Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (任天堂株式会社) is a video game console manufacturer and software company. Nintendo's association with Sega goes back to 1979 when Nintendo created a licensed clone of Sega's Head On arcade game titled Head On N. In addition to this, Sega was one of Nintendo's competitors in the home game console market before the discontinuation of the Dreamcast.

Founding and early game history
Nintendo was founded as a playing card company by Fusajiro Yamauchi (山内 房治郎) on September 23, 1889. Based in Kyoto, the business produced and marketed Hanafuda cards. The handmade cards soon became popular, and Yamauchi hired assistants to mass-produce cards to satisfy demand. Fusajiro departed from the company in 1929, leaving Sekiryo Kaneda (金田 積良) in charge. Sekiryo was married to Fusajiro's daughter, Tei Yamauchi, and the two had a daughter named Kimi Yamauchi (山内 君).

In 1949, the company adopted the name Nintendo Karuta Co., Ltd. (任天堂骨牌株式会社). The company did business as The Nintendo Playing Card Co. outside Japan. Hiroshi Yamauchi (山内 溥) took over the company after his father, Shikanojo Inaba (稲葉 鹿之丞), left him and his mother Kimi.

In 1963, Yamauchi renamed Nintendo Karuta Co., Ltd. to Nintendo Co., Ltd. The company then began to experiment in other areas of business using newly injected capital during the period of time between 1963 and 1966. Nintendo eventually found success in the toy industry starting with the Ultra Hand, which was created by Gunpei Yokoi.

Nintendo's first venture into the video gaming industry was securing rights to distribute the Magnavox Odyssey video game console in Japan in 1974. Nintendo began to produce its own hardware in 1977, with the Color TV-Game home video game consoles. Four versions of these consoles were produced, each including variations of a single game.

Association with Sega
In 1975, Nintendo moved into the video arcade game industry with EVR Race, designed by Genyo Takeda. Several more games followed, including an official clone of Sega's Head On (1979) arcade game titled Head On N (1979). Several of Sega's arcade games would be ported to Nintendo's consoles by various companies, and Sega would go on to create arcade games with Nintendo's IP. On July 15, 1983, Nintendo launched the Family Computer (Famicom) game console in Japan, alongside ports of Donkey Kong, Popeye, and Donkey Kong Jr. In 1985, a cosmetically reworked version of the system known outside Japan as the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES, launched in North America. Sega launched three systems to compete with the Famicom/NES - the 8-bit SG-1000 (the same day as the Famicom launch) and Sega Mark III/Master System (on October 20, 1985), and the 16-bit Mega Drive/Sega Genesis (On October 29, 1988). The first two systems were not able to reach the sales the Famicom/NES had, and launch sales of the Mega Drive in Japan were slowed by the release of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. 3 six days prior. In 1988, Gunpei Yokoi and his team at Nintendo R&D1 conceived the new Game Boy handheld system, with the purpose of merging their Game & Watch system's portability along with the NES's cartridge interchangeability. Nintendo released the Game Boy in Japan on April 21, 1989, and in North America on July 31, 1989. Sega would later release their handheld system, the Game Gear, on October 6, 1990 in Japan and in April 1991 in other countries. While the Game Boy could only display black-and-white images, the Game Gear could display full color images. The Game Gear could not outsell the Game Boy despite this. In 1989, Nintendo announced plans to release the successor to the Famicom, the Super Famicom. Based on a 16-bit processor, Nintendo boasted significantly superior hardware specifications of graphics, sound, and game speed over the original 8-bit Famicom. The Super Famicom was finally released relatively late to the market in Japan on November 21, 1990, and released as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in North America on August 23, 1991 and in Europe in 1992. Sonic the Hedgehog for the Mega Drive was released in North America two months before the SNES' launch in the country. In September 1994, Nintendo, Sega, Electronic Arts, Atari, Acclaim, Philips, and 3DO approached the United States Senate and demanded a ratings system for video games to be enforced, which prompted the decision to create the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). In 1996, Nintendo released the Ultra 64 as the Nintendo 64 in Japan and North America. The console was later released in Europe and Australia in 1997. With its market shares slipping to the Sega Saturn and partner-turned-rival Sony's PlayStation, Nintendo revitalized its brand by launching a $185 million marketing campaign centered around the "Play it Loud" slogan. The Sega Saturn would go on to outsell the Nintendo 64 in Japan. The successor to the Game Boy, the Game Boy Color, was released in 1998. Sega released one title for the system in December 2001.
 * Arcade titles
 * The Famicom/NES vs. the SG-1000, the Sega Mark III/Master System, and the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis
 * The Game Boy vs. the Game Gear
 * The Super Famicom/SNES vs. the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis
 * The founding of the ESRB
 * The Nintendo 64 vs. the Sega Saturn
 * Sega games on Nintendo systems

On March 21, 2001, Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance. Sega's Chu-Chu Rocket would be one of the system's launch titles. The GameCube was released on September 14, 2001, and Sega's Super Monkey Ball would be one of the system's launch titles. When Yamauchi retired on May 24, 2002, Satoru Iwata became first Nintendo president who was unrelated to the Yamauchi family through blood or marriage.

In 2003, Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance SP, a redesign of the Game Boy Advance that featured a clamshell design that would later be used in Nintendo's DS and 3DS handheld video game systems.

List of relevant games

 * Head On N (1979)
 * F-Zero AX (2003)
 * Rhythm Tengoku (2007)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (2007)
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (2009)
 * Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (2011)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (2013)
 * Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (2015)
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
 * Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (2019)

Internal links

 * Entry on the Nintendo wiki