Nintendo is founded, September 23, 1889

Founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, Japan, The Nintendo Playing Card Company was a small business that would go on to revolutionize gaming around the world.

The company had success producing handmade hanafuda, Japanese playing cards, and in 1949, the founder’s 22-year-old great-grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, took over the company. He would lead the company until 2002 and passed away in 2013 at the age of 85.

Nintendo moved into the toy and game industry in the 60s when playing card sales went down. After some success, thanks to the innovations of engineer and product developer Gunpei Yokoi, the company started developing video games. In 1977 Nintendo hired Shigeru Miyamoto, who would go on to create many of its most successful games, including Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and games for the Wii.

Early systems included 1985’s Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) seen below, released in Japan as “Famicom,” which sold over 60 million units, and Game Boy, the most successful video game system ever released, according to Nintendo. Selling over 150 million systems, the Game Boy was updated and improved over the years and was among the first handheld gaming devices.

Seeing the opportunity to profit from licensing, the company implemented a 10NES chip that was intended to prevent unlicensed games from working on Nintendo systems.

In the 90s Nintendo stepped up its processing power with 16-bit technology in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), and introduced 64-bit processing and improved 3D graphics in the N64. The N64 system also debuted the rumble pak accessory which produced force feedback to the controller for some games, and is a common feature on modern controllers.

In 2003 GameCube was the first system in the lineup to use optical discs instead of the cartridges, saving a generation from troubleshooting by blowing the dust out of their games.

Nintendo DS became the Game Boy of the 21st century, featuring touchscreen, a microphone, and Wi-Fi, and adding cameras in later models. The latest innovation is the 3DS system which offers content that has a 3D effect without special glasses.

In 2006 Nintendo changed the game with the Wii system. It featured wireless motion-sensitive controllers, Wi-Fi, and later included 1080p HD, a touchscreen controller, an accelerometer, gyroscope, camera, and microphone in the Wii U.

After some success with Nintendo 3DS, which features a glasses-free 3D display, the company has moved forward into mobile phone games with some involvement in the hit game Pokémon Go, and the introduction of Super Mario Run, announced at the September 2016 Apple event. In 2017, the company released the Nintendo Switch hybrid console. It includes a battery-powered LCD monitor with controllers that can attach to the unit, connect to an accessory to form a traditional home contoller, or be used individually in the hand like the Wii remote and nunchuk controllers. More than 32 million units have been sold so far.

Nintendo is among the most successful video game companies in the world and is still the predominant playing-card manufacturer in Japan. It has come a long way in its 130+ years.

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For more moments in tech history, see this blog. EDN strives to be historically accurate with these postings. Should you see an error, please notify us.

Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on September 23, 2013 and edited on September 23, 2019.