RE: Learn Something New Every Day Contest. Day 3
I'm loving this contest @gogogadgetupvote. Keep up the good work!
Today I'm going with something video game related and relatively obscure, though you may still be aware of it.
Did you know that Nintendo was not always a video game company and is actually well over 100 years old?
Nintendo was founded back in 1889 as the company Nintendo Koppai and sold handmade Hanafuda cards (Japanese playing cards). They became very successful in this industry and continued to expand for a number of years.
The company changed names many times over the years, before finally settling on just Nintendo in 1963. At this point the company was doing pretty well and began trying to branch out into other fields, apart from playing cards.
They continued producing trading cards and toys, but also tried setting up a taxi company, a love hotel chain, some food companies, and various other endeavors. Ultimately, most of these flopped and with a sharp decline in their trading card sales, they had to struggle to survive.
They managed to hang on in the toy industry, but just barely, until one of their employees on the assembly line was noticed due to a toy he invented just for amusement. He was quickly switched into development where he had a knack for electronic toy development.
After a number of successful electronic toys, the first light gun was finally invented in 1970. This opened the way for Nintendo into the electronics and video game industries.
In 1972, they had their first video game collaboration with Magnavox, creating a light gun accessory for the Magnavox Odyssey. Then in 1977, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric, they released their first video game system, the Color TV Game 6.
From playing cards to video games, the rest, you could say, is history!
So, I decided that this entry is first place! As an avid fan of Nintendo, it is pretty impressive to teach me something about it that I didn't already know (excluding new stuff in the last few years that I just haven't been able to afford..... yet). Plus I really enjoyed the following conversation! Good luck on your LTTP playthrough. Again, let me know if you get stuck at any point. A couple of those dungeons are a pain if you don't know what you are looking for.
Thank you! And I definitely will do ;) Actually, that sounds good. I might go hop on that here in just a minute...
I knew that Nintendo started as a Hanafuda card company. And I know a good amount about Nintendo since the release of the NES, but I didn't know all of that middle part. And for a guy with a Triforce tattooed to his chest, you would think I would have known a little more about the company. Thanks for sharing this with me! I am an avid gamer, and Nintendo has always been my favorite, mostly because of the "Legend of Zelda" series and the "Super Mario" series. To this date LTTP and OOT are still on my top ten favorite games of all time! Super Mario Brothers 3 is probably my all time favorite game.
Fantastic! Nice to see another Nintendo fan :) I never played too many Zelda games, though I am currently playing through LTTP on my SNES Retro (I was super excited when that came out, btw). However, I have played a good number of the Mario games over the years and am a huge fan! Super Mario Brothers 3 is a fantastic game, though I still think I'm partial to Super Mario World myself. If you like RPG's, and you haven't already played it, you should definitely check out "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars." That game is a blast! I still remember playing it with one of my best friends on our original Super Nintendo's, heh.
RPG's are my next favorite games on the list, after Zelda and Mario, the Final Fantasy games are towards the top of my favorites list as well. FFVII all the way. Legend of the Seven Stars is one of the best Mario games ever, and the precursor game to all of the Paper Mario Series. If you get stuck at ANY point on "LTTP", feel free to let me know. I know that game better than the back of my hand. Aside from the graphics, I actually like LTTP better than OOT. I have found a video on youtube that perfectly describes how I feel about the two games. Sequelitus: LTTP vs. OOT. Fun little video to watch. I have done a challenge run where I sat down on a new profile and pounded out the entire game. Picked up all the hearts and every in game item and killed the final boss, with no deaths, in about 7 hours.
Geez, that's impressive! I'm not too far, but I've already died once, heh. LTTP is a definitely a fun game though, and the mechanics are actually pretty well done for it's time. I've noticed recently that some of the games from that time period really are terrible when it comes to how responsive they are. I guess I just never noticed it as a kid.
As for Final Fantasy, my personal favorite is FFVI. I just thought the game was fantastic all the way around. I never got too far in FFVII, much to my regret. I had it for Playstation and loaned it to a friend before I got too far into the game. He returned it with a missing disk which he never did find...
I'll definitely check the video out. I don't take it you recorded your own challenge run?
I did not record that challenge run. It was a few years ago the last time I actually did it. But, that isn't a bad idea for a post. I may just have to do that.
That really sucks about the missing disk from FFVII. It is probably my favorite game in the series. I like the fact that by the end of the game, you have literally explored EVERY part of the world, from the deepest trenches of the ocean, to the frozen poles of the planet. You even have a short stint orbiting the planet in a rocket. And it was the first TRUE 3D RPG game. Instead of the "top view down-yet strangely seen from the side", it added the ACTUAL third demension to the characters and map areas. Truly a revolutionary game for it's time.
Haha,
It's funny cause it's true, but I had never thought it it in that way before... Yeah, I'll have to get around to downloading a ROM at some point and playing through it again. It's just tough to find enough time to dedicate to a game like that these days.
VII? Nah man, you can bust that game out in about 30 hours and have pretty decent stuff and a fairly decent fight with the final boss. Course you kinda have to know where you are going and what you are looking for to do that. I remember getting stuck on one part for DAYS! It was really frustrating. Probably spent a good 15 hours of gameplay over one week looking for one stupid switch, until a kid at school told me where it was. Then I felt stupid for not seeing it before. But these things happen. Nature of video games I suppose.
Oh yeah, there's always that one thing in that one game you overlook. I remember back in the day, my brother and I played Jurassic Park on the SNES. We did everything we were supposed to do to beat the game, but we never did it in the right order, which makes it impossible to win. We must have tried half a dozen times before we gave up. Years later I looked it up online and sure enough, we knocked that game out in a day.
I'm just lost here, guess since I'm a 90's kid, I never did get the opportunity to play with most of them. Now I know about Nintendo. Way to go. Thanks for sharing this piece.