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The heritage of gaming, in my opinion, is a too often overlooked aspect of the videogaming industry. I'm sure most of you find yourselves slightly annoyed, when some foolish amateur reviewer labels a game brand new and original, completely neglecting to notice its actually one of many sequels to a game released many years ago. Take Metal Gear Solid for example, its the sequel to a game dating back to the NES reign, yet at the time most people were heralding it as a completely new game... you could almost hear the words leaving their lips: "NES?".
This topic should create a haven for all us aging veterans, a resource pool for everyone new to gaming, and I hope an informative and interesting piece of literature for everyone. It will be long, this I warn you of in advance, as the subject matter isn't something you can skip over in five lines. It'll cover a few lesser known facts about the company, along with it's role in the creation of its present day nemesis - sony's playstation series. I believe everyone will find it interesting, so bear with me and read a little further, before you decide not to continue. Without further ado, lets begin. ;)
Nintendo. When I say that name, whats the first thing that springs into your mind? I'd wager for most of you the word "Mario", or "Zelda" is nowfirmly lodged at the front of your mind, if someone is now sitting there thinking "hanafunda" kudos to you. Everyone else will probably be giving me odd looks and saying "Wha?" by now. Don't worry though, all will become clear. ;)
The Beginning
=============
1889, almost 114yrs ago, a man named Fusajiro Yamauchi has an idea. Its nothing huge, or at least he doesn't believe so at the time, but nevertheless a good idea. Playing cards are his brain child, more specifically the Hanafunda, a special set of Japanese cards which feature pictograms rather than numbers. Usually things found in nature, flowers, the moon, animals. 48 cards in total, in 12 different suits, each representing a different month of the year. The main game associated with these cards was a sort of complex version of "Snap!".
Now this is 1889, no mass production, no plastic coating... each of these playing cards was hand made. If you pause for a second and think about the logistics of that, its a fairly impressive thought, the likes of Waddingtons nowadays pump of thousands of decks of cards a day via mass production. Yamauchi was also selling these cards in large numbers, the difference was that his cards were made card by card, deck by deck, and all of it was done with machines. The cards were produced from the bark of mulberry trees, or in Japan, the "mitsu-mata". These cards were sold in individual shops owned by Fusajiro's newly created company, in Kyoto and Osaka. The company formed to sell these cards? A small business named "Nintendo Koppai".
Now at this point, it would've been curtains for the entire videogaming industry if one thing hadn't occured, these cards were only popular in a limited manner - a small amusement, one deck each for a few households, who needs anymore than that? So what was it that occured to make them a roaring success, and ensure that this little company with only a handful of shops, became the massive videogaming superpower it is today? Shall I tell you? ;)
The answer is, the mob. Thats right, the Japanese mafia, also known as the Yakuza. Who'd have thought that the people responsible for the birth of Nintendo would be one of the largest crime families in the world? What happened was the cards began being used for gambling, a nice, original game - perfect for playing in casinos or amongst small groups of Yakuza members. Now this in itself would produce a high demand for the cards, but what REALLY made them fly off the shelves, was the fact that the players insisted that a newly opened deck be used for each game... before Fusajiro knew it he was inundated with orders, and so it began. Apprentices were trained, and mass production started.
1907, now 17yrs later, Nintendo Koppai has thrived. They even became the first company to successfully recreate Western-style playing cards, and find a market for them in Japan. Distribution needed to be a little more effective than a few branches of the company, and so an allegiance was formed with the Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation. Who then agree to sell Nintendo Koppai cards, in all of their stores. Nintendo Koppai had finally become a name known over the majority of Japan.
1929, the retirement of Fusajiro Yamauchi. Due to the way the marital system worked in Japan, when Yamauchi's daughter Tei Yamauchi married, his son-in-law Sekiryo Kaneda became Sekiryo Yamauchi. Having created a business to keep his daughter, son-in-law and any future offspring comfortably well off, Yamauchi hands ownership of Nintendo Koppai to Sekiryo. Now he is the second president of Nintendo, and at this point it had become the largest playing card company in all of Japan.
1933, Sekiryo establishes a joint-venture partnership, the company becomes Yamauchi Nintendo & Co, and a new headquarters is built next door for them to inhabit.
1947, Yamauchi Nintendo & Co create a new distribution company, it is known as Marufuku Co. Ltd. and it's main purpose is the retail of westernised card decks, a much more effective and profitable method than the previous partnership with Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation.
1949, a new president for Nintendo, and unless memory fails me - still the president at present day. Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Sekiryo takes control of the company, the place would've been taken by his father had he not abandoned Hiroshi and his mother at the tender age of 5 and disappeared without a trace. Hiroshi is not well-liked in the Nintendo offices, and so to establish his authority, he fires ALL of the current managers and a large proportion of the workers. Fear can be a useful tool.
1951, another name change for the company, now in a much more developed state. Hiroshi changes the company to Nintendo Playing Cards Co. Ltd., the Japanese name for playing cards being "karuta", hence Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd. and a year later...
1952,the modernisation of Nintendo. Another new HQ is constructed on the Takamatsu-cho street. Meanwhile in Kyoto, production plants for the playing cards are created, and now the term mass-production really does come into play.
1953, modernisation of Nintendo now complete, the cards now attain a newly discovered technology - plastic coating!
1959, a move that would further skyrocket Nintendo's popularity and sales, a partnership with none other than Disney. Now characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and the whole motley crew of cartoons are printed onto playing cards. Advertising is successfully carried out on the new medium: television, and distribution is expanded yet again to include every major toy store in Japan. As a result of this, Nintendo now sell no fewer than 600,000 packs of these new cards in the span of 1yr.
1962, Nintendo enters the second section of the stock exchange. With stock listed in both the Osaka and Kyoto markets, now people can readily invest in the companies future.
1963-68, the metamorphosis begins, and Nintendo starts to change. The production of games and toys is now the main target of the company, from here on it will no longer be merely a producer of playing cards. A few interesting and somewhat bizarre ideas are experimented with: instant rice, which you could class as the original pot noodle I suppose, was sadly a flop and did not attain much popularity at all. A taxi company known as the Daiya produced high profits, until greedy unions demanded higher pay, and the venture had to be shut down. Perhaps the most unusual experiment of Nintendo's past, and definately one of the most amusing, was the "Love hotel". No prizes for guessing what this was for. ;)
Rooms were rented by the hour, and even Hiroshi himself was a frequent customer, but again - it was a shortlived project.
The Golden Days
===============
1969, the creation of Nintendo's game division, which is rather uninspiringly dubbed "Games". A research & development division is formed also, and the offices are built in a newly constructed plant situated at Uji city, in Kyoto.
1970, more specifically Christmas, Nintendo's stocks are moved to the first section of the Osaka stock exchange. This year Nintendo was responsible for the integration of electronics into the toy industry. A series of "beam guns" are sold, essentially toy guns with lights. A recent employee by the name of Gunpei Yokoi is rather ominously told to "do something good", and the result is the Nintendo Ultrahand... a sort of cyborg extended arm for kids, fun. ;)
1971-72, the roaring success of the Ultrahand gave birth to the Ultra Machine, essentially a launcher for tennis balls etc. that could be used in the home. A periscope toy named the Ultra scope was developed too (gotta love these imaginative names eh? ;)). Gunpei's newest invention is a machine now well-known in Arcade's and service station lobbies, the love tester machine. No need to explain how that works, we've all seen them.
Now at this point Nintendo can see what an asset Gunpei has become, time to let him play with some really cool toys, he is permitted to hire Masayuki Uemura from Sharp (we all know them for their calculators) together using the existing idea of beam guns and Sharp's solar cell technology the two produce the very first light gun games. Working in a way similar to the sets such as Sega Lock-On nowadays, these toys came with targets featuring a solar cell, which could be used for target practice with the guns. Needless to say, business boomed, with over a million sets being sold. This little venture forced Nintendo to expand yet again, and a number of buildings around the present HQ are bought, and offices relocated to them. The previous HQ is kept as their hanafunda division - apparently the Yakuza were still having fun. ;)
1973, hey lets play with that light gun thing some more! An enthusiastic Gunpei approaches Hiroshi, and says that after buying himself a rifle and going clay pidgeon shooting, he wants to do something else with the solar cell system. Bowling has at this point sunk in popularity since the 1960's, so Nintendo buy out a load of unused alleys, and convert the pin bay into a motorised system that will raise and lower targets. A new employee is hired, and helps with a few technical difficulties, his name is Genyo Takeda and he now joins the duo of Gunpei and Masayuki to form a trio of big kids. The laser clay shooting system is born, discs were projected onto the back wall, and players would stand at the front of the alley and shoot them with the light guns. Another amusing part of Nintendo's history occurs at this point, at the opening of the first laser clay shooting arena. Desperate to impress the Japanese press and media, the three were hoping things would go without a hitch, unfortunately a malfunction saw to it this wasn't going to happen. So Takeda immediately springs into action to attempt to con the visitors long enough to repair the system, lurking behind a box at the rear of the alley, he manually controlled the pidgeons and scoring system and apparently managed to pull off the farse. ;)
After this, the system became the much hyped flavour of the month, and tons of these alleys were opened all over Japan.
1974, another adaptation to the light gun system, now the trio have discovered projection technology. Wild gunman is born, a variation on the alley, which features projected wild west gunmen who must be hit in a certain span of time to avoid being "shot" yourself. Unfortunately the effect of the previous year's oil shortage had dented the economy at this point, and not many people could afford to spend their days in the alleys anymore. So Hiroshi begins his search for a new niche in the market.
1975, the single most influential dinner in the history of Nintendo. One night whilst reacquainting with a childhood friend, Hiroshi and company discussed the breakthroughs in microprocessor technology. This led to a little interest that prompted their R&D department to see how this technology has been used in the USA, apparently over there, companies such as Atari and Magnavox had managed to produce simplistic gaming systems which connected to a TV set. A license was obtained from Magnavox to develop and sell their Oddysey system in Japan, which played games like Pong. Nintendo itself was still fairly clueless about microprocessor, so a Masayuki Uemura suggested they attempt to partner with an electronics company, the company is Mitsubishi and the project is a home gaming system.
1977, the first foray into the world of videogaming!
Nintendo and Mitsubishi have created the Colour TV Game 6, the system plays 6 different types of Tennis and is rigged up to a TV, business booms again and millions of copies are sold. A certain Shigeru Miyamoto enters the Nintendo building as a games designer, developing artwork for some of their arcade machines. (At this point I expect a lot of you known whats coming, that name alone should be indication enough ;))
1978-79, the Colour TV Game 15, and two other gaming systems are sold. All three systems fare quite well. After the calculator industry boomed, and LCD displays became cheap and common place, Gunpei and his two cohorts develop a new idea this time detached from their love of shooting things. The Nintendo "Game & Watch" begins development. (for those of you unfamiliar with these, of which I doubt there are very few, these systems are gold dust in the present day. Very fun, very kitsch LCD games about the size of a calculator, which feature games such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Snoopy, Mickey Mouse etc.)
1980, Nintendo now have an American branch, Nintendo of America Inc., and the Game & Watch is complete and on sale. This toy is sold worldwide, and is a massive success everywhere, for example it sold 1.6 million copies in Scandanavia alone. Hiroshi instructs some of his engineers to start working on new arcade machines, as the 80's are a huge boom for this particular past time, Hellfire, Sky Skipper, and Sheriff are the result. All shootem ups.
Shigeru Miyamoto is told to work on another shooter called radarscope, disgruntled and annoyed, he trashes the project against orders and begins a secretive project with Gunpei... this could've gotten him fired, but instead had the reverse effect. His secret project is for a different type of arcade machine, one that doesn't involve shooting, he'll call it a platform game and its main star will be *dramatic pause*...
DONKEY KONG!
This game featured a fat, italian plumber, desperately trying to save his girlfriend from a barrel throwing super-chimp. Despite its strange and unorthodox choice of hero and villain, the machine was a smash, and became the biggest selling coin-op of the year. It was distributed to thousands of arcades worldwide, and sold 65,000 units in America alone, which is more than the Street Fighter series ever achieved. Obviously due to its success, Hiroshi did not fire Shigeru. At this point Hiroshi and Masayuki begin planning a new gaming system as the successor to the TV Game series. It is to be much more advanced than any home videogaming system produced to date, and capable of better visual quality, it should also be able to play as many games as Nintendo can dream up in cartridge form - rather than a limited number of built in games. Atari had released its 2600 proving it could be done, but Nintendo wanted to go one better, Hiroshi said to Masayuki that it had to be better than its competition, but so cheap that anyone could afford it, and so development begins.
The Console Wars
================
1983, Nintendo's home gaming system is unveiled to Japan, the Famicom (know to us as the NES, or Nintendo Entertainment System). A new plant is developed in Uji city to cope with production of the unit, and the company forms a branch in Canada to handle distribution there: Entertainment Centres Ltd. Stock is listd in the first section of Tokyo's stock exchange, and the Famicom reigns supreme. 500,000 systems sold in the first 2 months alone across Japan, but a slight technical hitch meant systems had to be recalled to correct a malfunction with a chip that caused games to freeze. The release of the system in America is planned, but due to the crash of the video gaming market due to low quality junk from companies overseas, Nintendo is forced to come up with a plan that will boost it's sales. The famous "Nintendo Seal of Quality" is born, informing customers that Nintendo will not work with developers who fail to meet their standards of approval, as the problem that caused the collapse was Atari's willingness to allow any 3rd party developer to produce games for them which resulted in a swarm of mediocre titles and no way to tell whether a game was truly worthwhile buying. Nintendo approached Atari with a proposition that would mutually benefit both companies. They needed someone to help them break the American market, as unlike Atari they were still relatively unknown in the US, and Atari needed help desperately to avoid going bankrupt over the plague of poor games. When Coleco tried to release a rip-off of Donkey Kong for their system, Nintendo threatened to destroy their company so there was nothing left and Atari pushed forward and signed the deal to partner with Nintendo.
The 2 player arcade game, Mario Bros. is released.
1986, the NES is released worldwide. The system and 15 launch titles such as Mario and Zelda are shipped to the US, who then see to the distribution of the product the world over, Super Mario Bros. 2 (actually known as the Lost Levels here) is released in Japan, along with the first Metroid game.
1987, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, Final Fantasy, CastleVania, Megaman, and PunchOut are released for the NES, Gunpei approaches Hiroshi with a prototype for a new handheld system, he affectionately calls the Gameboy. A lawsuit is filed by Nintendo against Blockbuster video for photocopying manuals to go with their rental copies, Nintendo win, and as a result Blockbuster are forced to include original manuals with every copy.
1988, while at an arcade exhibition, the Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa stumbles upon a russian game called Tetris. Excitedly he informs Hiroshi that THIS is the game that should launch their Gameboy system.
1989, the console wars begin. The Gameboy is released in Japan with 2 launch titles, Super Mario Land, and Tetris and is recieved with a welcome frenzy. It is now revealed that Mario is a better known character than Bugs Bunny, or even Mickey Mouse. Nintendo's plans for a system known as the Super Famicom are announced to the public (the SNES to us), and it is originally planned to be backwards compatible, allowing the play of NES games. Nintendo tease the general public via a movie called "The Wizard", in which a young boy competes in a Nintendo World Championship the game that was being played in the finals was Super Mario Bros. 3 - and had not yet been released. Thus hype was set in, and the world wanted the game. (when it was finally released it sold 18 million copies worldwide making $500 million. The smartest move Nintendo ever made, as they didn't have to pay for the advertising, and the resulting sales were phenomenal.)
This wasn't all, however, as lurking somewhere in America were a new company willing to throw their gauntlet into the gaming arena. This company called themselves SEGA, and had just created a gaming system known as the Genesis (or Megadrive). It was released in the US with Altered beast as a bundled game.
Clash of the Titans
===================
1990, the Super Famicom is released in Japan. The machine sells out in 3 days, and it begins to inspire certain shops to start a "lottery" competition to see which customers would be the next to be able to buy a copy. Super Mario Bros. 3 is finally released to the crazed masses (see above), and the championship featured in the aforementioned movie became a reality. The Gameboy's available titles had increased massively by this point.
1991, the SNES hits America, 17 million copies are sold worldwide the the preferential first game of the buyer being Super Mario World (Yoshi's first appearance). The Gameboy hits the US, and Tetris mania sets in. Now Sega and Nintendo are officially at battle.
In an effort to seal Sega's doom, Nintendo begins secret talks and plans on a new system, a CD-ROM drive for the SNES which would also allow playback of Phillips CD-I discs. Nintendo switched sides, however, and moved to talks with Sony. This is where things get really, really interesting.
Sony's contract had quite sneakily meant that they would control exclusive rights to the production of CD based games for the new system, and Nintendo were not happy with this. So during a conference which was meant to promote this idea to investors, Nintendo pulled the dagger, and slated the system infront of bemused onlookers. Saying they were now working with Phillips yet again. What was this system being made by Nintendo and Sony that was destined never to see the light of day? A little bird tells me they were going to call it... the Playstation? *Shock Horror*
1992, the SNES hits Europe, along with the release of Zelda 3: A Link to the Past... another roaring success. The Super Scope, SNES Mouse, and Mario Paint are released worldwide at the same time. Super Mario Land 2 for the Gameboy is released, introducing a new villain known as Wario, and Super Mario Kart becomes the biggest selling SNES game to have ever been released. Sega unveil their own attempt at a trump card, and release it just as quickly, the Sega CD (or Mega CD here) - an add-on for the Megadrive that allows play of newly enhanced CD based games. Sony's revenge is exacted on Nintendo by developing a speight of titles for this new system. The Super FX chip is created for use in SNES cartridges, which drastically increases speed and perforamce, and was initially used in games like Stunt FX. Later that year Nintendo approaches Sony, and attempts a reconciliation, the joint venture is back on and Sony have now agreed to allow Nintendo in on the games development aspect.
Into the Future
===============
1993, the Super FX chip is announced to the world, Zelda 4: Links Awakening on the Gameboy hits the shelves, and Super Mario Allstars for the SNES. Nintendo pull a jilt effort on Sony yet again, and announced that because of the S-FX chip they won't be developing a CD system at all, and again the partner company find themselves alone. Plans for a new 64-bit cartridge based system, Nintendo are dubbing Project reality, are revealed however. Planned release date being the end of 1995.
1994, plans for a system known as the Virtual Boy slip out, another portable gaming system which can play existing Gameboy titles and new Virtual Boy games, by rendering them onto two miniture screens making up a visor on a headset. This is supposed to give the feel of three dimensions. Project Reality is dubbed Ultra 64 in the US.
1995, Virtual Boy is released in Japan, the system is a monumental flop and the LED display actually damages the user's eyesight by burning their retina - oh dear (now you see why they never lasted). The "Nintendo 64" is completed, and will be released in 1996.
1996, the N64 is released, and Squaresoft (Final Fantasy developers etc.)leave Nintendo to join with Sony on their new system, the Sony Playstation. The Gameboy Pocket is released. Gunpei sadly resigns from Nintendo, after 30yrs of working there.
1997, N64 is finally released in Europe. Nintendo gives birth to Pokemon and it causes huge hype in Japan, the game is for the Gameboy, and comes in three different coloured carts which are slightly different from each other. This brought about the TV series, the Pokemon phenomenon, and several other Pokemon games across several systems. Sony and Square release Final Fantasy 7, a real show stopper. Sadly again, after one year from his resignation, Gunpei Yokoi is killed in a car accident.
1998, the introduction of Gameboy Colour, Printer and Camera. Pokemon sweeps America and Europe, inspiring several movies to be made. Zelda: Ocarina of Time is released on the N64, along with a new game to add to the roster, Banjo-Kazooie. Zelda sets the record for the game with the most pre-orders/reserves in gaming history.
1999, Nintendo unveils plans for a system known as Project Dolphin. The system will utilise an IBM Gekko processor, and house DVD technology for its games.
2000, Project Dolphin is unmasked at SpaceWorld as Nintendo's newest machine on the market, the Nintendo Gamecube. Sketchy plans for the Gameboy Advance are leaked.
2001, E3 expo, Nintendo finally reveal all details on the Gamecube, and the system is on display for people to playtest. Several launch titles are included in the display, such as Luigi's Mansion, and Waverace. The Gameboy Advance is brought to light.
There you have it... the entire history of the company we all came to know and love, how it created it's now biggest nemesis: the Playstation, and how it came into being from that of a humble playing card company in the 19th century. Now reinforced by it's recent links with Sega, who gracefully conceded defeat after several decades of battle, and now develop games for the Gamecube, Nintendo is going to prove a major contender in the future market for videogaming amongst newly created giants such as Sony. Whether or not Microsoft's effort provides any real staying power is yet to be seen, but one thing is for certain, its going to be a wild ride for us gamers. ;)
I hope you enjoyed this post, God knows it's taken me long enough to write it, hopefully it should generate some interest and perhaps clue a few people newer to the gaming scene in to the origins of one of the titans. Who knows, maybe it'll even show a few veterans a thing or two they didn't already know, I suppose all will be revealed in any replies it recieves.
If the post goes down well, I'll likely do a similar one for Sega in future.
This topic should create a haven for all us aging veterans, a resource pool for everyone new to gaming, and I hope an informative and interesting piece of literature for everyone. It will be long, this I warn you of in advance, as the subject matter isn't something you can skip over in five lines. It'll cover a few lesser known facts about the company, along with it's role in the creation of its present day nemesis - sony's playstation series. I believe everyone will find it interesting, so bear with me and read a little further, before you decide not to continue. Without further ado, lets begin. ;)
Nintendo. When I say that name, whats the first thing that springs into your mind? I'd wager for most of you the word "Mario", or "Zelda" is nowfirmly lodged at the front of your mind, if someone is now sitting there thinking "hanafunda" kudos to you. Everyone else will probably be giving me odd looks and saying "Wha?" by now. Don't worry though, all will become clear. ;)
The Beginning
=============
1889, almost 114yrs ago, a man named Fusajiro Yamauchi has an idea. Its nothing huge, or at least he doesn't believe so at the time, but nevertheless a good idea. Playing cards are his brain child, more specifically the Hanafunda, a special set of Japanese cards which feature pictograms rather than numbers. Usually things found in nature, flowers, the moon, animals. 48 cards in total, in 12 different suits, each representing a different month of the year. The main game associated with these cards was a sort of complex version of "Snap!".
Now this is 1889, no mass production, no plastic coating... each of these playing cards was hand made. If you pause for a second and think about the logistics of that, its a fairly impressive thought, the likes of Waddingtons nowadays pump of thousands of decks of cards a day via mass production. Yamauchi was also selling these cards in large numbers, the difference was that his cards were made card by card, deck by deck, and all of it was done with machines. The cards were produced from the bark of mulberry trees, or in Japan, the "mitsu-mata". These cards were sold in individual shops owned by Fusajiro's newly created company, in Kyoto and Osaka. The company formed to sell these cards? A small business named "Nintendo Koppai".
Now at this point, it would've been curtains for the entire videogaming industry if one thing hadn't occured, these cards were only popular in a limited manner - a small amusement, one deck each for a few households, who needs anymore than that? So what was it that occured to make them a roaring success, and ensure that this little company with only a handful of shops, became the massive videogaming superpower it is today? Shall I tell you? ;)
The answer is, the mob. Thats right, the Japanese mafia, also known as the Yakuza. Who'd have thought that the people responsible for the birth of Nintendo would be one of the largest crime families in the world? What happened was the cards began being used for gambling, a nice, original game - perfect for playing in casinos or amongst small groups of Yakuza members. Now this in itself would produce a high demand for the cards, but what REALLY made them fly off the shelves, was the fact that the players insisted that a newly opened deck be used for each game... before Fusajiro knew it he was inundated with orders, and so it began. Apprentices were trained, and mass production started.
1907, now 17yrs later, Nintendo Koppai has thrived. They even became the first company to successfully recreate Western-style playing cards, and find a market for them in Japan. Distribution needed to be a little more effective than a few branches of the company, and so an allegiance was formed with the Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation. Who then agree to sell Nintendo Koppai cards, in all of their stores. Nintendo Koppai had finally become a name known over the majority of Japan.
1929, the retirement of Fusajiro Yamauchi. Due to the way the marital system worked in Japan, when Yamauchi's daughter Tei Yamauchi married, his son-in-law Sekiryo Kaneda became Sekiryo Yamauchi. Having created a business to keep his daughter, son-in-law and any future offspring comfortably well off, Yamauchi hands ownership of Nintendo Koppai to Sekiryo. Now he is the second president of Nintendo, and at this point it had become the largest playing card company in all of Japan.
1933, Sekiryo establishes a joint-venture partnership, the company becomes Yamauchi Nintendo & Co, and a new headquarters is built next door for them to inhabit.
1947, Yamauchi Nintendo & Co create a new distribution company, it is known as Marufuku Co. Ltd. and it's main purpose is the retail of westernised card decks, a much more effective and profitable method than the previous partnership with Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation.
1949, a new president for Nintendo, and unless memory fails me - still the president at present day. Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Sekiryo takes control of the company, the place would've been taken by his father had he not abandoned Hiroshi and his mother at the tender age of 5 and disappeared without a trace. Hiroshi is not well-liked in the Nintendo offices, and so to establish his authority, he fires ALL of the current managers and a large proportion of the workers. Fear can be a useful tool.
1951, another name change for the company, now in a much more developed state. Hiroshi changes the company to Nintendo Playing Cards Co. Ltd., the Japanese name for playing cards being "karuta", hence Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd. and a year later...
1952,the modernisation of Nintendo. Another new HQ is constructed on the Takamatsu-cho street. Meanwhile in Kyoto, production plants for the playing cards are created, and now the term mass-production really does come into play.
1953, modernisation of Nintendo now complete, the cards now attain a newly discovered technology - plastic coating!
1959, a move that would further skyrocket Nintendo's popularity and sales, a partnership with none other than Disney. Now characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and the whole motley crew of cartoons are printed onto playing cards. Advertising is successfully carried out on the new medium: television, and distribution is expanded yet again to include every major toy store in Japan. As a result of this, Nintendo now sell no fewer than 600,000 packs of these new cards in the span of 1yr.
1962, Nintendo enters the second section of the stock exchange. With stock listed in both the Osaka and Kyoto markets, now people can readily invest in the companies future.
1963-68, the metamorphosis begins, and Nintendo starts to change. The production of games and toys is now the main target of the company, from here on it will no longer be merely a producer of playing cards. A few interesting and somewhat bizarre ideas are experimented with: instant rice, which you could class as the original pot noodle I suppose, was sadly a flop and did not attain much popularity at all. A taxi company known as the Daiya produced high profits, until greedy unions demanded higher pay, and the venture had to be shut down. Perhaps the most unusual experiment of Nintendo's past, and definately one of the most amusing, was the "Love hotel". No prizes for guessing what this was for. ;)
Rooms were rented by the hour, and even Hiroshi himself was a frequent customer, but again - it was a shortlived project.
The Golden Days
===============
1969, the creation of Nintendo's game division, which is rather uninspiringly dubbed "Games". A research & development division is formed also, and the offices are built in a newly constructed plant situated at Uji city, in Kyoto.
1970, more specifically Christmas, Nintendo's stocks are moved to the first section of the Osaka stock exchange. This year Nintendo was responsible for the integration of electronics into the toy industry. A series of "beam guns" are sold, essentially toy guns with lights. A recent employee by the name of Gunpei Yokoi is rather ominously told to "do something good", and the result is the Nintendo Ultrahand... a sort of cyborg extended arm for kids, fun. ;)
1971-72, the roaring success of the Ultrahand gave birth to the Ultra Machine, essentially a launcher for tennis balls etc. that could be used in the home. A periscope toy named the Ultra scope was developed too (gotta love these imaginative names eh? ;)). Gunpei's newest invention is a machine now well-known in Arcade's and service station lobbies, the love tester machine. No need to explain how that works, we've all seen them.
Now at this point Nintendo can see what an asset Gunpei has become, time to let him play with some really cool toys, he is permitted to hire Masayuki Uemura from Sharp (we all know them for their calculators) together using the existing idea of beam guns and Sharp's solar cell technology the two produce the very first light gun games. Working in a way similar to the sets such as Sega Lock-On nowadays, these toys came with targets featuring a solar cell, which could be used for target practice with the guns. Needless to say, business boomed, with over a million sets being sold. This little venture forced Nintendo to expand yet again, and a number of buildings around the present HQ are bought, and offices relocated to them. The previous HQ is kept as their hanafunda division - apparently the Yakuza were still having fun. ;)
1973, hey lets play with that light gun thing some more! An enthusiastic Gunpei approaches Hiroshi, and says that after buying himself a rifle and going clay pidgeon shooting, he wants to do something else with the solar cell system. Bowling has at this point sunk in popularity since the 1960's, so Nintendo buy out a load of unused alleys, and convert the pin bay into a motorised system that will raise and lower targets. A new employee is hired, and helps with a few technical difficulties, his name is Genyo Takeda and he now joins the duo of Gunpei and Masayuki to form a trio of big kids. The laser clay shooting system is born, discs were projected onto the back wall, and players would stand at the front of the alley and shoot them with the light guns. Another amusing part of Nintendo's history occurs at this point, at the opening of the first laser clay shooting arena. Desperate to impress the Japanese press and media, the three were hoping things would go without a hitch, unfortunately a malfunction saw to it this wasn't going to happen. So Takeda immediately springs into action to attempt to con the visitors long enough to repair the system, lurking behind a box at the rear of the alley, he manually controlled the pidgeons and scoring system and apparently managed to pull off the farse. ;)
After this, the system became the much hyped flavour of the month, and tons of these alleys were opened all over Japan.
1974, another adaptation to the light gun system, now the trio have discovered projection technology. Wild gunman is born, a variation on the alley, which features projected wild west gunmen who must be hit in a certain span of time to avoid being "shot" yourself. Unfortunately the effect of the previous year's oil shortage had dented the economy at this point, and not many people could afford to spend their days in the alleys anymore. So Hiroshi begins his search for a new niche in the market.
1975, the single most influential dinner in the history of Nintendo. One night whilst reacquainting with a childhood friend, Hiroshi and company discussed the breakthroughs in microprocessor technology. This led to a little interest that prompted their R&D department to see how this technology has been used in the USA, apparently over there, companies such as Atari and Magnavox had managed to produce simplistic gaming systems which connected to a TV set. A license was obtained from Magnavox to develop and sell their Oddysey system in Japan, which played games like Pong. Nintendo itself was still fairly clueless about microprocessor, so a Masayuki Uemura suggested they attempt to partner with an electronics company, the company is Mitsubishi and the project is a home gaming system.
1977, the first foray into the world of videogaming!
Nintendo and Mitsubishi have created the Colour TV Game 6, the system plays 6 different types of Tennis and is rigged up to a TV, business booms again and millions of copies are sold. A certain Shigeru Miyamoto enters the Nintendo building as a games designer, developing artwork for some of their arcade machines. (At this point I expect a lot of you known whats coming, that name alone should be indication enough ;))
1978-79, the Colour TV Game 15, and two other gaming systems are sold. All three systems fare quite well. After the calculator industry boomed, and LCD displays became cheap and common place, Gunpei and his two cohorts develop a new idea this time detached from their love of shooting things. The Nintendo "Game & Watch" begins development. (for those of you unfamiliar with these, of which I doubt there are very few, these systems are gold dust in the present day. Very fun, very kitsch LCD games about the size of a calculator, which feature games such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Snoopy, Mickey Mouse etc.)
1980, Nintendo now have an American branch, Nintendo of America Inc., and the Game & Watch is complete and on sale. This toy is sold worldwide, and is a massive success everywhere, for example it sold 1.6 million copies in Scandanavia alone. Hiroshi instructs some of his engineers to start working on new arcade machines, as the 80's are a huge boom for this particular past time, Hellfire, Sky Skipper, and Sheriff are the result. All shootem ups.
Shigeru Miyamoto is told to work on another shooter called radarscope, disgruntled and annoyed, he trashes the project against orders and begins a secretive project with Gunpei... this could've gotten him fired, but instead had the reverse effect. His secret project is for a different type of arcade machine, one that doesn't involve shooting, he'll call it a platform game and its main star will be *dramatic pause*...
DONKEY KONG!
This game featured a fat, italian plumber, desperately trying to save his girlfriend from a barrel throwing super-chimp. Despite its strange and unorthodox choice of hero and villain, the machine was a smash, and became the biggest selling coin-op of the year. It was distributed to thousands of arcades worldwide, and sold 65,000 units in America alone, which is more than the Street Fighter series ever achieved. Obviously due to its success, Hiroshi did not fire Shigeru. At this point Hiroshi and Masayuki begin planning a new gaming system as the successor to the TV Game series. It is to be much more advanced than any home videogaming system produced to date, and capable of better visual quality, it should also be able to play as many games as Nintendo can dream up in cartridge form - rather than a limited number of built in games. Atari had released its 2600 proving it could be done, but Nintendo wanted to go one better, Hiroshi said to Masayuki that it had to be better than its competition, but so cheap that anyone could afford it, and so development begins.
The Console Wars
================
1983, Nintendo's home gaming system is unveiled to Japan, the Famicom (know to us as the NES, or Nintendo Entertainment System). A new plant is developed in Uji city to cope with production of the unit, and the company forms a branch in Canada to handle distribution there: Entertainment Centres Ltd. Stock is listd in the first section of Tokyo's stock exchange, and the Famicom reigns supreme. 500,000 systems sold in the first 2 months alone across Japan, but a slight technical hitch meant systems had to be recalled to correct a malfunction with a chip that caused games to freeze. The release of the system in America is planned, but due to the crash of the video gaming market due to low quality junk from companies overseas, Nintendo is forced to come up with a plan that will boost it's sales. The famous "Nintendo Seal of Quality" is born, informing customers that Nintendo will not work with developers who fail to meet their standards of approval, as the problem that caused the collapse was Atari's willingness to allow any 3rd party developer to produce games for them which resulted in a swarm of mediocre titles and no way to tell whether a game was truly worthwhile buying. Nintendo approached Atari with a proposition that would mutually benefit both companies. They needed someone to help them break the American market, as unlike Atari they were still relatively unknown in the US, and Atari needed help desperately to avoid going bankrupt over the plague of poor games. When Coleco tried to release a rip-off of Donkey Kong for their system, Nintendo threatened to destroy their company so there was nothing left and Atari pushed forward and signed the deal to partner with Nintendo.
The 2 player arcade game, Mario Bros. is released.
1986, the NES is released worldwide. The system and 15 launch titles such as Mario and Zelda are shipped to the US, who then see to the distribution of the product the world over, Super Mario Bros. 2 (actually known as the Lost Levels here) is released in Japan, along with the first Metroid game.
1987, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link, Final Fantasy, CastleVania, Megaman, and PunchOut are released for the NES, Gunpei approaches Hiroshi with a prototype for a new handheld system, he affectionately calls the Gameboy. A lawsuit is filed by Nintendo against Blockbuster video for photocopying manuals to go with their rental copies, Nintendo win, and as a result Blockbuster are forced to include original manuals with every copy.
1988, while at an arcade exhibition, the Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa stumbles upon a russian game called Tetris. Excitedly he informs Hiroshi that THIS is the game that should launch their Gameboy system.
1989, the console wars begin. The Gameboy is released in Japan with 2 launch titles, Super Mario Land, and Tetris and is recieved with a welcome frenzy. It is now revealed that Mario is a better known character than Bugs Bunny, or even Mickey Mouse. Nintendo's plans for a system known as the Super Famicom are announced to the public (the SNES to us), and it is originally planned to be backwards compatible, allowing the play of NES games. Nintendo tease the general public via a movie called "The Wizard", in which a young boy competes in a Nintendo World Championship the game that was being played in the finals was Super Mario Bros. 3 - and had not yet been released. Thus hype was set in, and the world wanted the game. (when it was finally released it sold 18 million copies worldwide making $500 million. The smartest move Nintendo ever made, as they didn't have to pay for the advertising, and the resulting sales were phenomenal.)
This wasn't all, however, as lurking somewhere in America were a new company willing to throw their gauntlet into the gaming arena. This company called themselves SEGA, and had just created a gaming system known as the Genesis (or Megadrive). It was released in the US with Altered beast as a bundled game.
Clash of the Titans
===================
1990, the Super Famicom is released in Japan. The machine sells out in 3 days, and it begins to inspire certain shops to start a "lottery" competition to see which customers would be the next to be able to buy a copy. Super Mario Bros. 3 is finally released to the crazed masses (see above), and the championship featured in the aforementioned movie became a reality. The Gameboy's available titles had increased massively by this point.
1991, the SNES hits America, 17 million copies are sold worldwide the the preferential first game of the buyer being Super Mario World (Yoshi's first appearance). The Gameboy hits the US, and Tetris mania sets in. Now Sega and Nintendo are officially at battle.
In an effort to seal Sega's doom, Nintendo begins secret talks and plans on a new system, a CD-ROM drive for the SNES which would also allow playback of Phillips CD-I discs. Nintendo switched sides, however, and moved to talks with Sony. This is where things get really, really interesting.
Sony's contract had quite sneakily meant that they would control exclusive rights to the production of CD based games for the new system, and Nintendo were not happy with this. So during a conference which was meant to promote this idea to investors, Nintendo pulled the dagger, and slated the system infront of bemused onlookers. Saying they were now working with Phillips yet again. What was this system being made by Nintendo and Sony that was destined never to see the light of day? A little bird tells me they were going to call it... the Playstation? *Shock Horror*
1992, the SNES hits Europe, along with the release of Zelda 3: A Link to the Past... another roaring success. The Super Scope, SNES Mouse, and Mario Paint are released worldwide at the same time. Super Mario Land 2 for the Gameboy is released, introducing a new villain known as Wario, and Super Mario Kart becomes the biggest selling SNES game to have ever been released. Sega unveil their own attempt at a trump card, and release it just as quickly, the Sega CD (or Mega CD here) - an add-on for the Megadrive that allows play of newly enhanced CD based games. Sony's revenge is exacted on Nintendo by developing a speight of titles for this new system. The Super FX chip is created for use in SNES cartridges, which drastically increases speed and perforamce, and was initially used in games like Stunt FX. Later that year Nintendo approaches Sony, and attempts a reconciliation, the joint venture is back on and Sony have now agreed to allow Nintendo in on the games development aspect.
Into the Future
===============
1993, the Super FX chip is announced to the world, Zelda 4: Links Awakening on the Gameboy hits the shelves, and Super Mario Allstars for the SNES. Nintendo pull a jilt effort on Sony yet again, and announced that because of the S-FX chip they won't be developing a CD system at all, and again the partner company find themselves alone. Plans for a new 64-bit cartridge based system, Nintendo are dubbing Project reality, are revealed however. Planned release date being the end of 1995.
1994, plans for a system known as the Virtual Boy slip out, another portable gaming system which can play existing Gameboy titles and new Virtual Boy games, by rendering them onto two miniture screens making up a visor on a headset. This is supposed to give the feel of three dimensions. Project Reality is dubbed Ultra 64 in the US.
1995, Virtual Boy is released in Japan, the system is a monumental flop and the LED display actually damages the user's eyesight by burning their retina - oh dear (now you see why they never lasted). The "Nintendo 64" is completed, and will be released in 1996.
1996, the N64 is released, and Squaresoft (Final Fantasy developers etc.)leave Nintendo to join with Sony on their new system, the Sony Playstation. The Gameboy Pocket is released. Gunpei sadly resigns from Nintendo, after 30yrs of working there.
1997, N64 is finally released in Europe. Nintendo gives birth to Pokemon and it causes huge hype in Japan, the game is for the Gameboy, and comes in three different coloured carts which are slightly different from each other. This brought about the TV series, the Pokemon phenomenon, and several other Pokemon games across several systems. Sony and Square release Final Fantasy 7, a real show stopper. Sadly again, after one year from his resignation, Gunpei Yokoi is killed in a car accident.
1998, the introduction of Gameboy Colour, Printer and Camera. Pokemon sweeps America and Europe, inspiring several movies to be made. Zelda: Ocarina of Time is released on the N64, along with a new game to add to the roster, Banjo-Kazooie. Zelda sets the record for the game with the most pre-orders/reserves in gaming history.
1999, Nintendo unveils plans for a system known as Project Dolphin. The system will utilise an IBM Gekko processor, and house DVD technology for its games.
2000, Project Dolphin is unmasked at SpaceWorld as Nintendo's newest machine on the market, the Nintendo Gamecube. Sketchy plans for the Gameboy Advance are leaked.
2001, E3 expo, Nintendo finally reveal all details on the Gamecube, and the system is on display for people to playtest. Several launch titles are included in the display, such as Luigi's Mansion, and Waverace. The Gameboy Advance is brought to light.
There you have it... the entire history of the company we all came to know and love, how it created it's now biggest nemesis: the Playstation, and how it came into being from that of a humble playing card company in the 19th century. Now reinforced by it's recent links with Sega, who gracefully conceded defeat after several decades of battle, and now develop games for the Gamecube, Nintendo is going to prove a major contender in the future market for videogaming amongst newly created giants such as Sony. Whether or not Microsoft's effort provides any real staying power is yet to be seen, but one thing is for certain, its going to be a wild ride for us gamers. ;)
I hope you enjoyed this post, God knows it's taken me long enough to write it, hopefully it should generate some interest and perhaps clue a few people newer to the gaming scene in to the origins of one of the titans. Who knows, maybe it'll even show a few veterans a thing or two they didn't already know, I suppose all will be revealed in any replies it recieves.
If the post goes down well, I'll likely do a similar one for Sega in future.
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I don't really have any real favourite company, although I do know I dislike Microsoft's X-Box effort, mate bought one when faced with the choice of a PS2 or that. He decided I had a PS2 so he might as well go with the X-Box, and it was really funny looking at the exrpession on his face when I showed him MGS2 the other week, the guy was mortified. ;)
Nintendo I've liked for a long time now though, Sega were decent too, but never really reached the sort of appreciation I had for the big "N". Dreamcast effort was close to changing that, but sadly due to a lot of people avoiding it after stuff like the Mega CD and Saturn, it didn't sell as well as it deserved to. Then theres the whole bitter-sweet thing with Sony and Nintendo, technically you can't really like one without liking the other, and you have to admit the whole love hate routine is always fun to watch. I mean, Sega and Nintendo hated each other's guts for a long time, and now they're the best of buddies. They're never really that serious in their dislikes of others, its just a case of survival of the fittest. ;)
Nintendo I've liked for a long time now though, Sega were decent too, but never really reached the sort of appreciation I had for the big "N". Dreamcast effort was close to changing that, but sadly due to a lot of people avoiding it after stuff like the Mega CD and Saturn, it didn't sell as well as it deserved to. Then theres the whole bitter-sweet thing with Sony and Nintendo, technically you can't really like one without liking the other, and you have to admit the whole love hate routine is always fun to watch. I mean, Sega and Nintendo hated each other's guts for a long time, and now they're the best of buddies. They're never really that serious in their dislikes of others, its just a case of survival of the fittest. ;)
Good topic, I read it all the way through even though i've allready read about and know quite a bit about Nintendo's history, but still a good topic and one that could well win GAD :D ,just out of interest are you a harcore Nintendo fan or are you generally interested in games because I'm a big Nintendo fan (as you'd probably guessed from my tagline :D ) anyway...
slik ~_~
slik ~_~
As a follow up to that...
I did a paper on it back in the college days, except obviously at that point I didn't extend it right the way to 2001, it ended at 1997 if memory serves. Was one of my more enjoyable assignments, I like it when you're asked to produce some kind of presentation or report on a subject of your picking, provided its relevant to the course. The plus side is that your peers actually listen to you when you're giving it, and don't fall asleep midway, because they find the idea of "microprocessor control in industrial practice" boring. ;)
I did a paper on it back in the college days, except obviously at that point I didn't extend it right the way to 2001, it ended at 1997 if memory serves. Was one of my more enjoyable assignments, I like it when you're asked to produce some kind of presentation or report on a subject of your picking, provided its relevant to the course. The plus side is that your peers actually listen to you when you're giving it, and don't fall asleep midway, because they find the idea of "microprocessor control in industrial practice" boring. ;)
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Nope... it any good?
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Yep. Every bit. If you feel like checking, be my guest, all my words. ;)
Nope... it any good?
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Yep. Every bit. If you feel like checking, be my guest, all my words. ;)
cos its very long with alot of mostly unknown facts.
did you write that ALL yourself??
Any inspiration from the book 'Game Over'?
I'll print this off and read it in bed later- and I'll reply tomorrow.
:)
:)
Cheers. ;)
WOW!
I was gonna read that but...... I read about 4 pargraphs and it was pretty good.
I was gonna read that but...... I read about 4 pargraphs and it was pretty good.
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