Nintendo- from cards to video game dominance

How does a Japanese card company become one of the biggest companies the world?

In chapter 3 of Mix Tapes and Stuff, we meet Orville as he plays a video game at home. The big home video game fad of the very early 1980s had passed. Atari had become passé by 1986 when Mix Tapes and Stuff takes place. Orville has the home system that will bring video games back. 

Nintendo started in 1889 as a card making company in Japan. They were successful in that field for many decades, but things were changing in the world and the new management wanted to be innovative. They bought out the Magnavox Odyssey system in 1975. Home video games were just starting at that time so the games were limited and rudimentary. 

In the next ten years, they hired videogame designers, computer makers, and production designers to make a new system. They also had time to learn what happened to other videogame makers. 

The first home video game fad began in the late 70s with a myriad of video game systems. There was Odyseey, Intellivision, Atari, and Tandy. The early systems came with a few games programmed in the console. Within a few years, the systems became able to read individual game cartridges with new games. This opened each player to play hundreds of new games not just a few pre-programmed games. These companies wanted their systems to only play their games. Very few companies existed that made games for a system that didn't make their own systems. 

Nintendo watched these companies splice up what market there was until they drove themselves into bankruptcy. They released their big gaming system in 1985 in America. The Nintendo NES came out and began a new video game world. 

The NES played cartridges for different games. 

The main component was grey. The hand controllers were different in that they had no joystick. A player controlled movement with button with arrows. 

The first hit for this new system was Super Mario Brothers released in 1985. This game was so popular it spawned other games for the next thirty years. The video games became so successful that Mom and Pop  video stores rented games. 

Nintendo went on to make Gameboys, the Wii, and other games. They continue to a big part of the video game world. One can still find the NES and video games on EBay. 

Sources:

The Nintendo Official page: www.nintendo.com

wikipedia

Ebay: www.ebay.com

http://www.amazon.com/Mix-Tapes-Stuff-JJ-Lair-ebook/dp/B00KFTKCKE