Happy Birthday Nintendo!
- Thread starter CrazyGoon
- Start date
Happy New Personal Year Day, Nintendo!
How old are you now huh? Like 150 something?
How old are you now huh? Like 150 something?
*sigh* I love schooling people with this,CrazyGoon said:Actually, he's 24 years old... and 1 dayDark Samurai said:
...
8)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Nintendo World)</div><div class='quotemain'> It was 1889, and a Japanese man named Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai, a Kyoto-based card manufacturer. The cards being made were hanafuda playing cards, each one hand crafted and painted. The hanafuda game consists of 48 cards in 12 suits, and display natural symbols used in gameplay. The cards were sold in Kyoto and Osaka in Yamauchi's own Nintendo stores. Once the card business picked up, Nintendo Koppai hanafuda started changing the symbols, making them quite collectable. When the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia) surfaced, they began using Nintendo Koppai's hanafuda playing cards in their high-stake gambling games, and Yamauchi fell under pressure to mass-produce the cards. He taught apprentices to help him make them, and Nintendo expanded to accommodate the growing demand.
The popularity of the cards continued well into the 1900s, and the business expanded further in this time. Yamauchi struck deals with other companies in order to sell the cards in stores other than his own. Around this time, Nintendo Koppai also became the first company to produce and successfully market western playing cards in Japan. By 1929 Fusajiro retired and left what had become Japan's largest playing card company to Sekiryo Yamauchi, his son in law.
In 1933, Sekiryo set up a joint partnership company named Yamauchi Nintendo & Co., and in 1947 he set up a separate distribution company for the Western playing cards called Marufuku Co. Ltd.
Two years later Sekiryo retired from his post after 20 years of being in charge. Nintendo was passed on to Hiroshi Yamauchi, Fusajiro's grandson. Sekiryo had been such a popular executive that Hiroshi was not received with praise by Nintendo's employees. He was also reknowned for being arrogant and unpredictable, and so Hiroshi lay down heavy-handed tactics to maintain his position of authority.
Over the next ten years, Hiroshi changed the card distributor's name to Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd., moved the Nintendo headquarters to a new building, consolidated the production plants in Kyoto, and made the move to plastic-coated playing cards. In 1959 Hiroshi struck a deal with Walt Disney to produce playing cards featuring Disney characters. Nintendo took it upon themselves to market them heavily, and with successful results.
In 1963 Hiroshi changed the company's name to Nintendo Co. Ltd. The name has stayed the same ever since.
One of the reasons Hiroshi Yamauchi changed the company name to Nintendo Co. Ltd. was so that he could expand the company into products other than playing cards. Some of these products were a little unusual for a company that had spent the last 79 years making playing cards. They started with a total flop - portioned instant rice. The plug was pulled on that project not long after it was started.
Hiroshi then set up a "love hotel". Rooms were rented by the hour, making it little more than a sleazy joint. Hiroshi was reputed to visit the love hotel himself on occasion, and even though it was for the purpose of being unfaithful, his wife was fully aware and did not argue about it.
He also set up the Daiya taxi firm. Daiya was actually successful for a while, but in just a few years Nintendo started losing profits when powerful taxi unions requested higher salaries. Hiroshi shut down the Daiya firm, and shortly after he grudgingly shut down the love hotel as well.
Following on from a string of failed ventures, Hiroshi set up Nintendo's first research and development department, simply named "Games" in 1964. It was set up in a new Kyoto production plant, and their first product was a game called Rabbit Coaster. A new employee who had worked in the maintenance department was called into Yamauchi's office, and questioned about his apparent interest in tinkering and creating toys. He was assigned to bring in designs and examples of his work. The employee was Gunpei Yokoi, and the toy he brought in was an extendable claw that could grab things from a distance. The toy was released as the Ultra Hand, and it sold in massive numbers.
As Gunpei Yokoi continued working on successful new toy ideas (such as the Ultra Machine, Love Tester, and Ultra Scope), Nintendo struck a deal with Sharp Electronics to use their patented light sensor technology in some of their toys. They created a series of beam gun toys marketed as Kousenjuu (Lightbeam Gun) games. As you hit sensors on various targets, different things could occur depending on what you were shooting. Nintendo had become the first toy company to use electronic components in their products.
Nintendo's toy department flourished, and Gunpei Yokoi became highly skilled at making electronic games. He suggested to Hiroshi that the light sensor technology could be used in new and exciting ways. He had in mind the abandoned Japanese bowling alleys when he created the Laser Clay Shooting System, where you would shoot the clay pigeons with the beam guns, causing them to crumble. A bad turn was narrowly averted at the opening ceremony of the first Laser Clay Shooting System, when lights from the press's cameras interfered with the light sensors. A new Nintendo employee named Genyo Takeda set off the targets manually as they were fired at. Thanks to him, the ranges got good press and went on to become a massive craze.
More light sensor arcades were set up, including smaller ones that involved shooting at a screen showing a 16mm film. The most popular of these was Wild Gunman, where you had to quick-draw against a bunch of cowboys.
However, by the mid-1970s Nintendo ran into a problem. Oil shortages in Japan were hitting many public entertainment venues hard, and so Nintendo had to close many of its light sensor ranges down. Hiroshi had to come up with a new venture if he wanted Nintendo to stay successful. He signed a deal with Magnavox to start selling the Magnavox Oddysey home videogame console in Japan. The Oddysey sold well, but Nintendo had bigger things in mind. Hiring members from Sharp Electronics and with Gunpei Yokoi in tow, Nintendo moved into the videogames industry.
Their first product was the Color TV Game 4, a system that hooked up to a TV and played four versions of Light Tennis (better known as Pong). This was followed by the Color TV Game 6, and Game 15. Nintendo also began creating arcade videogames alongside the Color TV series. Gunpei Yokoi was also at work on a handheld game that could fit in your pocket. In 1980 Nintendo released the first series of Game & Watch games, and they sold incredibly well all around the world.
Also in 1980, Nintendo released the first game designed by an artist at Nintendo. Shigeru Miyamoto had done some game graphics and some package art, but he had designed the arcade game Donkey Kong from scratch. Donkey Kong went on to become one of the most successful arcade games of all time. Nintendo was on the fast track to success.
And so ends Nintendo's long and painful transformation from a card manufacturer to video game giant.[/quote]
So you see Nintendo is really 150 something or so... or didnt you know that?
Really......VertigoXX said:
well now, you learn more and more everyday, I guess
What again?
Oh yeah... this happens every year...
Oh yeah... this happens every year...
A little late but still a happy birthday to Nintendo.
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