The history of Nintendo
Video games have been around for many years with many different companies making different contributions. One of the more well-known companies would have to be Nintendo. Nintendo is the successful company it is today because of three things: The very start of the company, their gaming consoles and the influence of their characters.
Nintendo has a history dating back to the late 19th century. The Nintendo Company was founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. When the company first started, it was called Nintendo Koppai which roughly translates to “Leave Luck to Heaven”. This makes sense, considering that Nintendo started out as a card manufacturing company. They sold Hanafuda cards which is a Japanese playing …show more content…
After this game, Nintendo really took off releasing a series of handheld consoles called “The Game & Watch Series” in the 1980’s. In 1983, Nintendo released the Family Computer, or “Famicom” in Japan. It sold over 500 000 units in just two months but unfortunately Nintendo had to recall some of them due to a malfunctioning chip inside the console and they lost themselves half a million dollars. To make up for this mistake, Nintendo decided they would take Famicom worldwide but they would sell it under a different model and name. That is when the “Nintendo Entertainment System” or the “N.E.S” (1985) was born. In the same year, Nintendo released popular titles such as “Super Mario Bros.” and “The Legend of Zelda”. Nintendo continued with its success releasing the Gameboy along with the game Tetris in 1989. The Gameboy became the bestselling handheld game system of all time. All throughout the 90’s, Nintendo continued to release consoles like the “Super Nintendo Entertainment System” or the “S.N.E.S” (1991) and the “Virtual Boy” in 1995. The Virtual Boy was marketed as Nintendo’s first ever 3D game system with a screen you wore over your eyes. Unfortunately, this console gave people headaches and dizziness and was discontinued just one year later. Nintendo made up for it by …show more content…
Nintendo might not have been the famous company it is today if it were not for Popeye. Yes, Popeye the Sailor Man. Originally, Nintendo had intended to make a game about Popeye but they could not acquire the rights to the characters. They decided to base characters for their own game (The Donkey Kong Arcade Game) off the characters from Popeye. Jump Man who we now know as Mario was based off of Popeye, Pauline, who we now know as Princess Peach, was based off of Popeye’s love interest Olive Oyl and the third part of the famous love triangle was completed by Bluto who is portrayed by Donkey Kong. The arcade game became so popular that Nintendo decided to give Jump Man his own game that we all know as Super Mario Bros. Another very important character for Nintendo and perhaps all of the other video game companies is the “Robotic Operating Buddy” or just R.O.B. This little robot is basically responsible for the revival of the videogame industry after its crash in 1983. Low quality games continued to saturate the market and were lowering the sales of the video game industry. Many previously successful companies such as Atari and Magnavox began going bankrupt because of the crash. They even held a “burial” in New Mexico where they filled a landfill with thousands of unsold games. The one thing responsible for saving the
Video games have been around for many years with many different companies making different contributions. One of the more well-known companies would have to be Nintendo. Nintendo is the successful company it is today because of three things: The very start of the company, their gaming consoles and the influence of their characters.
Nintendo has a history dating back to the late 19th century. The Nintendo Company was founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. When the company first started, it was called Nintendo Koppai which roughly translates to “Leave Luck to Heaven”. This makes sense, considering that Nintendo started out as a card manufacturing company. They sold Hanafuda cards which is a Japanese playing …show more content…
After this game, Nintendo really took off releasing a series of handheld consoles called “The Game & Watch Series” in the 1980’s. In 1983, Nintendo released the Family Computer, or “Famicom” in Japan. It sold over 500 000 units in just two months but unfortunately Nintendo had to recall some of them due to a malfunctioning chip inside the console and they lost themselves half a million dollars. To make up for this mistake, Nintendo decided they would take Famicom worldwide but they would sell it under a different model and name. That is when the “Nintendo Entertainment System” or the “N.E.S” (1985) was born. In the same year, Nintendo released popular titles such as “Super Mario Bros.” and “The Legend of Zelda”. Nintendo continued with its success releasing the Gameboy along with the game Tetris in 1989. The Gameboy became the bestselling handheld game system of all time. All throughout the 90’s, Nintendo continued to release consoles like the “Super Nintendo Entertainment System” or the “S.N.E.S” (1991) and the “Virtual Boy” in 1995. The Virtual Boy was marketed as Nintendo’s first ever 3D game system with a screen you wore over your eyes. Unfortunately, this console gave people headaches and dizziness and was discontinued just one year later. Nintendo made up for it by …show more content…
Nintendo might not have been the famous company it is today if it were not for Popeye. Yes, Popeye the Sailor Man. Originally, Nintendo had intended to make a game about Popeye but they could not acquire the rights to the characters. They decided to base characters for their own game (The Donkey Kong Arcade Game) off the characters from Popeye. Jump Man who we now know as Mario was based off of Popeye, Pauline, who we now know as Princess Peach, was based off of Popeye’s love interest Olive Oyl and the third part of the famous love triangle was completed by Bluto who is portrayed by Donkey Kong. The arcade game became so popular that Nintendo decided to give Jump Man his own game that we all know as Super Mario Bros. Another very important character for Nintendo and perhaps all of the other video game companies is the “Robotic Operating Buddy” or just R.O.B. This little robot is basically responsible for the revival of the videogame industry after its crash in 1983. Low quality games continued to saturate the market and were lowering the sales of the video game industry. Many previously successful companies such as Atari and Magnavox began going bankrupt because of the crash. They even held a “burial” in New Mexico where they filled a landfill with thousands of unsold games. The one thing responsible for saving the