TITLE
How Gunpei Yokoi Reinvented Nintendo
AUTHOR
Matt Alt
PUBLICATION
Waypoint: Games By Vice
YEAR
2020
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
Nintendo: one of the world’s top fantasy-smiths, creator of products with truly planetary pull, from Link’s and Mario’s many outings to the newest horizon of Animal Crossing, a video game released in the middle of a lethal pandemic that somehow managed to sell twenty-two bazillion copies anyway. (Okay, twenty-two million as of this August, but still.)Also Nintendo: gimmicky toys, instant noodles, a taxi service, and a by-the-hour “love hotel” in downtown Kyoto.
Nintendo didn’t always have the Donkey Kong-sized reputation it enjoys today. You might know that Nintendo can trace its origin back to 1889, when a mom-and-pop card company called “Nintendo Karuta” launched in a Kyoto suburb. This Nintendo was a humble purveyor of paper hanafuda (literally, “flower cards”) used in a traditional game of chance. But how did Nintendo transform from a supplier for gamblers into the family-friendly pop-cultural powerhouse it is today?
COMPANIES MENTIONED
Nintendo
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Gunpei Yokoi
PLATFORMS MENTIONED
Game & Watch
Game Boy
ALTERNATE LINK
Archived Copy @ Internet Archive