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==History==
''Nintendo Koppai'' was the name of a small Japanese company founded in [[1889]] by [[Fusajiro Yamauchi]] to produce and market the playing card game ''Hanafunda'' in [[Kyoto, Japan]]. The cards, which were all handmade, soon began to get extremely popular and Yamauchi had to hire assistants to massproduce to cards to keep up with the high demand.
During [[1929]], Yamauchi retired from the company and allowed his son in law, [[Sekiryo Yamauchi]], to take over the company as president. In [[1933]], Sekiryo Yamauchi established a joint venture with another company and thus renamed the company ''Yamauchi Nintendo & Co.'' In [[1947]] Sekiryo established the company ''Marufuku Co. Ltd'' to distribute the Hanafunda cards ,as well as several other brands of cards that had been introduced by Nintendo.
[[Hiroshi Yamauchi]], the grandson of Sekiryo Yamauchi, took office as the president of Nintendo during the year of [[1949]]. In [[1951]] he renamed their distrubution company, Marufuku Co. Ltd., to ''Nintendo Karuta Co. Ltd''.
In 1959, Nintendo struck a deal with [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] to have them allow Nintendo to use Disney's characters on Nintendo's playing cards. The deal was a huge success and sold at least 600,000 cards in a single year.
Following this, in [[1963]], Yamauchi Nintendo & Co. was renamed ''Nintendo Co. Ltd.'' by Hiroshi and Nintendo began to experiment in other areas of business. During the period of time between 1963 and [[1968]], Nintendo created a [[taxi]] company, a "[[love hotel]]", as well as producing [[toy]]s and [[game]]s and several other things. Both the taxi company and love hotel ended in failure and were eventually closed.
In [[1969]] Nintendo established a games division within their company. In the following years, Nintendo produced several successful toys and games, the most notable being their [[beam gun]]s and ''Ultrahand'', an arm expansion toy. Most of these invention were the ideas of a new Nintendo employee, [[Gunpei Yokoi]].
In [[1973]] Nintendo expanded on their light gun idea with the introduction of ''The Laser Clay Shooting System'', which used [[solar cell]]s to simulate clay pigeon shooting. The The Laser Clay Shooting System was another huge success. In [[1974]] the same idea was reused with the introduction of ''Wild Gunman'', which was a laser gun game where a player would attempt to shoot at moving targets that looked like gunmen. Wild Gunman was exported to the [[USA]] and [[Europe]].
During [[1975]] Yamauchi began doing research into a new american trend in which you could connect a box to your [[television]] in order to play simple games. Other companies, such as [[Atari]], had had some success in this field and and Hiroshi decided it would be a good business venture for Nintendo to delve into. In the same year, he negotiated a deal with [[Magnavox]] to allow Nintendo to produce and sell the [[Magnavox Odyssey]], a simple [[video game console]]. Since Nintendo didn't have the neccasary equipment to manufacture these machines, they created a pact with [[Mitsubishi]] who would manufacture them.
With Nintendo's new relationship with Mitsubishui, in [[1977]] the two companies released the joint effort video game machine, the ''Color TV Game 6'', which allowed players to play six different very simple versions of [[tennis]], which sold millions of copies. 1977 is also the year the [[Shigeru Miyamoto]] joined Nintendo, working as an art designer for [[arcade game]]s.
Soon, Nintendo released several other successful home video game consoles, including an advanced version of the Color TV Game 6, called the ''Color TV Game 15'', a racing game, and another game called ''Blockbuster''.
In [[1979]] Nintendo began design work for what was to be their first [[handheld game console]], the [[Game & Watch]], which was another idea of Gunpei Yokoi. It was released in [[1980]], which is also the year that Nintendo announced the addition of a new wholly owned subsidiary, located in [[New York]], named ''Nintendo of America''. The Game & Watch was ''very'' successful.
Also in [[1980]], Nintendo began the production of [[Arcade Game]]s. These arcade games were mostly [[shoot-em-ups]] sometimes using Nintendo's light gun, going under names such as ''Hellfire'' or ''Sherrif''. However, this direction changed when Shigeru Miyamoto was told to finish work on the arcade alien shoot-em-up ''Radarscope''. Not liking where the game was going, he decided to scrap the project and instead began work on ''[[Donkey Kong]]'', with the help of Yokoi. Although originally frowned upon by fellow Nintendo workers, the release of Donkey Kong was a huge success and the game sold over 65,000 units, making it the most popular arcade game of the year.
During the same year, Nintendo, probably inspired by the success of Atari and several other companies, set to work on a new, more advanced [[cartridge (electronics)|multicartridge]] video game console. They knew that in order for the system to be successful, since other companies had already released multicartridge systems, that their console would have to be better then the rest, and still maintain a feasible price.
In [[1982]] Nintendo released their sequal to Donkey Kong, [[Donkey Kong Jr.]] as an arcade game. Although not selling as many units as the original Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. still di dgood selling around 35,000 units.
In [[1983]] Nintendo released the ''[[Famicom]]'' (''Family Computer'') in [[Japan]] only, which was their first multicartridge video game console. The system was very successful, selling over 500,000 units within two months. The console was also considerablely cheaper priced at about $100 [[USD]]. However, after a few months of the consoles selling, Nintendo recieved complaints that some Famicom consoles would freeze when the player attempted to play certain games. The fault was found in a malfunctioning chip and Nintendo decided to recall all Famicon units currently on store shelves, which cost them almost half a million dollars USD.
It was also in [[1983]] that Nintendo planned to release the Famicom in the USA. In the USA, however, the video game market had almost completely died out due to the large amount of law quality games at that time. Nintendo decided that to avoid this happening to the Famicom, they would only allow games that recieved their "Seal of Quality" to be sold for the Famicom.
[[1984]] was a very good year for Nintendo indeed. The Famicom had proven to be a huge continued success in Japan, and the games that were released for it even more so. However, they also encountered a problem with the sudden popularity of the Famicom: They did not have the resources to manufacture games at the same pace they were selling them. To combat this, Yamauchi decided to divide his employees into three groups; the groups being Research & Develoment 1 (R&D 1), Research & Develoment 2 (R&D 2} and Research & Develoment 3 (R&D 3). R&D 1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi, R&D 2 was headed by [[Masayuki Uemura]], and R&D 3 was headed by [[Takeda Genyo]]. Using these groups, Yamauchi hoped Nintendo would produce a low ammount of high quality games rather then a high amount of okay quality games.
In [[1985]] Nintendo announced they were going to release the Famicom worldwide – except under a different name, the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] (NES). [[Super Mario Bros.]] is released for the Famicom in Japan and is a huge success.
They soon began shipping the console in [[1986]], along with 15 games, sold seperately, and, in the USA, it outsells its competitors on a ten to one scale. This is also the year that [[Metroid]] (USA/Japan) and [[Super Mario Bros. 2]] (Japan) is released.
In [[1989]] Nintendo released the [[Game Boy]] in Japan, along with the accompanying game [[Tetris]]. Later, [[Super Mario 1]] is also released for the Game Boy, which sold 14 million copies worldwide. This is also the year that Nintendo announced a sequal to their popular video game console, the Famicom, to be called the [[Super Famicom]].
The Super Famicom was released in Japan on [[November 21]]st, [[1990]]. As usual, the systems launch was largely successful, and the Super Famicom was sold out acrost Japan within three days. In [[1991]], the Super Famicom is launched under the name "the ''[[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]''" (SNES). The SNES was released in Europe in [[1992]].
1992 is the year in which Gunpei Yokoi and the rest of R&D 1 began planning on a new [[virtual reality]] console to be called the [[Virtual Boy]]. Hiroshi Yamauchi also bought shares of the [[Seattle Mariners]] in 1992.
In [[1993]] Nintendo announced plans to develop a new 64-bit console codenamed ''Project Reality'', that would have the power to render fully [[3D]] enviroments and characters. In [[1994]], Nintendo also claimed that Project Reality would be renamed ''Ultra 64'' in the US. In [[1995]] Nintendo changed the final name of the system to the ''[[Nintendo 64]]'', and announced that it would be released in [[1996]]. They later showed previews of the system and several games, including [[Super Mario 64]], to the media and public.
1995 is also the year that Nintendo purchased part of [[Rare (video game)|Rare]], a choice that would prove to be a wise investment.
In 1995 Nintendo released the Virtual Boy in Japan. The console sold poorly, but Nintendo still had hope for it and continued to release several other games.
On [[June 23]]ed, 1996, the ''Nintendo 64'' (N64) was released in Japan and was instantly a huge hit, selling over 500,000 units on the first day of release. On [[October 1]]st, 1996, Nintendo released their [[Nintendo 64]] in the USA, which was also a success.
Nintendo also released the ''[[Game Boy Pocket]] in 2006, which was a smaller version of the original Game Boy. On [[August 15]]th, about a week after the release of the Game Boy Pocket, Gunpei Yokoi resigned from his position in Nintendo, at the age of 56.
On [[August 1]]st, [[1997]], the Nintendo 64 was finally released in Europe. ''[[Pocket Monsters]]'' was also released in Japan in 1997, which was a success. Gunpei Yokoi, former employee of Nintendo, died in a car accident at the age of 57.
Nintendo released their [[GameCube]] home video game console on [[September 14]]th, [[2001]], in Japan. They released the GameCube on [[November 18]]th, 2001 in North America.
==Rise of TV consoles==
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