From playing cards to gaming giant
Nintendo was founded in Kyoto in 1889 as a playing card maker. In the 1970s it tried toys and arcade machines, and its handheld Game & Watch games were a hit. Engineer Gunpei Yokoi invented the cross-shaped directional pad for them.
A business strategy after the crash
After 1983, US retailers did not want to hear about consoles. Nintendo marketed the NES as an “entertainment system” with the R.O.B. robot and introduced a seal of quality: games had to be approved. That stopped a flood of weak titles.
Games that defined genres
- Super Mario Bros. (1985) set the rules for platformers.
- The Legend of Zelda (1986) had a battery for saving progress.
- Metroid, Mega Man and Final Fantasy founded whole series.