Before Mario, Nintendo was a fascinating company. Originally founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, and leveraged out of a construction materials wholesaler, it began as a modest hand-made playing card game manufacturer. Essential to its success, the business arose on the precipice of massive structural change for the Japanese economy. As time went on, Nintendo withstood constant pressure from cultural authorities, some of the worst devastation wrought on any nation in history, and numerous failed expansion attempts before revolutionizing the fledgling electronic entertainment industry 100 years after its creation. The man responsible for this global expansion is none other than the great-grandson of Fusajiro Yamauchi, Hiroshi Yamauchi. The brash, privileged, and ruthless young leader reigned over the company for the largest time-period in its long history. Hiroshi Yamauchi established a culture of risk and reward that defines the child-friendly entertainment company to this day. That risk and reward mindset has firm roots in the seedy underworld of illegal gambling halls in which Nintendo first catered. It’s even in the name “Nintendo, ” which translates to “Luck Heaven Hall.”
The first episode of the Nostalgia Trip Super Mario Retrospective tells the story of Nintendo before Mario was a twinkle in his creator’s eye. The answer to how a company can go from a localized paper card game maker to an electronics juggernaut lies within this debut video. Following the events outlined in this episode, Mario became one of the world's most recognized characters, standing apart from the industry he came from. A scenario that would seem impossible without covering the circumstances that preceded the creation of this massive cultural touchstone. Join host, Fellow Classic Gamer Dustin, on the first trip through time as we connect the dots from the early 1600s all the way up to 1980, eventually leading up to the introduction of everyone’s favorite mustachioed stereotype.
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Full video transcript including sources:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16...
Special Thanks:
http://blog.beforemario.com/
http://odysim.blogspot.com/
https://vglegacy.com/
- Timecodes -
00:00 - Hiroshi Yamauchi's Reign
01:26 - Nostalgia Trip Introduction
02:49 - (Mid 1500's) Playing Cards in Japan
04:25 - (1880's) My Neighbors the Yamauchis
06:39 - (1889) The Founding of Nintendo
08:37 - (1927) Leave Nintendo to the Yamauchi Bloodline
09:31 - (1929) Sekiryo Yamauchi and a Series of Global Crises
11:03 - (1949) It’s Hiroshi’s World, and We’re All Livin’ In It
12:55 - (1960) The Twenty Years of Suffering for Nintendo
14:39 - (1965) The Man, the Myth, the Legend, Gunpei Yokoi
16:05 - (1972) Now We Make Video Games
17:43 - (1972) "Lateral Thinking With Withered Technology"
19:45 - (1975) Shigeru Miyamoto, The Apprentice
20:41 - (1978) The Leisurely Debut of the Nintendo Leisure System
21:38 - (1980) Game & Watch & Cha-CHING!
24:01 - Nostalgia Trip Recap & Outro
25:29 - Credits
Required Music Credits:
Ishikari Lore by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Jumpin Boogie Woogie by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
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