I'm still not really feeling like politics. So to other news I go – usually tech or movies, which made March 3, 2017 a good day for that kind of news stories. Logan was released, and the Nintendo Switch, the newest console built by the Japanese video game giant, appeared on shelves after months of hype. In general, it would not be really debatable that Nintendo has fallen on hard times when compared to other industry giants like Sony, Microsoft, and even Valve. But there was a time, not that long ago, where Nintendo ruled the video game market. For a company that went through countless incarnations and products to becoming the world leader in video games until the early 2000s, Nintendo has managed to stay afloat despite the challenges it faces. And here's how they did it.

Oddly enough, the story of a video game company begins in turn of the 20^th century Japan. Founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, “Nintendo Koppai” as it was called, produced playing cards known as Hanafuda. These cards were very different from Western playing cards, featuring images of flowers (the games played are based on images, not numbers), as typical decks of cards were banned in Japan because they were believed to promote gambling. The card industry continued well into the 20^th century, with the handcrafted cards were being used for countless games, now widely popular in Japan. By 1951, the “Nintendo Playing Card” company was producing thousands of cards a year, but still faced the stigma of possible gambling. To keep themselves safe, Nintendo partnered with Disney to produce licensed cards, the first of their kind in Japan. This increased Nintendo's income exponentially, and by 1963, was officially named “Nintendo.”

At this point, Nintendo was attempting to find other venues in case the cards stopped selling. Experiencing countless failures, including a taxi service and a “love hotel” chain (hotels designed to service couples looking to get away for the night), Nintendo eventually ended up starting to make small toys by the end of the 1960s. In 1971, the first mainstream video game, Computer Space, was released on an arcade cabinet, but the concept did not catch on until 1972 when an American company, Atari, produced Pong. That same year, Magnavox put the first home video game console on the market. Nintendo, then still a toy company, worked with Magnavox to create a gun accessory for the console (not unlike their future NES Zapper). Nintendo released their own Japan-exclusive console five years later, called the Color TV-Game 6 (the “6” representing how many Pong-style games were built-in). It was a major success in the test runs and early releases that just a week later, the Color TV-Game 15 came out. Continuing to produce these consoles over the next few years, Nintendo hired Shigeru Miaymoto as a junior designer. However, by 1980, the console line had ran its course, and it quietly ended.

Nintendo adapted hit arcade games to the first handheld system, the Game and Watch – the games were still permanently built into the device. In 1981, Miaymoto's first game was out to the cabinets, being the now famous Donkey Kong. The game was the first worldwide success for the company, leading to the two-player arcade Mario Bros., also created by Miaymoto. By 1983, due to the failure of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, the video game market took a massive hit in America. Meanwhile, Nintendo developed a cartridge-based console, not unlike Atari's systems. The original designs failed, and the games weren't memorable – until the crash and a redesign adjusted and solidified the “Famicom” console. Over the next couple of years, Nintendo was trying to figure out how to keep their console from falling to the same pit Atari found themselves in. They developed the “Nintendo Seal of Quality” as to ensure the buyer that what they were purchasing was a real, fully-functional Nintendo product. Now dubbed the “Nintendo Entertainment System,” a trial run was produced for stores in New York City. The console came bundled with a controller, a light gun, the robotic second player R.O.B. (available in specially marked boxes), and a cartridge containing Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. From there, the NES proved to be another big hit, and it was mass-produced.

The Nintendo Entertainment System brought back the thought-dead video game industry in America, with Japanese hits like The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Ice Climber, and Super Mario Bros. being just as successful here. Of course, there was the bootleg cartridges, such as the infamous Bible Adventures. But overall, the quality control of the company was unmatched at this point in time. Competitors entered the market, such as Commodore and yet another Japanese company, Sega – the latter of which became the strongest rival of Nintendo. Throughout the late 80s, Nintendo always found themselves steps ahead of the others – by the end of the decade, the Game Boy was released as the first handheld console with interchangeable games. In 1993, the NES was replaced by the stronger, faster, and even sleeker model, the Super Nintendo. Among the new product of the 1990s was Pokemon, a groundbreaking Game Boy game that allowed trading and even battling between players using the newly released “Link Cable.” The Nintendo 64 followed at the turn of the millennium, creating new standards for 3D gaming, with many of the games considered some of the greatest ever made (including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye). This was followed by the GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and most recently, the Nintendo Switch.

Despite now being seen as a more family-friendly and less innovative company than the major competitors, Nintendo still continues to put their all into every product. From selected Wii U games being able to be played on the touchpad to the Switch, a console that can be plugged into the TV, brought onto a table, or on the go as a handheld, without loosing data (battery and screen resolution notwithstanding). From humble origins as a card company to having their own exclusive store in New York City, Nintendo has formed an empire of video games and creative exclusive titles. It looks like the Switch will be the new leading system for the company, perhaps bringing them back to being a true fighter in the console wars. Regardless of opinion now, the video game market would not be what it is today without playing cards, a licensing deal, and an experiment in home arcade gaming – all under the logo and name of Nintendo.