Nintendo’s story began in 1889 in Kyoto, Japan. Originally, it was called Nintendo Koppai, and the company started out making playing cards which were used in Japanese card games. These cards became very popular in Japan, and for decades, making them was all Nintendo did. When World War II started, life for Nintendo got extremely hard. People weren’t buying as many cards, and the materials they needed were low because of World War II. To keep the company going, they had to make cards from materials that cost less. Even though times were tough, Nintendo somehow survived the war and continued operating its business.
After World War II, Nintendo began trying out some different ideas to hopefully grow their business. They traveled into things like running a company with taxis, selling instant noodles, they even opened a hotel chain. But in the end, none of these ideas worked. The real success didn’t come to Nintendo until the 1970s and 80s, when they leaned towards focusing on video games.
In 1981, Nintendo hit it massively with the arcade game called Donkey Kong, which introduced Mario. Back in the old days, he was known as Jump Man. This game was a gargantuan success. This set the stage for what was to come. Before 1985, Nintendo had released a gaming system in Japan called the family computer, or Famicom. When they took it to the United States, its name was completely changed to Nintendo Entertainment System (N.E.S). With the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo changed the entire gaming world. This was thanks to well-known games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.
In today’s time, Nintendo is still one of the greatest names in video games. The company continues to create popular consoles like the Nintendo Switch, which is the most recent release, and the games people love, like Pokemon and Animal Crossing.
RELATED STORIES
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_Nintendo
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=art108
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48606526
https://www.zippia.com/nintendo-careers-32949/history/
https://medium.com/@david.roeseler/the-history-of-nintendo-1f9559185314
TAKE ACTION
