While it’s tempting to assume that Nintendo’s desire for innovation is a recent trend, borne out of the company’s need to fight Sony and Microsoft and forged in systems such as the Wii and DS, the Japanese veteran actually has something of a track record when it comes to dreaming up groundbreaking interface ideas.
The recently-announced Nintendo Switch can be seen as the culmination of the Kyoto firm’s handiwork, but the DNA of this forthcoming hybrid console – as well as others which have preceded it over the past 30 years – can be traced back to a time before video games even existed.
Nintendo began life over 100 years ago, manufacturing Japanese hanafuda playing cards, or ‘flower cards’. When Hiroshi Yamauchi, grandson of founder Fusajiro Yamauchi, took control of the business in 1949 he decided to branch out into other sectors. These included a taxi service, a chain of hotels in which amorous couples could spend a short amount of time, and even a food company.
All of those ventures proved unsuccessful; but Nintendo’s tentative forays into toymaking bore fruit, thanks almost entirely to the genius of a man named Gunpei Yokoi. Originally employed as a lowly maintenance engineer, Yokoi was …read more
Source:: techradar.com – Gaming
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