| 1889 |
A new company called Nintendo Koppai is established in Kyoto, Japan, by Fusajiro Yamauchi. The encouraging name means “the heaven blesses hard work” in his native language. One of his first projects is Japanese gaming cards called hanafuda. Until the 1960's, Yamauchi’s company concentrates on the production of these items, becoming the first company to succeed in manufacturing mass-produced plastic playing cards in Japan. |
| 1963 |
Hiroshi Yamauchi, the third president of Nintendo, changes the company name to Nintendo Co., Ltd. After a few failed ventures into seemingly random fields, the company goes in the direction of making electronic games, manufactured along with the popular gaming cards. |
| 1977 |
The company launches the first microprocessor-controlled arcade game, a great innovation in the electronic business. Nintendo grows very fast and becomes a leading company in their sector. |
| 1980 |
Nintendo creates Game & Watch. It is a series of handheld games on a small LCD screen with an incorporated watch and alarm. The series integrates games such as Donkey Kong, Mickey Mouse. The peculiar timepiece turns out to be a huge success all over the world, even in Scandinavia where 1.6 million units are sold in 1982-83.
On the other side of the ocean, a new wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., is created in New York. It will later be moved to Redmond, Washington. |
| 1983 |
Nintendo introduces the historical "Family Computer" (the name derives from the fact that the platform had its own CPU), also known as Famicom, to the Japanese market on July 15th. The first titles (all made by Nintendo) released during this era consist of very basic, but addictive, game designs. There is only one screen to play with, and no scrolling (neither horizontally or vertically); therefore games are somewhat similar to those of the American Atari 2600. Classic titles are developed, like Mario Bros., and Donkey Kong. The first amusing title allows you to play with either Mario or Luigi while you try and knock over enemies obtaining the highest score possible. Donkey Kong also features the Italian plumber, Mario, except this time he’s trying to save his girlfriend Pauline from his own pet ape, who gives the game its title. Both these games are an enormous success. |
| 1984 |
The Legend of Zelda, by some considered the greatest game of time, revolutionizes the world of gaming with its new on-cartridge saving system and stratospheric gameplay and story. The old saving method, which was based on saving passwords, suddenly looks awfully outdated and inadequate. The title will also become the first ever to exceed sales of one million units. |
| 1985 |
The American version of the Famicom is released in the US with a slight delay caused by Nintendo’s failed deal with the current market dominator, Atari, who were offered the rights to distribute the new console. An agreement was never found and NoA went on to distribute the Nintendo Entertainment System throughout the American continent.
Third parties are now allowed to produce games, causing a rapid increase in the number of titles available. The use of scrolling is frequent and finds its perfection with Super Mario Bros, released in October in the US. The game, along with Duck Hunt (which makes use of an interactive gun), is bundled with the actual system and turns Mario into a household name. |
| 1986 |
To increase the utilities of the 8-bit system, Nintendo introduces the "Family Computer Disk Drive System" (also known simply as the FDS) in the land of the rising sun. The Legend of Zelda is released in the US. As time goes by, the graphics of titles drastically improve. |
| 1987 |
The Nintendo Entertainment System is released in Europe, where it will be immediately embraced. The Metroid franchise is born and the first adventure of Samus is a great success.
Rare makes its Nintendo debut with Slalom while Square changes the world of RPGs forever by introducing Final Fantasy. The two companies will be a determining factor for Nintendo’s great feats in the console business. |
| 1988 |
RPG titles begin to make great use of the new saving system, permitting deeper gameplay possibilities. One of these is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Shigeru Miyamoto, who is quickly becoming one of Nintendo’s most famous developers, chooses a different approach at this new chapter for the series, preferring horizontal scrolling. |
| 1989 |
The GameBoy is launched first in Japan and then in the US. The portable system borrows many franchises from its home-console counterpart, like Mario, Donkey Kong and later even Zelda. It will go through various incarnations in the future.
Meanwhile, Nintendo faces problems with Tengen, who is obliged to remove their adaptation of Tetris from the market after being accused of stealing the license. Nintendo will go on to make their own version, which will sell an astounding three million copies. |
| 1990 |
The Super Famicom is released in Japan. It will compete with Sega’s MegaDrive and their trademark Sonic series.
As for the Nintendo Entertainment System, customers are more and more pleased as games keep improving in graphics and gameplay. But new problems arise as the Family Computer Disk Drive System encounters its first piracy problems in Japan with the distribution of many unlicensed titles. |
| 1991 |
The 16-bit Super Nintendo console is released in America. Super Mario World and the legendary RPG, Final Fantasy IV, are two titles that immediately stand out from the line-up for their superb gameplay that will once again change the way videogames are played.
Producers start to focus more on the new Nintendo platform, to some extent neglecting the original NES. Nonetheless, 50 million units have been sold up to this point, only in the US. |
| 1992 |
A year after its entrance in the American market, the SNES is introduced to Europe. The few games that are still being released for the Nintendo Entertainment System don’t stand out much as they focus mostly on graphics, leaving behind the fundamental gameplay factor. |
| 1993 |
A new model of the Nintendo Entertainment System is released on the tenth anniversary of the original Famicom. It’s much smaller and no longer presents a lockout chip like the precedent version. The processor speed is 1.79 Mhz, with 53 colours available and 16 Kbit of RAM. The cart size can store up to 4 Mbit of data. |
| 1994 |
Nintendo officially announces that it will no longer be supporting the Nintendo Entertainment System. |
Historical Timeline
