Today, the Japanese company Nintendo is generally associated with video gaming. Not only is Nintendo responsible for some of the world’s most popular gaming franchises of all time, but they’re also behind a line of incredibly well-known gaming consoles that can be found in households across much of the world.

Nintendo today is a much different company than it was when it first began making famous gaming franchises, and even more so than the company almost 150 years ago.

1. The Beginning of Nintendo

The company was first founded with the name Yamauchi Nintendo, by founder Fusajiro Yamauchi. He first opened the company in September of 1889, in the city of Kyoto. At the time, the main aim of Nintendo was to create and market Hanafuda, which are kinds of playing cards generally only found in Japan. There are no historical records to indicate where the name of the company was derived from, but it didn’t take long for Nintendo to start drawing in an audience. After retiring, Yamauchi left the company to his adopted son, who would expand in 1933.

2. After The War

Following the end of the Second World War, Sekiryo would go on to start a distribution company, which Nintendo used to distribute the cards around Kyoto. The company would move from father to son over a series of generations, and by the beginning of the 1960s, Nintendo was known across the world for its quality playing cards, and it allowed Nintendo to grow larger. By 1961, the company has sold more than 1.5 million cards in total, and just a year later the decision was made to go public.

In 1963, Nintendo began to work on offering board games alongside their playing cards, although a year later the company would face a dramatic drop in stock due to not diversifying its product range.

3. Video Gaming

It wouldn’t be until 10 years later when Nintendo would slowly begin to shift its focus to other types of entertainment. They had invested in some arcade games, and their famous light beam gun proved to be an enormous hit among game players. Over the next five years, Nintendo not only began to invest in video gaming home entertainment systems but would start to hire their own game developers to start working on new titles.

The Nintendo Entertainment System, known as the Famicom in Japan, would go into production, and many consider it among the first true interactive video gaming systems designed to work at home, and a popular pastime alongside sports or finding the best FIFA World Cup odds for sports betting. It came out with a range of excellent game franchises, including Donkey Kong, that would become an instant hit among gamers across the world. Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and other games would become staples of the industry at the time and would see a massive rise in different developers and companies. Over the next two decades, Nintendo would continue to work on its portable and home gaming systems, as well as develop on its existing franchises.