Nintendo Research Paper

Title: The Evolution of Nintendo gaming systems

Introduction:

Nintendo, one of most popular video game company's in the entire world. Known for its unique games, characters and systems, it is also the oldest video game company in the entire world. Originally founded in 1889 it produced and achieved great success in the card-game industry. During the 1960's however, Nintendo “ventured into numerous other business ventures before finally landing in the lucrative video-game industry, which is where it would eventually leave its mark.”(4) Nintendo entered the market in a era where technology and video games were just beginning. Video games were still relatively new with no real leader inside the industry. Technology advances were constant and

Personal computers experienced an explosive growth going from being a toy for electronics hobbyists to a full-fledged industry. The video game industry also reached a new point of popularity, becoming an major industry by itself in 1982. In the beginning of the 1980's Nintendo tested the handheld market by releasing their new system the game & watch. “Nintendo began selling the "GAME & WATCH" product line in Japan” (1) and it instantly became an success. The system's were “...the first portable LCD video games with a microprocessor.” (1) Each Game & Watch was able to play only one game due to its LCD display being pre printed with an overlay but the “game & watch games were created to make use of cheap LCD screens, a re purposing of elderly technology that were described as: ‘Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology,” (8) the G&M went on to sell over 43 million units worldwide. In the 1983s caused by a variety of factors, the entire video game industry crashed for America. During this time however Nintendo was tired of creating ports for other systems, deciding to branch into the realm of console development. “Having achieved success with the Color TV Game 6 and 15 systems, Nintendo’s CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi wanted to design a more serious home computer disguised as a toy, one to appeal to the entire family: a family computer; or ‘Famicom’.” (7) The Famicom also known as the Nintendo Family computer or as

It marked a decade for innovations not only in the video game industry but technology in general. Such innovations as the worldwide web, the Java programming language, Linux kernel, memory cards, and USB ports were created. Nintendo was still following the huge success of the NES when they decided to make another handheld system after the game & watch. This sequel became the now iconic Nintendo game boy, it combined features from both the NES and the game & watch going on to sell over 32 million units. The hardware of the game boy were that of an Custom 8-bit Sharp LR35902 CPU core at 4.19 Mhz and had 8kB of ram. This processor was similar to the Intel 8080, which was the second microprocessor made by Intel and was widely consider the first useful microprocessor. Even though the hardware of the game boy were average compared to its competitors, the components themselves were consider technically obsolete even before the game boy was launched. This was because nintendo idea was to assemble the system with cheap, near obsolete components in order to keep the manufacturing costs to a minimum. “While Sega and Atari busied themselves working with high-powered handhelds with colour graphics and impressive sound capabilities (the Game Gear and Atari Lynx respectively), Yokoi and his team opted for a monochrome screen and a tinny speaker. As a result, the Game Boy outlasted its rivals by several times over.” (8)