On July 15, 2003 a very special milestone will occur: That day will mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Nintendo's Family Computer (aka Famicom) in Japan. You may know the system better by its Western name, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). But whatever you call it, there's absolutely no denying the impact that Nintendo's 8-bit console had on the video game industry. The Famicom virtually took over the game market in many parts of the world, and it single-handedly revived the flagging interest in video gaming in North America. Not bad at all for a gaudily-colored lump of plastic built from 1970s technology.
Nintendo began, modestly enough, as a manufacturer of traditional hanafuda playing cards. Founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, Nintendo Koppai carved a modest niche for itself in the long-standing industry, and eventually came to become the largest Japanese manufacturer of playing cards.
News source: GameSpy
