Video Games
According to the American Physical Society the first video game was invented in October 1958. It was actually created by a physicist and was a tennis game. The scientist also worked on the atomic bomb. He found the whole thing boring and never patened the idea for the game or videogames. He was more interested in nucleor weapons apparently.
Over a decade later simple commercial video games entered the market and soon gained popularity. Including my favorite video game company: Nintendo.
Nintendo was originally founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally made playing cards covered with pictures of flowers and animals. This type of playing card is called Hanafuda and are used to play games such as koi-koi. These cards were used in gambling and as Japan started crimalizing gambling more and more Nintendo capitalised on the market and became the main producer of these cards. After a short dive into childrens toys (most famusly the ultra-hand) they started producing video games and eventually became the huge video game company they are.
They started out their fame with the nintendo entertainment system. This system was famously packaged with a two in one game cartridge containing Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. Mario soon became one of the most famous video game ids of all time. Super Mario Bros was a side scroller / platformer were you try to get past enemies and reach the end of levels in order to eventually fight the boss (Bowser) and save Princess Peach then named Princess Toadstool. The success of this game and Pokemon helped make Nintendo the giant they are today.
Later on they made a sequal console to the Nintendo Entertainment Sytem called the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This system contained sequal games and repeats of the NES games.
After previous success Nintendo made some consoles that although popular didn't sell as well as the previous consoles. The Nintendo 64 was a breakthrough in gaming, named after the amount of pixels it has: it introduced a 3d game to the system called Mario 64. This game is now considered a retro classic but some players were confused about what to do in the game since it didn't have the straithforward direction some gamers were used to. Then they created the GameCube which also didn't sell well by Nintendo standards. The GameCube had some great games but again alienated the more casual audience.
While Nintendo was struggling with their home consoles, they were succeding greatly with the handheld market which has always been Nintendo's greatest moneymaker. Starting with the gameboy and ending with the 3ds Nintendo made games such as Tetris and BrainAge that appealed to a wide audience of people of all ages. People who had never played a video game before picked up the console to do crosswords on, and more hardcore gamers played platformers and adventure games like the port of Super Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros.
Possibly learning from the success of their handhelds: Nintendo created the Nintendo Wii. The Nintendo Wii used motion controls in the controlers allowing the system to play sports and fitness games along with some pretty unique party games. The console became a huge success especially for those who wanted to play multiplayer with friends and family.
The successor to the Wii: The Wii U was one of Nintendo's biggest failures. The name made people belive that it was just a very expensive accessory to the Wii and the control scheme made the games (which themselves were great): difficult to play and less accessible.
This brings us to our present day. Nintendo combined their handheld and home console market by creating a combo of the two called the Nintendo Switch. This console is a huge success because of that idea. The console is less accessible than the Wii to new gamers but contains hit games such as Mario Oddessy and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
With all the exciting creations of Nintendo I certainly cannot wait to see what they come up with next.