Nintendo Game Center

Nintendo started out making playing cards in 1889. For decades it was business as usual. It wasn't until the 1960's that things really started getting interesting. The founder's grandson realized that Nintendo could only go so far in the playing card business. He decided to shake things up a bit and went fishing for Nintendo's next big thing.

Few people realize that before this massive gaming giant wowed the world with the Nintendo Entertainment System they used Nintendo as a brand to launch several completely non-gaming related ventures. Would you, in your wildest dreams associate Nintendo with say, a taxi company? How about a vacuum cleaner or a Japanese "love hotel" where the rooms were rented by the hour? Me either, but we'd be wrong. I suppose we should just call it a "mid-life crisis" or simply chalk it up to the fact that it all happened in the 60's.

I don't know if there was some sort of intervention but the 70's brought about more practical decisions for Nintendo. Rather than venture so far from its roots, Nintendo went back to the decades- long experience in playing cards and stretched out into the world of toy making. Like most toy companies in the 70's, Nintendo used video games as a means of potential growth. Unlike most others, Nintendo's video game pursuits actually paid off.

Nintendo's past attracts both toy collectors and video game collectors alike. For the latter the pursuit starts with Nintendo's earliest "Color TV Game" consoles from the 1970's. But for the toy collector with a penchant for the Nintendo brand there is an interesting list of additional goodies to track down. In the ‘tribute to Gunpei Yokoi-san' video below you can see such treasures as a vintage Duck Hunt game, the Ultra Machine, the Custom Gunman and more. Enjoy!

Nintendo Video

Nintendo Resources

• Nintendo's official corporate website
• Nintendo's page on Wikipedia
• Cute story of a collector's acquisition of a Nintendo Ele-Conga
• Nintendo Power Magazine