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Nintendo

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Nintendo logo
Nintendo logo

Nintendo Corporation, Limited (任天堂; Ninten is translated roughly as "leave luck to heaven" or "in heaven's hands," do is a common suffix for names of shops or laboratories; TSE NTDOY) was originally founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. Over the years, it became a video game



1995-2001

File:N64-3.jpg
Nintendo 64

In 1995, Nintendo found themselves in a similar competitive situation. Competitor Sega introduced their 32-bit Saturn, while newcomer Sony introduced the 32-bit PlayStation. Sony's fierce marketing campaigns ensued, and it started to cut into Nintendo and Sega's market share. In September 1996, Nintendo introduced their third console, the Nintendo 64 (N64). Nintendo chose to remain with the cartridge medium, a surprising move especially considering their competition's choice of emerging CD-ROM storage mediums. The first 3D Mario game was introduced as Super Mario 64, which has been the archetype for almost all 3D console games to this day. The N64 managed to secure a solid #2 spot under the #1 Sony PlayStation.

2001-present

File:S11 Video GameCube kl.jpg
Nintendo GameCube

By 2001 the next-generation consoles were being released. Sega had introduced the Dreamcast in 1999, Sony answered with the PlayStation 2 in late 2000, and Microsoft joined the fray with the Xbox in late 2001. In November of 2001, Nintendo released their fourth console, the GameCube, continuing with their popular high quality franchise titles, such as, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid, Super Smash Bros., and a new series called Pikmin. Currently, the GameCube is in second place in total worldwide sales ahead of the Xbox and tied for second in the U.S. market.

Handheld consoles

Introduced in 1989, and continuing strong today, were Nintendo's portable Game Boy systems. With several evolutions, including Pocket, Color, Advance, and Advance SP versions, the Game Boy is the single most successful, and oldest video game platform still in production. The Game Boy has been known for putting over a dozen other portable systems out of business (Including Nintendo's other attempts such as the Virtual Boy). Due to low battery consumption, durability, and a library of over a thousand games, the Game Boy has been on the top of the portable console food chain since its inception and made Nintendo the domineer of the handheld console market.

Slowing sales of the Game Boy were assisted by the introduction of the Pokémon game, which to call him, "I will pick up at once" and discuss buying the company. Gates tried in the late 1990s to acquire the company but Yamauchi turned him down. Rumors started coming out that Microsoft was buying Nintendo, but these rumors were confirmed to be false.

In late September 2004, Hiroshi Yamauchi announced at a press conference in Kyoto that Nintendo will possibly make a new division; an animation studio that will most likely produce anime. Yamauchi stated that "video games are very similar to films".

Hardware

  • Game & Watch
  • Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom for short) Japanese console.
    • Famicom Disk System Japan only) - A large number of stores in Japan had "Disk Writers" with games stored in them that could be downloaded to a non-standard floppy disk for ¥2,*Virtual Boy - The Virtual Boy used a red monochrome 3D virtual reality like system. Fewer than two dozen games were released for it in the United States.
  • Game Boy Color- A version of the Game Boy with a simple colored screen.
  • Nintendo 64 - Originally the Ultra 64, this system saw Nintendo fully embrace 3D game worlds. It was also the last home console that was cartridge-based.
    • 64DD - Only released in Japan, this add-on system's games are on re-writeable magnetic disks. Games released include a paint and 3D construction package, F-Zero X Expansion Kit, for creating new F-Zero X tracks and a few others. A complete commercial failure, many speculated that Nintendo released it only to save face after promoting it pre-emptively for years.
  • Game Boy Advance - The new, more advanced version of the Game Boy, with the same processing power as earlier full-sized consoles.
  • Nintendo GameCube - Nintendo's current mini disk system; uses a proprietary 1.2Gb DVD medium.
  • Triforce - An arcade system based on Nintendo GameCube hardware, developed in partnership with Sega and Namco.
  • Game Boy Advance SP - a fold-up version of the Game Boy Advance with a frontlit screen. The SP stands for Special Project.
  • Game Boy Player - An adapter for playing Game Boy games on the GameCube.
  • Nintendo DS - Forthcoming dual-screen portable game console.
  • Project Revolution - (code name) - Nintendo plans to release its next video game console in late 2005.

Nintendo's chief designer, and video game producer, is Shigeru Miyamoto. Mr. Miyamoto is largely known for creating Nintendo's most popular games. Miyamoto is considered by many to be the most talented video game developer in the industry and one of the most influential in history. He is known for several franchise titles, such as Donkey Kong, Mario, Zelda, F-zero, Mario Kart, Starfox, and Pikmin.

Nintendo Power is a monthly news and strategy magazine from Nintendo. The first issue published was July/August of 1988 spotlighting the NES game Super Mario Bros. 2. They are still being published today with over 180 issues.

Software and franchises

Franchises that were established on Nintendo systems

In addition to its notable first party franchises, Nintendo consoles were where a number of popular console franchises began.

Franchises established on the NES

Franchises established on the Game Boy

Franchises established on the SNES

Franchises established on the N64

Franchises established on the GBA

Franchises established on the GameCube

Arcade games released by Nintendo

Policies

Emulation

Nintendo is known for a "no tolerance" stance against emulation of its video games and consoles. It claims that mask work copyright protects its games from the exceptions that United States copyright law otherwise provides for backing up software legally. Until mid-2002, the company also claimed that emulators running on personal computers have no use other than to play pirated video games, contested by some who say these emulators have been used to develop and test independently produced software, albeit on Nintendo's platforms.

The revival of the NES and SNES through emulation has gradually settled down, and NES and SNES ROMs are actually getting easier to find. However, Nintendo's opposition remains, due largely to its tendency to re-release old games within new ones, as with Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, and the The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition, as well as with the re-release of many older games for the Game Boy Advance Classic NES Series. The enhanced remake idea sometimes curbs the need for emulation of NES quality games on the Nintendo GameCube.

Censorship

For many years Nintendo of America also had strict censorship regulations on its games, and had a long list of objects, situations, and phrases that were not allowed to appear in licensed games on Nintendo systems. Among the banned subject matter was the appearance of excessive blood and gore, nudity and sexual content, religious content, swearing, and smoking. This zero tolerance policy, praised and championed by U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, was popular with parents, but unpopular with older gamers who felt they were being "babied". Upon the advent of the ESRB video game ratings system in 1994, the censorship practices were lessened. However, minor changes to games being localized for the U.S. and European markets are still made on occasion; these are largely left to the individual developer's discretion.

See also

External links

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