The Founding Of The Nintendo Game Company On Today's History, September 23, 1889
Game Boy (Sumber: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - On September 23, 1889, the world's largest video game producer, Nintendo, was founded. You can imagine how this Japanese-made company has seen the size of the business niche in the game industry. At that time, technology was not as advanced as it is today.

Indeed, initially, the company has not created the sophisticated game tool as it is today. Nintendo originally made and sold a card game called Hanafuda. This card is beautifully decorated by hand. Nintendo founder and craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi sits in his new office designing cards and coloring them brightly.

Quoting the BBC, 70 years later, this card with landscapes and symbols is expertly crafted by the Nintendo company. Although Hanafuda is influenced by traditional Japanese games, it also has elements of Western-style cards. However, instead of numbers on the cards, Hanafuda uses pictures.

Nintendo cards are also popular throughout Japan. But ultimately, these brightly colored cards are synonymous with gambling. Even connected with the known gangsters in Japan, the Yakuza. The name 'Yakuza' actually comes from the numbers ya-ku-za or 8, 9 and 3; score of zero in the card game known as Oicho-Kabu.

Yakuza members have tattoos inspired by the illustrations on Nintendo cards. Eventually, many Japanese left the game because of its history with crime. Although not many people played it anymore, Nintendo continued to produce hanafuda until it fell completely out of favor in the 1960s.

Nintendo headquarters in 1889 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Ekspansi besar

Big expansion

The great-grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi then took over Nintendo. He is known as a fierce and sometimes threatening leader, but he also has an innovative spirit and mind. He is Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Hiroshi Yamauchi's vision is to expand the Nintendo company into businesses other than card manufacturing, including toys and entertainment arenas. However, Hiroshi himself never played video games and only played once in his life. Nintendo finally entered the video game market in the late 1970s.

In 1975, Nintendo began the development of its first electronic video game system. In 1978, they produced a computer game version of the Othello board game. Nintendo then created other new games such as Jumpman, Donkey Kong Jr, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros was even a huge success and Mario's character was known all over the world.

Another Nintendo game that is no less popular is Pokemon. Even in 1999, Nintendo released Pokemon throughout Europe. Nintendo is expanding its high-quality software with innovative titles like Pokémon Snap and Pokémon.

With the success of these games, Nintendo then launched a home game console known as the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short. The NES was first released in Japan but sold well in the US two years later.

Nintendo Switch (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Revive

This helped revive the gaming industry. Nintendo also managed to develop the technology to release its first handheld console, the Game Boy. Although not the first handheld console, the Game Boy is very popular because of its design and long battery life.

Over time, Nintendo continued to produce handheld consoles. Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii for example, have various advantages. The successor to the Nintendo Wii, the Nintendo Switch, was released in March 2017.

The Switch features a hybrid design as a home and handheld console. As of February 2019, over 1.800 games have been released for the Switch. Switch sales worldwide exceeded 55 million units in March 2020.

According to the Guinness World of Records, Nintendo has secured four spots in the top ten best-selling game consoles. Nintendo is considered to be the heart of modern gaming innovation.

*Read other information about TODAY's HISTORY or read other interesting articles from Putri Ainur Islam.

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