What was nintendos first product

One of their most popular is their Daitouryou variant which features the portrait of Napoleon. Yamauchi took great pride in his company's card game's quality and design which brought the early Nintendo great popularity with its patrons.

Nintendo soon built a reputation for quality and soon become the top game company in Japan. The reason Nintendo decided to produce playing cards as its main product had deep roots in Japan's history. During the 17th Century, the country had effectively cut itself off from the Western world. The import and distribution of playing cards had led to a serious gambling problem in the country and measures were taken to curb this addiction. Japanese authorities duly decided to ban all imports of playing cards in an attempt to combat gambling amongst the populace.

It wasn't long before home-grown card games were developed in the country to facilitate more novel ways to gamble. One of the first was called Unsun Karuta. It became very popular and was very quickly adapted for use as a means of gambling.

Unsurprisingly, the Japanese government decided to ban this game as well. This sparked an arms race of banning and new card game innovation for the next century or so. Eventually, in the 19th Century, a new card game called Hanafuda was developed. This game used images instead of numbers which made it more difficult to use for gambling purposes.

Eventually, Japanese authorities relaxed their laws on playing card games, and Hanafuda cards were allowed to be openly bought and sold. Sadly, Japan's history of banning card games had taken its toll on the populace and the game received something of a lackluster response.

That was until Nintendo got in on the act. Fusajiro Yamauchi , an avid Hanafuda player, was overjoyed with the new opportunity that had been presented to him. He soon decided to set up a business and distribute high-quality card sets of his own. As we have already seen, Nintendo was created in reaction to relaxing Japanese laws on playing cards.

To this end, Nintendo's founder developed many different Hanadua decks of various designs. One of their most popular decks, t he aforementioned Daitouryou deck aka the Napoleon deck became one of its best sellers. Many people in Japan no longer like to play hanafuda due to their historic association with crime. But the success of the cards meant that Nintendo continued to produce hanafuda until they fell out of favour in the s.

At this point, the Nintendo company was turned on its head by its new leader - a man called Hiroshi Yamauchi. In at just 22 , the great-grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi took over Nintendo. He became known as a fierce and sometimes menacing leader, but one with passion and an innovative mind. His vision was to expand the company into different ventures besides card-making, including toys and amusement arcades.

Ironically, Hiroshi never enjoyed playing video games - playing only one in his life. In manufacturing electronic games with high mark-ups, the company enjoyed some big successes but nothing like what was to come.

In the late s, investment in a fast-emerging technology catapulted Nintendo to a global stage. That technology was video games.

Companies such as Atari, Mattel maker of Barbies and Taito had already started to develop in this market. Maybe you've heard of creations like Pong and Space Invaders? In , Nintendo began the development of its first electronic video game systems. By , they produced a computer game version of the boardgame Othello. But this was just the beginning. In , a groundbreaking game was developed by the Nintendo artist Shigeru Miyamoto.

The game was called Donkey Kong. The villain was a giant gorilla with an inexhaustible supply of barrels, while the hero was a man in a red boiler suit wearing a little red hat. He was known as Jumpman, but you might recognise him better as the Italian plumber - Mario. Donkey Kong took the world by storm and it became a hit in arcades. Jumpman was soon renamed. His name was inspired by the landlord who owned the warehouse in which the American headquarters of Nintendo was based - Mario Segale.

Super Mario Bros was a smash hit and soon the character of Mario was recognised all over the world. With the success of these games, Nintendo also launched a new home game console known as the Nintendo Entertainment System - or NES for short.

It was first released in Japan as Famicom, but hit US stores two years later and helped revived the gaming industry. By , Nintendo had managed to develop the technology to release its first handheld console - the Game Boy.

This was not the first hand-held game console - the first had been created ten years earlier - but Game Boy was popular because of its original design and long battery life. The rise of Nintendo's success has at times seemed unstoppable. Over the past 30 years to present day, it has created a host of loved characters and popular games.

Mario gained a brother, Luigi. Both in turn gained evil alter-egos, Wario and Waluigi. New consoles such as the Nintendo DS - a two-screen device with multiplayer capability - and the Nintendo Wii, with its motion sensitive console, allowed the company to expand its reach and influence. Playing cards. Correct Answer: Playing cards. Next trivia:.