Nintendo Facts

Did you know that...

...Nintendo was founded in 1889 under the name Nintendo Koppai, and that they made playing cards?

...Nintendo started research on video games as early as 1975?

...Nintendo produced and sold the Magnovox Oddysey?

...the workers of Nintendo didn't like the idea behind Donkey Kong as an arcade game when the concept was introduced to them? It sold 65,000 units.

...Nintendo began work on it's own cartridge based system in 1979?

...all of the first issue Famicom's were recalled, costing the company half-a-million U.S. dollars?

...when the NES hit the US market, Nintendo outsold it's competition 10 to 1?

...Nintendo is the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners?

I found these facts and others in the Wikipedia.

a lot of those are new to me, although I did know about them making playing cards in the 1800s, as well as a few others. thanks for the info, Roth.

I wonder if there's a 19th century Pokemon floating around somewhere.

I think I read something one time that Nintendo's first home console was a coffee table sized machine that played the board game "othello".
Or some game like that.

Interesting stuff.

I think I read something one time that Nintendo's first home console was a coffee table sized machine that played the board game "othello".
Or some game like that.

Interesting stuff.

this is the oldest I can find.

followed by this.

and just for fun, our beloved NES

Did you know that Hiroshi Yamauchi also owned a love hotel chain?

And they had a taxi corporation named Daiya.

This is good stuff! Can anyone else find any other interesting information on the company Nintendo and it's history?

Nintendo's playing cards really began to sell when they made a Contract with Disney and printed Mickey Mouse on it.
At first their playing cards were used most by organized crime (Yakuza) people.

I have some sets of Nintendo hanafuda cards (man, they're expensive, but very cool).

I could take photos, but I don't have webspace.
Perhaps I can send you some pics by mail. I'll notice you when I take them.
(At first I must search for the cards. They are still in some big box I brought from Japan)

Email me the pics and I'll put them online. I may setup some kind of thing for people to put up photos and such. It seems to be a common need among forum participants to share with the group...

--
Derek

Thanks.
I will shoot some photos today and send them right to you.
What resolution would be good?

Thanks.
I will shoot some photos today and send them right to you.
What resolution would be good?

Something web-friendly. That's typically 800x600 or less. If you have a lot, I can run them through a proggie to create thumbnails and index pages.

--
Derek

I sent you 4 photos, not so many. I could make a lot more.

Did you get them?

I sent you 4 photos, not so many. I could make a lot more.

Did you get them?

Yep-- just found them in the junk folder, so I pulled them out and flagged them. I'll put these up tonight. Thanks.

--
Derek

Sometimes you can find the cartgames and even boardgames on Ebay.Really oldschool stuff before their game era,those are cool facts to read Roth.

I sent you 4 photos, not so many. I could make a lot more.

Did you get them?

These pics are online:

Thanks.

--
Derek

Yey!
I have an own folder on the NES Files.
So everybody look for the photos.

Wow, those cards are pretty cool! Is there a set theme to them? I can't read Japanese

That Mario 0-1 is pretty weird! I wonder if it was an unfinished level that just wasn't pulled out of the original cart? You would think somebody would've stumbled onto it, though.

maybe 0-1 can only be found in the japanese release of the game...

Should I have been the first to find this? COOL!

As far as I know Nintendo has now three different series of the cards. They all have the same symbols on it, but the packaging is different.

One series on the photos is called 大統領 (daitouryou),which means "president" and the other one is 花の都 (hana no miyako), the "capital of flowers".

There are also hanafuda cards from other companies, e.g. the 100Yen shops (everything there sells for 100Yen. Cool thing!) have their own versions.

The pics are from the Chinese version.
I also tried the European NES ROM and it was the same. And it only works with drag and drop. I can't do it when I open the NES ROM with the open file menu.

What version of NESTOPIA are you using?

100Yen, that's like $0.10 wow, I need to go to Japan

Sorry to disappoint you, but 100 Yen are about 1$.
Still not bad I think.

My NESTOPIA version is 1.09

Does everybody know that the Sony Playstation came out of a failed deal between Nintendo and Sony?

Here's a short article.

Does everybody know that the Sony Playstation came out of a failed deal between Nintendo and Sony?

Here's a short article.

yup, I said it here:

Oops!
Sorry, didn't see that.
But now it's in the right thread.

wow i knew some of those facts but dude they own most of the seatle mariners interesting

About Nintendo's hanafuda cards again.
They have a site about it on the official homepage.
Look here for some pics.

Ah... I still love the way those things look. They have a nice style about them. They almost look like the things that you think about when thinking of Japanese culture.

It's nice to have someone on the boards that speaks Japanese, I would have never found that site!

Does everybody know that the Sony Playstation came out of a failed deal between Nintendo and Sony?

Here's a short article.

yup, I said it here:

wow really i never knew that. interesting how things happen like that isnt it

Good to be of help.
If anybody has questions or something regarding Japanese stuff, just ask.

That's why this thread was made.

for more information on the Atari/Nintendo deal, read here:

seemed they got quite far into discussions, I'd like to know exactly at what point it fell through.

I think money was the point. $$$$$

Nintendo fact:

Mario's and Luigi's surname is Mario.

Oh man, I thought EVERYBODY knew that Nintendo was founded in 1889! I learned this like over 15 years ago!

hahahah

Yeah, I think everybody knew it... you never know though!

There are ALWAYS people who DO NOT know that.
If you want a complete thing you also have to mention the basics.