The Beginning

Very few companies can say that they have been entertaining people consistently since 1889. Even rarer is a company that mass-produced a primitive virtual reality headset in the 1990s. And, even more scarce, is a company that has entertained all ages, on various platforms from cards, to video games, movies and toys. This company is Nintendo.

When you think of Nintendo, you probably think of a company that started making games about Donkey Kong and Mario in the 80s. Or you might think of them because of their enormously successful Gameboy and Tetris. Well, actually Nintendo started back in 1889 in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi. He specialized in handmade, high-quality playing cards. Over time, as business began to grow, Yamauchi hired more employees to aid in the production. In 1949, the company was named Nintendo Karuta Co., Ltd., and outside of Japan, it was called Nintendo Playing Card Co. The actual name, Nintendo, meant "Leave luck to Heaven", and thus the legendary company was born.

That's just a brief history of the early days of Nintendo. I want this blog to be informative for those who are interested in Nintendo, or maybe just misinterpret the company as a kid's video game maker. I'm creating this blog, with a love and knowledge of the company and it will have three sections. The first series of historical articles will focus on the handheld line. The second part will be on the home console, and the third will be on the games. I hope Nintendo fans, researchers, and anyone else who comes across this will enjoy it as much as I do writing about it.