Nintendo has been synonymous with video games since the 1980s, but its first century of operation was rather different. Originally known as Nintendo Koppai by founder Fusajiro Yamauchi, the company was actually founded, on September 23, 1889, to sell playing cards, long before a certain Italian plumber was born. The hand-painted hanafuda (“flower cards” in Japanese) that it manufactured became Japan’s most popular playing cards by the early 1900s. This largely remained the case into the mid-20th century, by which time the company had tried expanding into different markets — instant rice, a taxi service, even ballpoint pens. Most of these ventures didn’t last, and it wasn’t until the video game crash of 1983 that Nintendo truly became the company it is today
