The "Unknowns"

The Hanafuda Playing Cards

When you hear the name Nintendo, odds are you probably think of video games. Fair enough -- they are the company that brought video games back from the dead, after all. But did you know that Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a maker of paper playing cards? It's true. Nintendo (or Nintendo Koppai, as it was then called) started its corporate life as a manufacturer of traditional Japanese Hanafuda playing cards. As the years passed, Nintendo's card business expanded and thrived.

In 1949 the company took a step toward becoming the gaming monolith it is today when Nintendo's second president died from a stroke and his 21 year old grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, was appointed its president. Over the next twenty years he would both modernize the company and prove to be a ruthless and formidable businessman. Yamauchi expanded Nintendo into a variety of side businesses, including a taxi company, instant rice meals, and even a chain of love hotels! Most of these were eventually closed.

Nintendo's future course finally began to take shape when it established its first games division in 1969. The company churned out a variety of gimmicky toys that met with great success, among them the Ultra Hand (an extendible plastic hand that could be used to grab objects) and the Love Tester, which supposedly read the level of "love" between its two users. A man named Gunpei Yokoi was the designer of some of the most popular of these products, and he would play a crucial role at Nintendo in later years.

*Information courtesy of: Planet Nintendo

The Game & Watch

The Game & Watch product line was developed internally by Nintendo's legendary Gumpei Yokoi. The Game & Watch series was launched in April 1980 and was discontinued in September 1991. Game & Watch is a simple device that not only had a game but also had a fully functional clock and alarm running on a LCD screen. Many different models were created throughout the years, including Silver Series, Gold Series, Wide Screen, Multi Screen, New Wide Screen, Tabletop, Panorama, Super Color, Crystal Screen, and Micro Vs. In all, there were 59 Game & Watch games released. Game & Watch has experienced a resurgence thanks to Game & Watch Gallery's release on Game Boy.

*Information courtesy of: Archive 64

The Virtual Boy

As the old adage goes, everyone makes mistakes. The Virtual Boy was Nintendo's mistake. Released in 1995 in both Japan and the U.S., at a price of $179.95, this "virtual immersion" system was met with lukewarm critical and retail receptions from the beginning. Designed by Gumpei Yokoi, creator of Game Boy, the Virtual Boy utilized two screens, one for each eye, in order to provide its user a stereoscopic view. Additionally, the system had an annoying quirk in that all images were red on a black background.

Because it had trouble finding its niche in the market and was too cumbersome to be considered portable, the Virtual Boy failed miserably. Less than two years after its release, every major video game retailer in America discounted the Virtual Boy. That does not even say anything for the massive discounting that took place in Japan. Nintendo took huge loses on the system, as the unit could be found for $25 and games could be found for $10 each.

No one is quite sure how many Virtual Boy units were or were not sold. All that has been said is that the system fell far below Nintendo's sales expectations.

*Information courtesy of: Archive 64

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This site was last updated 01/25/06