such as opening a "love hotel" and a taxi company, but went back to producing games.

Famicon

Nintendo history took a turn when the company began development of their home video game machines in 1977. The first machine was called the Nintendo Color TV Game, which was similar to the American Atari system.

With paddles built-in to the system and containing six variations of "Light Tennis," a Pong knock-off, the system was fairly popular in Japan and saw four revisions until the company abandoned the line.

The 1970s was also a transitional time for Nintendo, which was looking to break into the arcade game market but got lost in the flood of clone-games that was almost the demise of the industry.

A young game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto was hired to help their head designer, Gunpei Yokoi. Looking for fresh ideas, Miyamoto was given a chance to propose a new game.

That game was Donkey Kong

Released in 1981, Donkey Kong was a smash hit at arcades and on home consoles. The revenue generated from the game, as well as its follow-up, Mario Bros., not only saved the company from collapse, it proved that video games weren't dead yet.

The company released the Famicom in 1984. The cartridge-based game console was very successful. Far superior both technologically and economically compared to its competitors, the $100 USD price tag sold millions of consoles within months.

However, in America, the video game bubble burst, all but destroying Atari, Coleco and Intellevision. The grand experiment seemed to be over, but in 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), once again backed by a Miyamoto game, this time Super Mario Bros.

The NES would go on to be regarded as the most popular systems of all time, with a library of games that are still regarded as all-time bests, such as The Legend of Zelda, Contra, the Super Mario Bros. series and Metroid.

Nintendo would go on to produce more popular systems from the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) to the Gamecube. The company currently generates much of its revenue from the robust hand-held game market and their Game Boy line of systems.

With the upcoming console, the Nintendo Revolution (now called the Nintendo Wii), the company will once again forge a brave new path, foregoing a traditional controller for a simple motion-based input system.

If history repeats itself, Nintendo's penchant for taking chances and innovation, the Nintendo Revolution will be the true next generation of video games.

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