1889: Fusajiro Yamauchi founds Nintendo Koppai in Kyoto, Japan, to manufacture hanafuda, Japanese playing cards. Western-style playing cards originally came to Japan in the 16th century with Portuguese traders, but over the ensuing three centuries a variety of different card games were created in Japan. The most popular in the late 1800s were hanafuda, cards […]
Yeah, to be clear, that was what I was intrigued by. That they existed for nearly 100 years before their rise as a video game power.