Hiroshi Yamauchi, the man whose vision took Nintendo’s focus away from a playing card company and pushed them into one of the most important video game companies in the world, was born on this date in 1927.
Becoming only the third President of Nintendo since it’s founding in 1889, Yamauchi’s first experience with video games came when Nintendo struck a deal with Magnavox to distribute the world’s first game console, Magnavox Odyssey, in Japan. In 1977, Nintendo acquired it’s own license from Magnavox and released their own console, Color TV-Game 6.
Six years later, on July 15, 1983, Nintendo released their first game console that featured interchangeable cartridges, the Famicom. This console would lead to Yamauchi ordering a subsidiary of Nintendo, Nintendo of America, to be opened in the United States, which ultimately resulted in Nintendo single-handedly reviving the video game industry in North America.
Happy Birthday, Yamauchi-San
Source: Nintendo Wiki
