The Nintendo Co. Ltd began over a century ago as a Japanese playing card company founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Koppai. We have compiled a timeline for you below to help understand how the transition took place from Nintendo being a small playing card company to becoming the videogame giants we know as today.

1889 - Fusajiro founds Nintendo Koppai to sell his Hanafunda cards, these cards were special collectable playing cards. The deck consisted of only 48 cards which were divided into 12 different suits - each of the twelve suits represented a month of the year and had a designated flower to identify it. These cards became a big hit and soon Fusajiro couldn't keep up with demand, he began training a few apprentices - as his company continued to expand and demand continued to rise Fusajiro knew he was onto a good thing.

The name Hanafunda cards roughly translates to mean "Flower Cards".

To this day Nintendo still make Hanafunda cards - now featuring characters from their own hit video game series such as the Super Mario Franchise.

1907 - The beginning of Nintendo's expansion...
Fusajiro introduced western-style playing cards to the Japanese and foreign markets, and they sold successfully! Next Fusajiro negotiated a deal with Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation so that they'd sell trading cards from there stores.

1929 - Following the retirement of company founder Fusajiro the new runner of the company takes over his name being Sekiryo Yamauchi. At this point in time, Nintendo had become the largest playing card company in Japan.

1933 - Nintendo established an unlimited partnership and became known as Yamauchi Nintendo & Co.

1947 - A distribution company called Marufuku Co. Ltd. was formed. This was used to distribute there new styles of cards, such as poker decks.

1949 - Hiroshi Yamauchi took over as president of the rapidly growing company Nintendo. It would've been his father Shikanojo who took over but he ran away when Hiroshi was very young. Leaving him and his mother (named Kimi) alone. A lot of the Nintendo staff sadly held him in disregard. So he removed the people who questioned him and got new staff.

1951 - This year saw the change of the companies name once more, the company would now be known as Nintendo Playing Cards Co. Ltd. by order of Hiroshi, president of the company.

1952 - Hiroshi decided it was time things changed, he ordered for the production facilities to be optimized, he also changed the location of the HQ to a newer building on the Takamatsu-cho street.

1953 - This was the beginning of the era of plastic coated cards, this increased card value and helped keep them in good condition.

1959 - Nintendo and Disney do a deal for nintendo to produce cards featuring disneys characters. With some mass advertising campaigns these sold like hot cakes all over japan. 600,000 packs were sold that same year!

1963 - The company decided expansion was on the cards (haha! the cards, get it.. sorry) they began design and production of toys and games. Nintendo tried to produce a brand of instant rice (who'd have thought it) which failed quite badly, who'd have thought a company that makes such great games would have so much problem making instant rice! Hiroshi then went on to open a 'love hotel' where rooms were paid for by the hour (your guess as good as mine), he was a very frequent customer (despite that he had a wife, and she knew all about his antics but ignored them). He also tried to branch out a taxi company known as "Daia".

1973 - a Laser clay shooting system was created by Nintendo - this would surpass bowling as a hobby/pastime.

1974 - Nintendo developed an image projection system which used a 16mm~ film projector, this was put to use in amusement arcades, they exported these to Europe and the United states.

1977 - Partnered with Mitsubishi Electric, Nintendo began to develop home use video game systems using an Electronic Video Recording player, the microprocessor was introduced to this system a year later.

Nintendo's first video game system was released in 1977, the "Color TV Game 6"

1978 - The first coin operated video game systems began to be produced.

1979 - Coin operated games became a large part of the Nintendo line of products, and they set aside an operations division for it.

1980 - Nintendo of America began selling GAME & WATCH sets in New York, these were watches, of course, that you could play games on.

1981 - Developed the now famed coin operating game known as "Donkey Kong", this particular game was the most sought after one in the industry at the time.

1983 - Nintendo released the Famicom or "Family Computer" this was Nintendos first attempt at a cartridge based videogame system. The system did not take off straight away, not even in Japan - and it wasn't until the release of Super Mario Bros which sold 500,000 units in only two months that they realised the potential of this new system.

The Famicom enjoyed good success in the Japanese market.

1984 - Began to design a unique 2 screen arcade console known as "Vs. System".

1985 - Released a home version of the famed video game system "Family Computer" (Famicon) onto the USA Market, known as the "Nintendo Entertainment System", it included games we still hear of today such as Duck Hunt and Mario Bros. Mario and Luigi are good examples of the innovative and creative characters that helped Nintendo become the worlds favourite video game company as we know it today.

Nintendo re-designed and re-released the Famicom to the rest of the world as the Nintendo Entertainment System which would soon become a part of videogame history and one of the most popular consoles of all time.

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