Nintendo began it's days as early as 1889 when it was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi

nin-ten-do (Kanji characters) can mean 'Leave luck to Heaven' or 'Deep in the mind we have to do whatever we have to do'. The most common reading is 'Work hard, but in the end it is in Heaven's hands'

Yamauchi, an artist and craftsman, started making playing cards (it still seems to live on today with the Pokemon cards) painted with a scheme of symbols: for example, a deer, the wind, a chrysanthemum, a boar, the moon etc. One of the most popular games was matching flowers in order to make packs , but could be as complex as Bridge, and it was taken as seriously.

Nintendo's first shops were in Kyoto and Osaka and its business remained small and only modestly profitable, but increased when the flower cards began to be used for gambling.

In 1907 Yamauchi expanded his business and Nintendo became the first Japanese company to manufacture Western-style playing cards. He also started distributing the cards in cigarette shops all over Japan.

Sekiryo Yamauchi (Married Fusajiro's daughter Tei) became Nintendo's second president in 1929

In 1933, he established a joint-venture corporation called Yamauchi-Nintendo and in 1947 created a distribution company called Marufuku to sell new varieties of modern, Western-style playing cards (pinochle and poker decks) with fancy backs.

In 1949 Hiroshi Yamauchi (Sekiro's grandson) became Nintendo's third president and changed the name to Nintendo Karuta (Nintendo Playing Cards) in 1951.

In 1953 Nintendo began manufacturing the first plastic-coated cards in Japan and in 1959 made its first licensing agreement with Walt Disney. By doing this and selling the cards in larger department and toy stores the sales shot up to a record 600,000 packs that year.

Nintendo dropped the word Karuta and became NCL (Nintendo Company, Ltd.) as he took the company public.

The first product launched by the new company was a line of individually portioned instant rice. It was a dismal failure. Yamauchi then opened a 'love hotel' with rooms rented by the hour. He also started a taxi company, but soon closed that and the hotel. He then decided that Nintendo's roots were in entertainment, and should stay that way.

An employee, Hiroshi Imanishi, had the task in 1969 to create a department that would set Nintendo on its new course. It was called simply 'Games' and Gunpei Yokoi was in charge of the projects. Gunpei came up with Nintendo's first toy, the Ultra Hand (a clasping extension of the hand). It sold in 1970 and was a success. From then on, Yokoi was to come up with inventions.

He invented the 'Ultra Machine' , the 'Ultra Scope' and the 'Love Tester'.

With the help from Masayuki Uemura who Yokoi recruited from Sharp they developed a Beam Gun game. They later used that technology to open up a range for laser shooting clay pigeons. The first range opened up in Kyoto in 1973. In 1974 came 'Wild Gunman' and these image-projection-system games were exported to America and Europe.

The sales collapsed when Japan and the rest of the world encountered oil shortages and economic recession that almost led to Nintendo's downfall.

They had to do something fast and decided to team up with Mitsubishi to build a Video-game system and, in 1977, Nintendo entered the home market with the unveiling of Color TV Game 6, which played six versions of light tennis. It was followed by a more powerful sequel, Color TV Game 15. Nintendo had quietly entered the world of audio-visual entertainment and consumer electronics.

Gunpei got an idea from the booming electronic Calculator market. He thought that why not make a game using this technology with components from Uemura's old company Sharp. Soon after in 1980 the first Game and Watch was born. The problem was that many of these Game and Watches in circulation were illegal bootlegs. The first real million sellers were Donkey Kong and Popeye. Otherwise these games were relatively unsuccessful and Game and Watch was dissolved in the summer of 1985, although some appeared later on.

Nintendo now also started getting involved in Arcade games and with the help of Shigeru Miyamoto, an artist, who invented Donkey Kong, Nintendo had their first super smash hit in 1981. Coleco got the rights to use Donkey Kong in America and MCA Universal tried unsuccessfully to sue Nintendo for infringement on copyright for the movie King Kong.

In 1982 Nintendo bought the franchise to open up the entertainment centre/restaurant Chuck E. Cheese in Japan, where Nintendo could show of its latest technology. They did very well.

In 1983 Nintendo launched the inexpensive Famicom, a Home Videogame Computer with cartridges. After a few problems initially it turned out to be hugely successful. This is when Yamauchi saw how Nintendo's emphasis would conceivably switch from hardware, with its limited market, to software, whose market was without limits. Nintendomania was beginning and Yamauchi was raking in more money than ever. It wiped out all the competitors at that time (Atari 2600, Commodore Max, Intellivision, MSX, Sega SG-1000 etc.). Yamauchi later initiated a licensing program for other companies to create games for Nintendo consoles. This also proved very successful.

Nintendo, trying to get into the American market launched the AVS (Advanced Video System) in 1984, but unfortunately was a flop. They then redesigned it, took away the keyboard, revised the controllers and made the Game cartridges slide in the front instead of the top. They also changed its name to NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and it was launched in New York at Christmas 1985. After a slow start it became a huge success and by 1990 there would be an NES in one of every three American homes (more than 30 million units) and in 1992 Nintendo had sold more than 75 million systems in Japan and America alone.

Between 1985 and 1991 Miyamoto produced eight 'Mario' games and an astounding 60 to 70 million were sold, thus making him the most successful game designer in the world. Super Mario 3 went on to outsell any video game in history, and grossed more than $500 million. One of his secrets was to work with professional musicians, as music was as important as the game itself.

Nintendo launched its first magazine, 'Nintendo Power' in January 1989 and also had its own television shows like: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Captain N: The Game Master and Super Mario World. In May 1993 Nintendo released its first Hollywood feature film played by Bob Hoskins (Apparently Tom Hanks had accepted the role for $5 million, but that was too expensive for Nintendo). Unfortunately Super Mario Bros. was a failure.

Gunpei Yokoi and his 45 man R&D 1 team came up with a device that married the NES and Game & Watch. It was the Game Boy and was launched in 1989. 40,000 units were sold in the first day in America alone and part of its success was due to the game 'Tetris'. Nintendo finally secured the right to sell 'Tetris' after a fierce battle with Atari and Maxwell Communications. The game was Invented by a Russian Mathematician Alexey Pajitnov, who, although it was one of the best selling games ever, didn't get a penny from it. It all went to the Russian Academy of Science. The name 'Tetris' came from the Greek word of four- TETRA. In the end 100 million Game Boys were sold.

In 1989 23% of all toys was spent on Nintendo products and of the 30 top-selling toys in America 25 were Nintendo or Nintendo-related.

The first real threat to Nintendo's Dominance came from the underestimated Sega. It was the 16-bit Genisis and was launched in America in 1990. Sonic the Hedgehog became its big seller. Nintendo responded and launched the Super NES (or SNES) in 1991. Although good sales it never enjoyed the dominance of the NES. This battle was also good for the software licences, who could play one company against the other. This 'War' opened the market for others. Sony announced in the summer of 1991 that it was going to launch the PlayStation, which instead of game cartridges that cost $12-$16 each would have CD:s that would only cost $1-$2 each.

1992 was Nintendo's most successful year yet with sales in America topping $4.7 billion and the Super NES was selling at a rate of twelve units every retail minute, or one in every 5 seconds. Nintendo's stock soared and the company reached nr. 86 on Business Week's Global 1,000 and was worth $14.56 billion. Nintendo had sold 114.2 million hardware systems to 40% of all the homes in Japan, 33% in America and a growing percentage in Europe. This included 64.2 million NES units, 32.2 million Game Boys and 17.8 million SNES systems. It made more money net than IBM, Microsoft, Apple & all movie studio's combined.

In the Autumn of 1993 Nintendo launched the gateway system, a multimedia system for captive audiences in planes, hotels and ships.

1995 Nintendo with Gunpei Yokoi released an innovative yet odd 3D concept system called Virtual Boy. Unfortunately this was not a success. Because of this Gunpei decided to leave Nintendo and start his own toy company called Koto Co. Unfortunately he was killed in a car accident in October 1997.

The PlayStation was originally designed to have a cartridge port that would accept SNES cartridges as well as its CD:s. However this never happened and in the autumn of 1995 it was launched. Nintendo put out its N64 a few months later with the help of the special effects company, silicon graphics . Today the three big (Nintendo, Sony and Sega) are still battling it out. Nintendo with its upcoming GameCube, Sega with its Dreamcast and Sony with the PlayStation 2. Microsoft has also announced its entry with its X-Box.

Shigeru Miyamoto has been called the greatest games-designer of all time and has been described as the Steven Spielberg of the game industry. With game titles like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda Miyamoto has made himself known as one of the most creative and successful game-maker the world has ever known.

Club Nintendo Magazine got the pleasure in meeting Miyamoto in Italy recently and took the opportunity to ask questions about Nintendo GameCube, online gaming and Miyamotos hobbies etc.

Before we started the interview we got to see a new video film with both new and old sequences from Mario Sunshine.  In the video, not only could we see Mario meet old acquaintances like the man-eating flowers, Toads, Yoshi and moving cactuses, but also many new figures, like a mean octopus. In Mario Sunshine Mario uses a water-cannon that he carries on his back. He uses the water-cannon to dissolve colour-stains and to fight enemies in the game. Mario can jump, climb on the fence, bounce against walls, balance himself on ropes and as mentioned, fire his water-cannon. Mario is in such good shape that you want to play straight away.
The Video-tape shows even sequences from up and coming games like Star Fox Adventures, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and the very promising Metroid Prime. A bright future for all Nintendo GameCube players, but how about Legend of Zelda?

Miyamotos interpreter tells us we are not allowed to ask any questions about Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo GameCube, but there will be a playable demo at the games fair: E3 in Los Angeles in May this year. We assume Miyamoto wants to be secretive about this talked about Zelda version and decide to ask questions about the other games.

Delicate question. It's going well. We have no problem with Metroid Prime. We are having phone conferences with Retro Studios every week and we visit them now and then. So we have good control of what is going on with Metroid Prime.

Miyamoto explains that Nintendo has decided that Metroid Prime should have the feel of the original. To be sure about this, they have people from Japan to carefully supervise the development.

I have seen the result and it is a mix that Europeans, Japanese and Americans will like. I really look forward to the finished game. I'm enough involved in the process to be able to test and enjoy the game.

We really wanted to show that Nintendo is a unique company that produces unique games. Therefore we decided to first release titles like Luigi’s Mansion and Pikmin. We strive to develop unique games. Unfortunately it takes time to change concepts so you need patience.

And now, without the time-pressure, I believe Mario Sunshine will be a very complete game.

One of our advantages is that we are going to have many unique, exclusive and high-quality titles to the Nintendo GameCube. Then we must not forget that Nintendo often come with new ideas like for example the interaction between the Game Boy Advance and the GameCube.

Miyamoto mentions other examples where Nintendo was first with something. One was to let four players play on the same console at the same time (Nintendo 64). Another was revolutionising the TV-game-world with Mario 64 and now Nintendo is first to let a portable console (Game Boy Advance) interact with a stationary console (Nintendo GameCube).

Nintendo keeps on creating new forms of entertainment, Miyamoto says.

Also Nintendo works not only with the hardware, but also the software and therefore we know the ins and outs better than companies who only work with the hardware. We work with the complete product.

Nintendo GameCube was created so that the developers can fulfil their dreams. Many developers praise us because you can develop games fast and easy for the GameCube.

We wanted to make games that reach a wider audience, but this doesn't mean that we abandon any specific group, on the contrary we make more games that appeal to more groups. I think we are ready to change the opinion that we only make games for kids.

Miyamoto adds that the Nintendo has signed up with many great game developers. Almost all important third party developers make games for the Nintendo GameCube. Miyamoto mentions for example Resident Evil as one of the exclusive titles.

On-line is only one of the possibilities. We also try other ways to integrate. In the Nordic countries the development of broad-band has progressed with great speed, but many other European countries have not been developed as much. This means that a on-line based Zelda would not sell as well as a non on-line based Zelda. Therefore we would like to be a bit careful with on-line at the moment, but as soon as the net will be available for everybody we will soon use it, Miyamoto promises.

Some games will be more fun on-line, others won't, he adds.

I supervise the game development internally and try to encourage our game designers as much as possible. The development today comes with a lot of stress. The time to play the game should be long and at the same time as the 3D graphics has to be great. The competition is vast. I try to get them to develop a game that is as unique as possible.

Violence is part of the entertainment business and as an adult you choose yourself how much violence you accept in a game. When it comes to a child it is important that the parents set the limits. My parents were often involved in my entertainment when I grew up and they stopped me getting involved in things that weren't suitable.

Unfortunately I haven't, but I'll contact the marketing department at Nintendo and get them to organise some for me, he says laughing.

One of Miyamotos' big hobbies is to look after his garden and it was that which inspired him do create Pikmin. To make the games natural green surroundings believable, Miyamoto interviewed a gardening specialist.

Part of what you can see in Pikmin comes from my own garden, other parts from my meeting with a gardener.

I prefer to play with Link. I like his jump and downward attack.

Many have great ideas, but you need to have the ability to sort out all your ideas and put them together. This is something that can be learnt, so everybody has the chance to become game developers.

I think it is more important to fine tune the ingredients of the game than to fine tune the graphics. The energy should be placed on the game-play.

What titles are you looking forward to at the moment?

The titles I personally am looking forward to at the moment are Mario Sunshine and Zelda for the Nintendo GameCube.

The pirate copying industry all around the world create large losses for all games developers and therefore we chose to invest in our own DVD-format. Because the discs are so small the games will load faster.

The new Mario Cart will obviously include moments that we have not seen before in the Mario Cart series, but more than that I can't tell you.