TIL Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a playing card company in Kyoto, Japan. They made traditional Japanese 'hanafuda' cards and didn't start making video games until the 1970s.
TIL Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a playing card company in Kyoto, Japan. They made traditional Japanese 'hanafuda' cards and didn't start making video games until the 1970s.
1889: Fusajiro Yamauchi founds Nintendo Koppai in Kyoto, Japan, to manufacture hanafuda, Japanese playing cards. Western-style playing cards originally came to Japan in the 16th century with Portuguese traders, but over the ensuing three centuries a variety of different card games were created in Ja...

Is there anybody out there really thinking Nintendo was making video games in the 1800's?
31 0 ReplySaddly im sure there are.
5 0 Reply
Oh.....Nintendo has QUITE the colorful past. Heh.
Wait until you read about the 60s....
18 0 ReplyIs that around the time they were supposedly managing love hotels?
15 0 ReplyShhhhhh, I specifically didn't say that so he'd actually research it, and be like "They did WHAT???"
Don't spoil it!
8 0 Reply
Surely by now this is one of Nintendo’s most well known facts?
9 0 ReplyI don’t know and don’t call me Shirley.
8 0 ReplyEdit: For those who don’t know the history:
5 0 Reply
They also have a history with gambling that they really want you to forget.
7 0 ReplyNow I just need a new game about Mario saving his brother
6 0 ReplyFrom court
5 0 Reply2 0 Reply
I still play with Nintendo hanafuda several times a week!
6 0 ReplyNo one started making video games til the 70s
5 0 ReplyWait, they weren't making video games in 1889? Huh
5 0 ReplyIt would have been really hard with the technology of that era. They barely had the electricity, let alone the "video" part.
1 0 ReplyIt was the style at the time
1 0 Reply
TIL I've read my last complimentary article.
4 0 Replyvideo was not even a decade old, and still all on film. Makes sense that they waited until the tech was more mature before trying to use it for games
3 0 Reply