The Complete History of Nintendo

SlappingOysters writes "Gameplayer are running a comprehensive feature on the history of Nintendo that runs through all 119 years of their existence, from humble card maker to gaming powerhouse. It is documented in chronological order and includes a stack of trivia about the company that will be thoroughly enjoyed by all Nintendo fans. As an interesting side note, it links to a sister article that explores how Mario can improve your sex life."

Comments

Plumbers lead to greater sex?

[Vertana]

What does Mario leading to "greater sex" have anything to do with Nintendo's history? On a side note... I shoulda been a plumber. I never knew that plumbing and jumping would lead to better sex. Thanks for the life tip Slashdot!

Re:Plumbers lead to greater sex?

[renegadesx]

When you think about it, Mario does look sorta like Ron Jeramy!

Re:Plumbers lead to greater sex?

[hkgroove]

You haven't been reading craigslist http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/orl/740493470.html

Re:Plumbers lead to greater sex?

[brouski]

What, you've never tried those mushrooms?

Re:Plumbers lead to greater sex?

[witherstaff]

The Plumbing Business Is Not As Glamorous As The Porn Industry Depicts

Re:Plumbers lead to greater sex?

[rhyder128k]

"I never knew that plumbing and jumping would lead to better sex."

Dude, you NEED to find some British 80s porn on the net.

Re:Plumbers lead to greater sex?

[electrictroy]

These stories really shouldn't be written by people who are younger than an NES/Famicom (the original Nintendo system). They are filled with too many errors & urban legend. Such as: - Donkey Kong was the first with an attract screen.

False. Instead the articles should be written by the older generation who was actually THERE and remember the events as they unfolded.

I am also surprised there is no mention about the Gaming Giant called Atari. Yes I know it's not an Atari article, but to ignore Atari is as silly as to write an article about Sony's PS1 without discussing Nintendo. Originally Nintendo asked ATARI to sell its Famicom in the U.S. and European market. Just imagine a console called the Atari Nintendo or Atari ES. Atari and Nintendo had all but sealed the deal, when suddenly Atari CEO Jack Tramel threw one of his famous hissy fits because of a trivial "insult" by the Japanese representatives.

In effect the #1 videogame maker Atari lost a billion-dollar industry to Nintendo with one stupid temper tantrum.

I wish it were true....

[Naughty Bob]

Fellow geeks. Mario cannot 'improve' your sex life.

Most mentions of Mario only have a deleterious effect on same.

Instead, be cool, don't appear desperate, and lower your sights. Unless you are horrific, you'll do fine. Just don't rely on Mario.

Re: I wish it were true....

[Tubal-Cain]

Fellow geeks. Mario cannot 'improve' your sex life.

How do you know? None of us have one to be improved.

Re: I wish it were true....

[rubah]

Mario might not have been able to, but Final Fantasy sure did!

Re: I wish it were true....

[halsver]

Exactly, we are all aware that geeks are the best lovers.

Re: I wish it were true....

[fermion]

But it will do you old enough to to have a sex life. (not work or school friendly)

Re: I wish it were true....

[Renraku]

Mario can, in fact, improve your sex life.

Believe me, plumbing pays decently since its a skilled profession. With about $40k/year median in most areas. At $40k/year, you can live pretty comfortably and still have money to buy the ladies drinks over the weekend. You could probably afford a half-decent car, too. Throw in some classier things and some good music and getting laid is inevitable.

Besides, some mushrooms are quite the aphrodisiac. At least, before the kidney and liver failure set in.

Re: I wish it were true....

[xaxa]

Some of us want to remove the circular reference in our sex life.

Re: I wish it were true....

[ben2umbc]

Mario can improve your sex life if you master control of your Wii.

Re: I wish it were true....

[AmberBlackCat]

In one of my sociology classes, my teacher said the good news was that, for every person, there is somebody out there who is the perfect match. But the bad news is it is very unlikely that these two will ever meet. So if that's true then maybe setting up facebook and myspace accounts and adding as many "friends" as possible is the way to go.

Re: I wish it were true....

[RyoShin]

Mario can, however, get you a tremendous amount of cake.

Re: I wish it were true....

[saunabad]

Instead, be cool, don't appear desperate, and lower your sights.

Trust me it's better to look in the eyes instead of lowering the sight.

8 pages?

[magus_melchior]

8 pages worth of stuff, 1/3 of which is denied by Privoxy/Adblock, and no "print version" in sight?

At least some of the big journos have done something right. Print version style sheets.

Okay, rant over.

Re:8 pages?

[meist3r]

Little known fact about script blockers: You can actually unblock stuff to make it work. D'uh. Site works no problem with privoxy/noscript.

Re:8 pages?

[dafrazzman]

I think he was pointing out how unprofessional this article is. I, for one, agree. Each of those pages has at most a few hundred words of text. It's a smallish article spaced out very unnecessarily.

If I turn off adblock and script block, it's even worse. Nothing on there needs to work, it's all ad junk and clutter. It may be interesting, but the quality of the site is not so good. I feel like slashdot should maintain a higher standard than this.

Re:8 pages?

[halcyon1234]

For anyone thinking this was a bastion of good reporting, it isn't. It's just a reprint of an article that appeared in Ultimate Nintendo (as referenced at the end of their 8 page long, ad filled reprint). So, yeah, here's the FTA, and fuck Game Player:

119 years have culminated in that little white box that sits beneath your TV. No bigger than a DVD case, the Wii is essentially the same machine - albeit slightly prettier and technically more robust - that Nintendo would release back in 1985.

Don't believe us? Well we're about to take you on a whistle-stop tour through the ins and outs, highs and lows, the laughter and tears of videogames' most prolific forefather. From playing cards to Pokémon: we'll even show you how Mario can improve your sex life! Here's the complete history of Nintendo.

1889 - A card game business specialising in stylish Hanafuda (flora) cards is set up by Fusajiro Yamauchi under the name of Nintendo Koppai. The business struggles until the yakuza decide to adopt the cards for their high-stakes gambling. The yakuza would demand a new pack at the start of every game and would look to Yamauchi to supply them.

Trivia - The name Nintendo is said to mean 'leave luck to heaven'.

1907 - Nintendo Koppai partners with Japan Tobacco & Salt Corporation and becomes the first domestic Japanese supplier of Western-style playing cards.

1927 - Hiroshi Yamauchi is born in the town of Kyoto, Japan.

1929 - Fusajiro Yamauchi retires, leaving control of the business to his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda (aka Yamauchi).

1932 - Hiroshi's father walks out on his mother and Hiroshi is sent to live with his grandparents, Tei and Sekiryo Yamauchi.

1933 - The stop-motion classic King Kong is released in cinemas by Universal Studios.

1933 - Sekiryo Yamauchi establishes a joint partnership company named Yamauchi Nintendo & Co.

1947 - Not long after the Second World War, Sekiryo sets up a distribution company named Marufuku Co Ltd to distribute Nintendo's Western-style playing cards.

1949 - Owing to ill health, Sekiryo retires and leaves the company to his grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Hiroshi renames the company Nintendo Playing Cards Co.

1952 - Hiroshi decides to expand his business and move it to a newer premises in Kyoto, Japan. He would also begin streamlining his manufacturing plants.

1952 - Shigeru Miyamoto is born in the small town of Sonebe, outside of Kyoto in Japan.

Trivia - Nintendo was the first card manufacturer in Japan to lacquer its playing cards.

1953 - Yamauchi strikes a deal with Walt Disney that allows Nintendo to produce playing cards featuring popular Disney characters.

1963 - After raising more capital on the stock market, Yamauchi tries new ventures. Some of the least successful include instant rice, burlesque 'love hotels' and a taxi company. However, Nintendo's toy division begins to show promise when one of its employees, Gunpei Yokoi, creates the Ultra Hand and it proves
a huge success.

1970 - Nintendo continues to grow within the toy market. Its next big hit is The Beam Gun: an early variation of a light-gun game co-developed by Sharp and developed by Masayuki Uemura.

Trivia - The Beam Gun made Nintendo the first company in Japan to use electronic components inside toys for children.

1973 - Nintendo adapts its Beam Gun idea into electronic Laser Skeet Shooting ranges and instals them into bowling alleys across the country.

1974 - The Beam Gun technology is used again in the arcade game Wild Gunman (which would eventually be ported to the NES and later made famous in the movie Back To The Future Part II).

Trivia - According to the screenwriter Bob Gale, on his commentary for the Back To The Future Part II DVD, the Wild Gunman arcade cab that appears in the movie was especially built for the film.

1975 - Shigeru Miyamoto graduates from the Kanazawa College
of Art with a degree in Industrial Design.

1975 - Yamauchi-san negotiates a deal with Mag

Re:8 pages?

[halcyon1234]

For anyone thinking this was a bastion of good reporting, it isn't. It's just a reprint of an article that appeared in Ultimate Nintendo (as referenced at the end of their 8 page long, ad filled reprint)

Sorry for the self-reply, but I just RTFA, and noticed that it must have been a magazine from 2006. Because the article ends abruptly in 2006. They didn't update it or provide any original material. How non-2.0 of them! Or maybe there just wasn't any content to add. Because, after all, Nintendo hasn't done anything history-worthy since 2006.

Not a history

[Darundal]

It is more of a timeline of the company that ends at 2006. Although, if anyone is interested in a good account of Nintendo's history, check out the book Game Over: Press Start to Continue by David Sheff. It is a bit dated, and doesn't cover anything newer than the n64 (and that depends on when the copy you look at was produced) but it goes into great depth regarding Nintendo's history.

Re:Not a history

[bigbigbison]

Unfortunately, it is also out of print. It is a pretty fun book and more or less the best Nintendo book. Maybe one of these days it will be back in print.

Re:Not a history

[Jorophose]

For the sake of preservation, I'm sure there's got to be someone out there with a copy and close to an OCR device. Either that or it's sitting around in the belly of the internet, along with every other book (and a clockwork orange of course).

It's a shame to see books out of print. Wasn't there a startup that designed and started selling these printers intended to print out books at a time for libraries and such, as a sort of on-demand-printing for them to make some money? Sort of like Lulu.com but this one is decentralised and local.

Re:Not a history

[Haoie]

Yes, that's a good book.

The Ultimate History of Video Games [Steve Hunt] is also a very worthy read. The focus isn't on Nintendo, but still worthwhile.

Re:Not a history

[bigbigbison]

If it is out there on the internets I couldn't find it. I wanted my students to read it and searched and search but couldn't find it. I especially hope that the second edition is out there somewhere and someone will link to it since it has some corrections and new(er) material (not by Sheff though)

Re:Not a history

[Darundal]

Yeah, but the newer material isn't nearly up to the quality of the other stuff. The corrections however definitely make finding a copy of the second edition (which was the one I recommended) worthwhile.

Re:Not a history

[Jorophose]

Well, have you tried the butthole of the internet? They get a lot of stuff washing up on their shores...

Re:Not a history

[thedarknite]

Do you mean something like this? http://www.ondemandbooks.com/home.htm

busy schedule

[emart]

video gaming has never, doesn't, and will never improve the sex life of any one. unless it happens to be a female who plays video games, in which case every male video game player wishes to have sex with her.

Re:busy schedule

[R2.0]

Don't ever underestimate manual dexterity - there's a reason a Trackpoint is called a clit-mouse.

Re:busy schedule

[evilviper]

unless it happens to be a female who plays video games, in which case every male video game player wishes to have sex with her.

As opposed to females who DON'T play video games, which case every male gamer wishes to have sex with...

Seems to me, anyone this interested in video games

[unassimilatible]

Should be concentrating on learning, say, the history of Western Civ or the ancients.

Now, I'm off for some more BF2.

No Gamecube

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually rtfa and the Gamecube isn't even mentioned. They just go from GBA to DS to Wii.

Re:No Gamecube

[Rhapsody Scarlet]

Well who can blame them? I'd detail my experiences with the GameCube, but I might as well just write a review of Super Smash Bros. Melee instead, that was the only truly remarkable game I played on it. Super Mario Sunshine? Patently inferior to Super Mario 64. Soul Calibur II? Can't match the original. Mario Kart: Double Dash? Simply couldn't hold my interest.

I know I'm missing some good stuff (Metroid Prime, why did I never play that?), but my experiences were poor. SSBM is the only game to not be surpassed before or (maybe) since. I'm still forming my final opinion on SSBB...

Re:No Gamecube

[i.of.the.storm]

I don't know whether to be more surprised that you RTFA or that they left off the Gamecube. Melee was THE party game for many people until Brawl came out.

Re:No Gamecube

[Sabz5150]

One word sums up my GameCube experience: Ikaruga. Incredible sounds, beautiful graphics, gameplay rivaled only (ironically enough) by Radiant Silvergun. There is no better game for the 'Cube IMHO.

Re:No Gamecube

[renegadesx]

As somebody who owned all 3 consoles (4 if you include the Dreamcast) I must say the cube did have its place deserved in my living room.

Metroid Prime was extremly well done, props to Retro Studio's for that one, Prime 2? Good but didn't do anything new. Double Dash wasn't a major step up but still an improvment

There were quite a few awesome games that were either Cube exclusives or timed exclusives, RE4 being the best of them (IMO best game of last gen). Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, Eternal Darknes, Ikaruga (now on XBLA!) and for 1st party you are missing Wind Waker (once you get around the cartoonly look its actually quite good), F-Zero-GX and Pikmen.

Why the cube bombed was because it just wasn't enough, they didn't have that killer app (like Final Fantasy for Playstation and Halo for Xbox) and they're marketing lacked in the West (they did quite OK in Japan). Marketing is alot, and lack of marketing can be a major factor in getting wiped out of the race (go ask Sega!)

Re:No Gamecube

[Sabz5150]

You answered your own question.

Re:No Gamecube

[Jorophose]

No, they did quite well all around... I'm wondering how many Xbox sales were for XBMC? And how many PS2s went unsold and were for sale now?

It could have gotten #1, but I think the problems were mainly due to piracy... And sadly it's a double-edged sword.

I can't find most of those classic gamecube games. I found a lot. But games like Tales of Symphonia, Luigi's Mansion, Double Dash, Metroid Prime, etc. I have to borrow, and games like RE4, MGS: TS, ED, and Ikaruga (along with the original pikmin) can't be found anywhere easily enough. And I fear it'll just get worse with the Wii, if only because I can't even find one anywhere. =/

To buy them all would be VERY costly and very difficult. I hate to say it but I'd rather download/trade these games, and be able to "pirate" them, if only to give the developpers a chance of respect in my eyes, to maybe make me want to buy the sequel. (as was the case with Tales of Symphonia, 6 of us played Tales of Symphonia for GC, we're all planning on buying the Wii version)

Re:No Gamecube

[renegadesx]

Nah, it was never going to get #1, devs were still burnt after the way Nintendo treated them during the first period so they were never going to get all the major multiplatform hits and less exclusives than say Sony.

Also dont forget the PS2 won by a very large margin. In 2004 they were in 2nd place but in 3rd by the 360's launch. The PS2 really dominated towards the end due to titles like Singstar, all of a sudden teenage girls wanted PS2's which really skyrocketed sales by turning it into a glorified karaoke machine which is still going on.

The cube cold have gotten #2 but #1 was out of the question, the PS2 was always going to win that generation like the Wii seems poised to win this generation. The PS3 has potential to be a mass market device but its too expensive for the mass market/casual gamer.

The 360 I dont think has it, I think it has what it takes to be THE system for the hardcore market but the casual market is waaay to big these days to win a generation without them. I think Microsoft should be happy with what their machine is and be the hardcore system, its profitable for them now.

On those games, yeah I got them all except Tales. At my local retailer it was usually $10 cheaper to get the games on that platform so the cube racked up the majority of multiplatform titles in my home. It saved me alot in the long run

Re:No Gamecube

[Jorophose]

The only problem with Nintendo's methodology is that they don't want shit games.

When Sony opened the floodgates you got all the shovelware games. Haven't you noticed that?

Re:No Gamecube

[wanderingknight]

lol @ Soul Calibur II being worse than SC1 when most hardcore fans (that is, the tournament-goers pros, not the scrubs) would agree that it's the best of the series.

Re:No Gamecube

[MagicDude]

Windwaker is fantastic. For my part, it's surpassed only by OOT. Don't believe anyone who says the cell shaded art takes away from it. If you haven't played it, I strongly recommend it.

Re:No Gamecube

[Darkness404]

The PS2 had an early head start with the DVD format. At the time of its launch, it was an affordable DVD player that played games. Secondly, it was backwards compatibly with all the PS1 games giving it a larger library of games. Third, it had a lot of exclusive system selling titles such as Final Fantasy. The Xbox had Halo which was a system seller. But the Gamecube had a lot of exclusive titles but just never managed for them to sell systems, Melee was a great game, and Tales of Symphonia is one of the best RPGs I have ever played, but Sunshine was mediocre, Luigi's Mansion was an average launch game, Double Dash was decent, but not a system seller. And the console had so many Mario Party games that were essentially the same to be even considered. The thing that I really liked about the gamecube was the short load times compared to the PS2 and Xbox. Seriously, it seemed to take at least a minute to go back to the world map after a battle in Final Fantasy...

Re:No Gamecube

[CronoCloud]

No, what I notice is the fact that I can get more than 1 or 2 RPG's a year, and the fact that more games from Japan are released in the US. Sony respected the US market in a way Nintendo never did. Sony actively recruited non-Japanese devs early in the PSones life, hell they even encouraged ports of some PC games. List the "greatest" N64/Gamecube games, and then list the greatest PS1/PS2 games. There's more diversity of developers and gameplay in the PS1/PS2 list, while for the N64/Gamecube they're almost all first party Nintendo games. Have you seen the used N64/Gamecube market? The stores will have 10 copies of zelda, 10 copies of goldeneye, 10 copies of Metroid, because N64/Gamecube owners all pretty much bought the same first party games. The PS1/PS2 gamers are far more diverse.

Re:No Gamecube

[CronoCloud]

The thing that I really liked about the gamecube was the short load times compared to the PS2 and Xbox. Seriously, it seemed to take at least a minute to go back to the world map after a battle in Final Fantasy...

Extended load times in PS2 and PS1 games are a sure sign your PS2 (or PS1) is about to give up the ghost and give you DRE's. It shouldn't take a minute to get back to the world map in FFX. Some games are very hard on the drive, Everquest Online Adventures for example, if your PS2 is going bad, you'll notice it in EQOA earlier than other games.

Re:No Gamecube

[renegadesx]

Yes and no, nothing you say is wrong, yes the Playstation brand has always had issues with their disk drives/lasers.

The thing I think he was refering to due to it being a smaller disc (in size and capacity) the Gamecube on average had faster load times due to the laser doing alot less work and data transfer from the disk being usually smaller. The sacrifice was you couldn't fit as much but Nintendo didnt see that as an issue for them themselves, they had some sweet graphics compression technologies, they left 3rd parties out in the lurch on that one.

Issues like the disc issues and RRoD was the reason why throughout 2007 the Wii was my only current gen console until I was sure the hardware bugs were iorned out (to a reasonable degree) on the 360 and Sony finally had a system that didn't have disc issues.

Re:No Gamecube

[Jorophose]

Well, that's probably more related to the fact that I don't think Sony ever published games itself. Nintendo is a mongrel of a games publisher, reason why it often, sadly, kills scores of good 3rd party games.

Re:No Gamecube

[wanderingknight]

Which are the only ones who know how to play the damn game in the first place. If you don't understand that, then you don't understand how fighting games work.

Plus it's not as if SC2 was actually supposed to be played with a Gamecube, either.

Re:No Gamecube

[Krilomir]

SCEI published plenty of games. Games like Gran Turismo and Arc the Lad among others.

Re:No Gamecube

[renegadesx]

Psygnosis has been part of Sony since 1993, (Destruciton Derby & Wipeout)
SCE also published Grand Turismo, the PS1's highest selling game ever.
Twisted Metal, developed by Sony Interactive, published by SCE

Sony has been a games developer and publisher before they were a console maker, but they would actually promote 3rd party games, help out 3rd parties work out how to code for its hardware etc. Something Nintendo has never done. Nintendo was ALL about the 1st parties and treated the 3rd parties like dirt (still do) because Nintendo saw 3rd parties as competitors while Sony saw them as clients.

Sony just knew how to treat its clients and it was a win/win for both sides. Once FFXII made the jump to Sony, the tide turned and the rest is history.

I like Nintendo but they did deserve what happened to them. I see them making attempts to repair ties with 3rd parties but they could do alot better IMO

Re:No Gamecube

[KDR_11k]

And it was a Dreamcast port IIRC. I didn't find it that great, it's definitely not a console defining game.

Re:No Gamecube

[KDR_11k]

Well, Nintendo dominated their own platforms because noone else was up to par. Even now that the Wii is the market leader it still gets mostly crappy ports and half-assed shovelware while all the competent teams are put to work on making PS3/360 games (which then sell less than Nintendo's cheaply made Wii games while costing about 10x as much to make). Let's see... Massive first party behemoth known for GOTY-caliber games... Yep, C or D level teams are going to make a dent there... I think one of the Nintendo execs said that third parties can't expect to beat Nintendo when Nintendo is fielding their top developers while third parties are sending only the weakest of their teams, the Wii may look like an easy arena but it's not and to be successful a third party still has to work hard.

Brand names are an easy excuse because you can claim "it doesn't sell because we are not Nintendo" and make it look like there's nothing you did wrong. This is like sending your untrained newbies to the olympics and saying you failed because only country X can win at the sport. You don't need huge budgets to win on the Wii but you still have to give your best and make sure the things you do are done well.

Re:No Gamecube

[Jorophose]

Because Sony doesn't do software... Sony does hardware.

Nintendo does software. And yes, you are a threat to nintendo. But I really think you're blowing this out of proportion; I'm damn sure nintendo's helped third party developpers. And if not, well, doesn't the sense of competition make things better?

Re:No Gamecube

[Yosho]

No, he didn't.

irony1 [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-]
noun, plural -nies. 1. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, How nice! when I said I had to work all weekend.
2. Literature. a. a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.
b. (esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.
3. Socratic irony.
4. dramatic irony.
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.
7. an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.
8. an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.

The fact that Ikaruga's gameplay is only rivaled by Radiant Silvergun's is not ironic at all. In fact, it's basically the opposite of ironic. It is entirely expected that two shooters produced by the same development team would be of about the same quality. It would be ironic if Ikaruga was an excellent game but Treasure had a reputation for producing horrible shooters.

Re:..... what?

[larry bagina]

You've never had a short, hairy, italian guy shove a plunger up your ass while you masturbate?

rosey palms

[globaljustin]

video gaming has never, doesn't, and will never improve the sex life of any one

hmm... DOA Volleyball... I'd say it doesn't improve any two people's sex lives

Re:..... what?

[Joebert]

Actually I think it's supposed to be that Mario teaches you how to get into the Princesses' pants by dusting yourself off and trying again after rejection.

But hey, if it's Mario and plumbers crack that turns you on this is America afterall. Hell, there's probably a few of us here who would pay top dollar to see Yoshi laying the wood to the Princess donkey show style while Toadstool watches and jerks Luigi off with his feet in the corner.

1400 pages about Nintendo history

[FornaxChemica]

This looks like an enhanced version of the company history Nintendo gives to the press, the one you can see on the European site too:
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/service/corporate_2001.html

Much more interesting, at least if you speak French, is the "History of Nintendo", so far only one book has been published:
http://editionspixnlove.fr/collectiondetail.php?ID=6

The book is 228 pages long and showcases 500 Nintendo toys and games prior to 1980 (took them 6 years of research!). The whole series will have 6 volumes totalling more than 1400 pages. Flabbergasting I daresay.

Re:..... what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Link?

I thought Lou Albano was Mario

[tepples]

• Google Image Search: Captain Lou Albano
• Albano as Mario

At least Albano made a better Mario than, say, Bob Hoskins.

Re:..... what?

[schon]

Don't judge me. Everybody experiments in college.

In Florida??

[EEBaum]

From TFA: 1989 - The Wizard movie is released in the US. Starring Fred Savage, Christian Slater and Beau Bridges, it chronicles the story of a young boy with a talent for videogames who enters a Nintendo tournament in Florida. Nintendo uses it as a vehicle to promote the NES and unveil Super Mario Bros 3 in the West.

The tournament was in California (Universal Studios, Hollywood, to be precise), thank you very much. Hence the protagonist incessantly whining "California!" through half the film.

Yes, I saw it in theatres. The announcer's cry of "Super... Mario... Brothers... THREE!!!!" remains one of the more memorable moments of my childhood.

Re:In Florida??

[ThanatosMinor]

I love The Wizard. It's so...bad.

Re:..... what?

[Neko-kun]

He's too busy collecting the three fragments of the key to Zelda's chastity belt...

GameCube?!?

[iMouse]

Is it just me or did they completely skip the GameCube? The timeline went from the N64 to the GBA to the Wii without mentioning anything about the GameCube.

Is this even a complete timeline? Nintendo had a lot of other projects out there that weren't even mentioned in this article.

Re:..... what?

[xonar]

this is America afterall

That word you're using. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Re:..... what?

[Joebert]

If you were Zelda and had a choice between Gannon who is about to rule up in this bitch, or Link who is some bum who lives with his dad in a little shack and cuts grass with a fucking sword for a few bucks here and there, wouldn't you make up some crazy story about being kidnapped to explain to Link what you were doing with Gannon so you could let him down easy ?

Shit, the whole triforce bit was just to get Link to stay busy & quit cock-blockin long enough for a bitch to get her swerve on.

I can't believe Link keeps falling for that shit.

Re:..... what?

[Neko-kun]

Then how do you explain OoT's Zelda cross dressing as a guy and stalking Link?

NES in 1987?????????

[keepper]

1987 - The Famicom is released in the US and Europe as the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Selling for $300, it would sell 60 million units worldwide.

Uh... maybe i'm wrong.. but i remember getting my NES x-mas of 1985.... and wikipedia confirms this...

Great "article".. they can't even copy paste well.

Re:NES in 1987?????????

[PKFC]

Yeah I'm reading this and finding things just from my memory that are incorrect. (So yeah if I'm wrong, a little wikipedia would help that)

1985 - Nintendo releases the Famicom (Family Computer) in Japan priced at 54,800 yen. Designed by Masayuki Uemura, it is released with 20 software titles, including a home port of Donkey Kong. The machine was originally beige and maroon and its game cartridges had to be slotted in through the top.

It was released in Japan in 1983 with three games. Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. and maybe Donkey Kong, Jr. (That's something to check on wikipedia)

Trivia - The Legend Of Zelda was a launch title for the NES in North America. It came encased in special gold cartridges containing an internal battery to facilitate save games - the first game cartridge to offer this.

Pretty sure it was 87-88 - aka definitely not a launch title.

1987 - The Famicom is released in the US and Europe as the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Selling for $300, it would sell 60 million units worldwide.

You already mentioned the 1985 release (no idea about Europe), but I'm more than sure that every Nintendo home console except the Wii has been launched at $199 USD.

1991 - After a collaboration with Sony to help develop a CD add-on for the SNES turns sour, Nintendo decides to partner with Sony's rivals, Philips Electronics NV. Nintendo grants the company permission to use Mario and Zelda in a series of games for the Philips CD-i console, and in exchange Philips agrees to work on a CD add-on for the SNES. But the add-on is later dropped.

I want to say that the CD add on development started later than that, but 1991 then switching to Phillips in 1992, back to Sony in 1993 and then Sony releasing the PSX in 1994 after being thrown out sort of makes a reasonable timeline..

Ok I think that's enough nitpicking. Most of the other stuff sounds right even if it isn't :P Or I don't remember enough to point it out. I shouldn't have all this shit in my brain, but it's there... Totally agree that it didn't need to be 8 pages, but adblock helps.

Re:NES in 1987?????????

[Norwell Bob]

Also, the version of Wild Gunman released in 1974 was an EM game, not the video game shown in Back to the Future II.

This timeline is rife with mistakes and = FAIL.

Re:NES in 1987?????????

[rgo]

I want to say that the CD add on development started later than that, but 1991 then switching to Phillips in 1992, back to Sony in 1993 and then Sony releasing the PSX in 1994 after being thrown out sort of makes a reasonable timeline..

The last effort in making a CD addon was a joint venture between Sony, Philips and Nintendo, developing a custom optical disc (Nintendo Disc) addon.

media companies...

[cpotoso]

My favorite line in the saga (from the article):

1982 - Nintendo vs Universal

Donkey Kong's success caught the eye of Universal Studios, which felt the character was a direct infringement of its film King Kong. Nintendo was taken to court by the studio, but the judge ruled in Nintendo's favour after it was brought to light that in a previous court case Universal fought to prove that the character of King Kong was within the pubic domain so it could make its movie. Nintendo was awarded $1.8 million from Universal.

Quite amazing how media companies want to have their cake and it it too... Unbelievable: to sue someone for infringement for something they fought to be in the public domain (they were presumably the original infringers, eh?). This is one of the (many) reasons I am in a war against media companies. I have been violating their copyrights as much as I can. If they do not respect the rights of others I won't respect theirs either.

No Gamecube

[Taulin]

That stupid timeline fails to mention the Gamecube!

Re:What about the GameCube?

[dr_dank]

There seems to be no mention of it in the timeline.

Brain tumors caused by the VirtualBoy may be to blame.

just no gamecube?

[Z80a]

where is super mario bros on this timeline ?

Good Heavens, no!

[DingerX]

Do you know how dreadfully dull Western Civ is? Ever wonder why it's the junior history professors and TAs who get dumped with it in the Universities?

The History of Nintendo is what they do for fun: it's got a manageable subject and it has fascinating resonances in social, political, economic and intellectual history. Western Civ is such a vague, artificial concept that no matter how small you slice it, it's still too big to give people more than a taste of real history. I mean, you can make it fun and enlightening, but it requires real work, and you're left with the nagging doubt about the stuff you had to leave out.

*sigh*

[Red_Chaos1]

Not only was that not the complete history (as many here have already pointed out), but both articles are rife with spelling and grammar errors.

So little spread so thin

[BinaryOpty]

Gotta love websites that put [AD] a small amount of content [AD] on multiple pages [AD] to up their ad co- [AD] unt.

Wow, never seen this before

[gravis777]

The site is slashdotted. Same content available here

An additional error:

[default luser]

Yeah, I saw it in the theater too. I spotted another erroneous trivia claim:

Trivia - Star Fox, released in the US in 1993, was the first 3D polygon game to ever appear on a home console.

Not True. EA's F-22 Interceptor (Sega Megadrive) predates Star Fox by two years. It contains no fancy chip; instead, it uses the Megadrive's beefy 68000 main processor to create a fully-polygonal 3D world.

Star Fox's claim to fame is that it has better graphics and a higher framerate than F-22...but it most certainly is not the first polygonal game on a console.