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SINCE IT WAS originally founded in 1889, Nintendo has come a long way since its humble beginnings.
The company is celebrating a significant milestone as it celebrates its 125th anniversary today, but while it’s best known for making videogames and consoles, that has only been a small part of its history.
When it first started, Nintendo mainly produced and sold a playing card game called Hanafuda. The hand-made card game became popular and it still makes them to this day.
In the 1950s, it struck a deal with Disney to produce special cards featuring their characters to help drive sales.
When the 1960s arrived, the company began experimenting with other areas setting up a taxi company, a TV network, a food company, a love hotel and other ventures.
It eventually moved into videogames during the 1970s where it worked on arcade games and released the Game & Watch series, its first handheld device, although it was still waiting for a major hit.
It was 1981 that saw the company develop into the entity we all know today. A student product developer named Shigeru Miyamoto, who was hired by the company four years previously, designed Donkey Kong, which became a huge success and gave it a foothold in the market.
After that, it launched the Fanicom in 1983 which was later redesigned and released as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Games like the Super Mario Bros series, Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, and Castlevania made it a hit.
In 1988, the company made its proper venture into the handheld market with the release of the Game Boy. Bundled with Tetris and with a longer battery life compared to rivals like the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx, it too became a hit. It was another ten years before it released the Game Boy Colour.
The 90s was a golden age for the company as two of its most popular consoles were released. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released in 1991 and brought games like Star Fox, Super Mario Kart, Pilotwings, Super Metroid, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and F-Zero to the masses.
In 1996, the Nintendo 64 was released although its hold on the market began to slip a little as it competed against the original Playstation, but games like Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye and Wave Race 64 meant it was still popular.
The company faltered in the early 2000s as the Gamecube, despite having games like Super Mario Sunshine, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Beyond Good and Evil, and Killer 7, struggled to compete against the PS2, Xbox and Sega Dreamcast. The lack of games available at launch didn’t help matters either.
The company changed direction with the release of the Wii in 2006. It introduced motion controls through the Wiimote, offering casual and fitness games (the latter was done through the balance board), and the new direction rejuvenated the company.
Wii Sports, which was initially included with the console, became the second best-selling game of all time, behind Tetris.
The release of the Nintendo DS, its dual-screen handheld, also helped matters.
The company has never been afraid to take risks, even if those attempts failed miserably. The Virtual Boy, for example, was its attempt to bring 3D gaming to the masses, but the red-coloured screen for each of the user’s eye brought migraines instead.
Despite a slow start, the Wii U is starting to come into its own after being released in 2012. One of its main additions was the GamePad, a controller which features a touchscreen and can be used to play games on the TV or away from it.
A lower price compared to the PS4 and Xbox One and the release of games like Super Mario 3D World, Wind Waker HD, and the upcoming Super Smash Bros and Bayonetta 2 means things are looking optimistic, although the company is still making a significant loss.
Despite the problems it has faced and the claims that it was doomed, the company managed to overcome whatever obstacles it faced by taking risks and doing things differently.
While it’s currently making a loss, it still has enough cash reserves to keep it afloat for another 38 years at the very least so whatever happens, Nintendo certainly isn’t going away any time soon.
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This is result of letting a cult like group involve into our way of life support by a blind and deaf pc brigade. It to late for change Ireland has little hope and maybe some other countries. The UK is finished it be very hard task to undo what has grown there.
@: you mean Christianity?
@: are you talking about jehovahs? Mormons?
Actually they are not that bad once you get to know them
Admittedly they have some odd customs with blood and marriage and beliefs ;-)
Returning Islamic State Jihadis popping back to receive their benefits.
Send them back to their Islamic state and let e SAA, Kurds, Syriacs, Yazidi, Iraqis finish them off….https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/36225430/yazidi-children-held-by-islamic-state-found-in-hospital-basement-in-mosul/#page1
More Rats leaving the sinking ship that is isis . There’ll be plenty more of this type of arrest in the coming weeks , however Mayor Khan will try and get them housed in Chelsea , in those new 1.8 million pound council houses .
Don’t be daft. Sadiq Khan’s alright. And the last thing he wants is more terror tearing through the streets of London.
@Mick Tobin: Don’t be daft ? This is the man who wanted the president of the United States banned because he had put a temporary ban on 6 countries , while the mayor himself when he was a lawyer defended Islamic militants , pushed for Louis Farakhan to be allowed into the country , even though he had called for a genocide of white people , had shared speaking platforms with convicted islamic terrorists , has spoken at muslim meetings where isis banners have been flown , called moderate muslims ”Uncle Toms” and says the Met Police do not have enough funds to follow returned Jihadis , even though he took money and personnel from their resources to set up a unit to chase down people who said things against islam on social media platforms .
@Ken Hayden: I will look into this, but contexts do matter. The mayor of Rotterdam, also a muslim, has also been accused of sharing the stage with people with radical ideas, but he in fact told them to p*** off elsewhere if they didn’t like it here.
Khan is right to shun divisions in the city, and my feeling’s been that this has been behind what he’s done, at least recently.
But sure, it pays to be critical, and I’ve taken note of what you just said. However, I now need to badly go and play Irish tunes in the pub, so I bid you goodbye for now.
@Ken Hayden: defended Islamic militants? Can you clarify whether that was as a lawyer or as a citizen? Also can you clarify that it wasn’t perpetrators of 9/11 as was previously stated on this site?
@Mick Tobin: He was a legal consultant for Zacarius Moussaoui , the shoe bomber .
There are links here to various news reports and video clips , if you follow them you will open up a trail . I will give you two links , one about Khan and the other about the Quilliam foundation .
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-27/london-mayors-ties-extremism-call-commitment-fighting-terror-question
https://medium.com/@jonasspooner/blowback-in-manchester-and-why-quilliam-must-be-investigated-f9472be1f26c
@Ken Hayden: In the second link you will also find a connection to Irish Jihadis . I probably couldn’t say the name here , but you will find it .
Why even entertain them. Round up their family and put them all on a flight back to where they came from. Free flight home, everyone is a winner. Especially the UK taxpayer.
@KingBen: put their families back on flights to Leicester and Birmingham?
@Richard Lippy Collins: no, they are not from Leicester or Birmingham. I’d suggest the middle east somewhere, doesn’t really matter. Just out of the country that welcomed them and gave them free houses, education, health and opportunities.
@KingBen: yep,lock stock,and barrel,,,total
Muslim and western values are not compatible we must stand up and defend our native cultures before Islamic domination prevails . it’s simple, Europe must wake up. Many parts of France,Britain,Holland and Belgium it’s too already too late . Ultimately it’s a numbers game, we must not ever allow what’s happened in Germany(2015) to happen elsewhere or else it’s all over
There should be super severe law for that, if found connected to terrorist cell they should have UK citizenships scraped and sent back to Turkey, never allow them back. With law like this all terrorists to be will think twice.
Those pesky atheists at it again…. Oh wait
Islam is to spread in every country and this is meant to be a good thing….. come on cop on, their way of living not suited for western life sure most of them say it themselves, only one solution if you want to fit in adjust to the country you choose to live in and respect our Christian value and our country, nobody’s saying convert but just remembered your choose to move to Christian Europe, and stop playing the race card when you don’t get your ways….
have your say