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The start
Nintendo was founded as a card company it produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda -
New ventures
Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, visited the U.S. He found that the biggest playing card company in the world was using only a small office. Yamauchi's realization that the playing card business had limited potential was a turning point. He then acquired the license to use Disney characters on playing cards to drive sales. -
Taxi!
Nintendo set up a taxi company called Daiya This business was earlier successful however Nintendo was forced to sell it. It also set up a love hotel chain, a TV network, and a food company. -
toys
Nintendo moved into the Japanese toy industry with the Ultra Hand, an extendable arm developed by its maintenance engineer Gunpei Yokoi in his free time. Yokoi was moved from maintenance to the new "Nintendo Games" department as a product developer. Nintendo struggled to meet the fast development and manufacturing turnaround required in the toy market, and fell behind the well-established companies. -
Moving to games
its focus shifted to family entertainment venues with the Laser Clay Shooting System, using the same light gun technology used in Nintendo's Kousenjuu series of toys, and set up in abandoned bowling alleys. Following some success, Nintendo developed several more light gun machines. Nintendo had found a new market. -
Magnavox Odyssey
Nintendo's first venture into the video gaming industry was securing rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey video game console in Japan. -
Standing alone
Nintendo began to produce its own hardware with the Color TV-Game home video game consoles. Four versions of these consoles were produced, each including variations of a single game. -
Teen for hire
A student product developer named Shigeru Miyamoto was hired by Nintendo at this time.[22] He worked for Yokoi, and one of his first tasks was to design the casing for several of the Color TV-Game consoles. Miyamoto went on to create, direct and produce some of Nintendo's most famous video games and become one of the most recognizable figures in the video game industry. -
handhelds
Gunpei Yokoi conceived the idea of a handheld video game, while observing a fellow bullet train commuter who passed the time by interacting idly with a portable LCD calculator, which gave birth to Game & Watch. -
game and watch
Nintendo launched Game & Watch—a handheld video game series developed by Yokoi. These systems do not contain interchangeable cartridges and thus the hardware was tied to the game. The first Game & Watch game released, titled Ball, was distributed worldwide. -
donkey kong
the release of Donkey Kong in 1981, designed by Miyamoto, changed Nintendo's fortunes dramatically. The success of the game and many licensing opportunities gave Nintendo a huge boost in profit and in addition, the game also introduced an early iteration of Mario, known then as Jumpman, the eventual company mascot. -
ds and wii
2004 and after nintendo starts the ds and wii sereis'.
