Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is the world's largest video game company by revenue. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. Nintendo then developed into a video game company in the 1970s. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo has sold more than 4.2 billion video games and more than 669 million hardware units globally. It has also created industry icons that have become well-known, household names such as Mario™, Donkey Kong™, Metroid™, Zelda™ and Pokémon™.

History of Nintendo Worldwide 1889-1979

1889 - Founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi
1902 - Mr. Yamauchi started manufacturing the first western-style playing cards in Japan.
1963 - The company changed its name to Nintendo Co., Ltd. and started manufacturing games in addition to playing cards.
1969 - Nintendo expanded and reinforced the game department
1970 - Nintendo has introduced electronic technology into the toy industry for the first time in Japan.
1976 - The microprocessor was introduced into a videogame system created by Nintendo.
1977 - The company developed home-use videogames in cooperation with Mitsubishi Electric: TV Game 15 and TV Game 6.
1978 - In March, Nintendo released a simplistic arcade cocktail table game based on the board game Othello, entitled Computer Othello. On the screen, green, white and black Othello pieces were replaced with square and plus symbols, respectively. Computer Othello had no joystick, only ten coloured buttons per player.

History of Nintendo Worldwide 1980 - 1990

1980 - Nintendo began selling the GAME & WATCH product line in Japan, the first portable LCD videogames with a microprocessor. Nintendo artist Shigeru Miyamoto created the game Donkey Kong.
1983 - Nintendostarted work on the home videogame console Family Computer (Famicom), employing a custom CPU (Central Processing Unit) and PPU (Picture Processing Unit).
1984 - Nintendo developed and started selling the unique, twin-screen interactive coin-operated videogame VS. System. At the same time, the company launched the Famicom system in Japan, later renamed Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) when it launched worldwide. Stellar software titles were developed one after another, from Excitebike, Super Mario Bros. and Metroid to The Legend of Zelda and Punch-Out!
1989 - The Game Boy, the first portable, handheld game system with interchangeable game cartridges, is introduced in Japan along with Tetris.
1990 - Japan entered the 16-bit market by releasing the Super Famicom in the autumn. Game Boy was launched in Europe and established what would become an astronomical worldwide installed base for the Nintendo handheld console. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Famicom) was launched in Japan.

Most successful consoles from 1972 to 1991:

First Generation:

Home systems - Nintendo Color TV Game

The Color TV Game series were five different dedicated consoles, each designed to play a specific game or set of games. They were very similar to the early Pong home console. The players controlled their paddles with dials attached directly to the machine.

Second Generation

Handheld systems - Nintendo Game & Watch

Game & Watch is a line of handheld electronic games produced by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. Each Game & Watch features a single game to be played on an LCD screen in addition to a clock, an alarm, or both. It was the earliest Nintendo product to garner major success.

Third Generation

Home systems - Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System (also abbreviated as NES) is an 8-bit video game console that was developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was initially released in Japan as the Family Computer (also known as the Famicom). The best-selling gaming console of its time, the NES helped revitalize the US video game industry following the video game crash of 1983.

Fourth Generation

Home systems - Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan. The console introduced advanced graphics and sound capabilities compared with other consoles at the time. The SNES was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the 16-bit era.

Fourth Generation - Handheld

Handheld systems - Gameboy

The Gameboy is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on April 21, 1989. It is the first handheld console in the Game Boy line. The Gameboy was a global success.