Gaming Past and Present

• Started out as a trading card company
• First game to become popular was Donkey Kong
• Invents new ways to play games

In 1986, a system came out that defined modern gaming. The controller for its time was revoultionary and the games it played were state of the art. The Nintendo Etertainment System is still heralded as the system that started the modern gaming age. A man by the name of Shigeru Miyamoto made a game that went on to become the most recognizable and popular of all time in Super Mario Brothers.Nintendo had a strangle-holdon the market during the late 80s with nearly every home having a NES.

In 1991, Nintendo started the Golden Age of Videogames with the release of the Super Nintendo. With Sega releasing the Genesis a rivarly that lasted for four years began. Nintendo and Sega both tried to one up each with the release of high profile first party games like Sonic and Mario as well as peripherals including the ill-fated Sega 32X and Sega CD. But again, with the Genesis having the more powerful system, Nintedo dominated the market becuase not only the quality of the games but because everyone knew Nintedo and trusted them.

In 1993, Nintendo wanted to strike a deal to create a CD-based system. Sony was the player behind the scenes who was going to work on the system. Nintendo pulled out at the last moment and went with Philips to work on the system. Nintendo later gave up on the system and lost some rights to the Legend of Zelda for a while. Philips released its CD-i system with Zelda in tow and the Zelda games released on the system (three total) with horrible results. Nintendo gained back the rights after the failure of the Philips system. This was the dark era of Nintendo that would haunt to this day.