Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a manufacturer of hanafuda cards in Japan. In the 1970s, Nintendo transitioned to making electronic toys and games, eventually releasing its first home video game console called Color TV Game in 1977. Nintendo found international success with games like Donkey Kong and the release of its Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s. Nintendo has since released many popular game consoles and franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon, becoming one of Japan's most valuable companies.
2. Agenda
• Company History
• Hanafuda
• Transition to Video Games
• Contributions to Gaming
• Significance
• Conclusion (2 Questions)
3. Nintendo: Company History
• Founded as Nintendo Koppei in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi
• President was a Yamauchi family member until 2002 when
Hiroshi Yamauchi retired and Satoru Iwata became president
• Originally a manufacturer of hanafuda cards (1889-present)
• Experimented with other business ideas (1951-1963)
• Found success with toys & electronics (1964-present)
4. Hanafuda
• Japanese card game invented in the late 1700’s
• Originally used to gamble often illegally
• Deck of 48 cards, 12 suits – 4 cards each
• One suit for each month of the year
• Within each suit there are 2 regular cards and 2 special cards
• Each card has a point value and certain combinations of cards yield extra
points
6. Hanafuda: Quick How To Play
• Each player is dealt 8 cards and 8 are placed face up
• Find a card in your hand that has the same
season as one that is face up and has high point value
• Put it on top of a card and then place both cards
in your point pile
• If you don’t have a matching card place a card
face up on the table
• Draw a card and attempt to match card, if no match
place face up
• Different cards have different point values, the one
with the most points at the end wins the game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw31Qz0FyCE#t=65
7. Success With Hanafuda
• Became most popular manufacturer of Hanafuda cards in Japan
• Original cards were hand crafted
• Switched to mass production to meet demand
• First company to manufacture and sell plastic playing cards in Japan
• Licensing agreement with Disney brings Hanafuda to younger generation
8. Expanding to Toys
• Nintendo begins manufacturing toys
• First toy is called Rabbit Coaster
• Second toy is Ultra Hand, over 1 million
units were sold
9. Transition to Electronics
• Began making Kousenjuu series of light gun toys in 1970
• Included games such as Duck Hunt and Jumping Bottle
• Began manufacturing simple light gun arcade
units in 1974
10. Transition to Video Games
• Nintendo hires several Sharp employees in 1975
• Releases first home video game system called Color TV Game 6 in 1977
• Consists of six variations of table tennis or pong
• Releases additional Colour TV Games including a racing version
11. First Steps Into “Modern” Gaming
• In 1978 Nintendo releases their first more modern standalone electronic
arcade units
• Games include: Space Fever (1979), HeliFire (1980), and Radar Scope (1980)
• Popularity of Radar Scope begins to fade and Nintendo assigns junior
designer Shigeru Miyamoto task of creating a game to replace it
• Shigeru Miyamoto comes up with the first game that is internationally
famous for Nintendo….
12. Success with Donkey Kong
• Thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo releases Donkey Kong
and instantly finds international success
• Introduced Nintendo’s longest running characters Mario
(originally Jump Man) and Donkey Kong
• Sold thousands of arcade cabinets
around the world
13. Release of Famicom/NES
• Releases Famicom in Japan in 1983 and NES
around the world in 1985
• NES is a huge success
• Launch titles included Super Mario Bros., another
game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto which sold
millions of copies and held the record for best
selling video game for over 25 years
14. Nintendo: Consoles
• Over the next 30 years Nintendo releases many hugely successful consoles such as:
• GameBoy (Original, Pocket, Colour, Advance) (1989-1990’s)
• SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) (1990)
• N64 (1996)
• Gamecube (2001)
• Nintendo DS (2004)
• Wii (2006)
• Wii U (2012)
15. Nintendo: Games/IPs
• Donkey Kong
• Metroid
• Duck Hunt
• Super Mario
• Legend of Zelda
• Pokemon
• Pikmin
• StarFox
• Kirby
• Animal Crossing
16. Significance
• One of Japans most valuable companies with $85 billion in market value, was
the third most valuable company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2007
• Contributes to Japans economy
• Made Japan a country known for excellent video game production
17. Conclusion
• Started with Hanafuda cards and make them to this day
• Transitioned to toys and then electronics & video games
• Made iconic characters that are recognized internationally
• Made Japan known for quality video games
• Question 1: Nintendo only produced Hanafuda cards for half of their
existence. [True or False]
• Question 2 : Hanafuda cards were invented in the late 1700s [True or False]