WEBVTT - The Story of Nintendo, Part 2 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.400 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Oh hi, there, 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.720 I almost didn't see you. Welcome to tech Stuff, amiss, 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:22.600 Chris Ballett, and I am an editor at how stuff 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.840 works dot Com. Sitting across me sort of quietly suggesting 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.080 that my joke was terrible, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.720 with my magic book. I'll shower those clumsy lizards with 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.559 my power. That is perfect, He told me. I had 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:40.120 the perfect quote for this, uh this podcast. It's from 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.040 a song that I didn't even know existed until about 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:47.120 five seconds ago. Okay, so we're going to do the uh, 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.440 the whole catch you up, um if you're just tuning in. 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:54.360 Previously on tech Stuff, Nintendo started out as a playing 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:59.160 card company in in eight nine, gradually diversified, then got 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.920 out of several other businesses, including the toy market. But 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.000 that did give them the idea that possibly this whole 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.760 video game thing might be an idea, and they started 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.320 creating video game consoles that were only able to play 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.319 a game or maybe sit up to six games. But 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.399 you know, kind of like the old Odyssey system and 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:19.560 that it was very limited. It was all hardwired into 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.120 the system. You could not put a cartridge in there was. 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.200 It was not cartridge cartridge based at that point. While 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:27.800 also created the game and Watch, which was the sup 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.880 portable variation of that, but again, single game. That's all 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.000 it was on that system. Meanwhile, the arcade craze is 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.200 taken off all over the world and Nintendo finds itself 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:44.360 uh with a complete bomb and asks a young designer, Miyamoto, 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.560 Shigeru Miyamoto, to give it a shot. Can you come 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:50.760 up with something that we can use in the video 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.160 game market? And he thinks a storyline would sell games, 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.160 so he creates a simple story about a giant gorilla 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.320 who hauls off a a woman named Pauline to the 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:08.600 top of a skyscraper and challenges a young plumber well 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:10.880 actually he was just a guy with a big mustache 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:16.000 and overalls named Jumpman to come get her. And it 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.320 defies just about everybody in the company's expectations by becoming 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:25.600 a huge hit, inspiring several uh several follow up titles 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:30.600 and licensing agreements with these different console manufacturers to bring 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.520 them into homes. Because home video games are becoming popular 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.280 in the early nineteen eighties, late seventies and early Nintendo 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.480 decides to get into that market while the getting is 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.200 good and I want me some of that action. They 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.079 and they introduce the Nintendo Family Computer and they launched 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:51.000 it in Japan on July fIF Famicom. Yeah, it's so 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:56.440 great name for a console. Uh yeah, great name for 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.680 the console, the Famicom. So if you're not familiar with 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.720 the Famicom, that is what in America we referred to 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.760 as the Nintendo Entertainment System. If you're not familiar with it, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.560 yes you are. It didn't immediately come over to America 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:11.600 because at the same time as it was launching in 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.800 Japan America, in North America, there was the video game Crash. 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:17.880 We talked about that. If you haven't heard it, go 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.359 back and listen to it. Wait, there's an entire podcast 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.440 about it. But to give you the short form of that, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.359 what happened was the video game market was doing really well. 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.680 Uh so many players got into the system, not not 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.720 so many game players. So many companies got into creating 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.120 video game systems and video game titles that the market 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.840 became saturated and there were there were there were several 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:44.800 really really good games, but there were way more crappy games. 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.760 And of those, yeah, we talked about some of those 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.400 in our Worst Video Games of All Time podcast. There 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.200 were some of the two big ones that leaped to mind, 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:55.440 where the licensed version of pac Man for the AT 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:59.840 and of course the number one game on everybody's list, 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.640 Et the Extraterrestrial almost everybody's, but no, a lot of that. 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.360 That was the thing. A lot of the game The 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.360 idea was these games are hit in the arcade, let's 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.280 bring him to the home console. So you had games 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.400 like pac Man and Donkey Kong, um stuff like Amadar 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.920 Burger Time Reactor, and they tried so hard to make 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:24.080 them work on home consoles immediately that they ended up 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.200 being complete and under dogs. Yeah, they were just mean. 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.880 Amad was horrible. It was such a rush to get 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:33.400 to the market with that quality. Was was really sacrificed 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.960 in order to get sacrificed in favor of speed. Well, 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.599 Nintendo ended up not launching in America right away because again, 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.400 this video game crash was taking place mostly through three 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.520 and so it wasn't until October eighteenth five that the 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.960 Famicon made its debut in the United States, and of 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.040 course then it was known as the Nintendo Entertainment System. 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:00.160 And originally Nintendo took a very very controlled approach to 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.960 introducing its system. It wasn't it wasn't like a a 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:08.440 nationwide launch. In fact, you could originally only get an 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.599 inn e S if you were willing to go to 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.520 New York City to get it. That was the limited 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.680 market they introduced it to. And it was something like 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.039 a hundred thousand units and they sold out of ninety 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:23.120 thousand of them in a heartbeat. Um in a New 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.840 York minute, Yeah, in a New York minute. And the 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:29.440 original in as when it first came out in New York, 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.680 was loaded with extras in order to tempt people to 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.839 buy it, because you gotta remember, at this point, the 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.680 home video game market in the United States is toast. 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.440 People are starting to move to personal computers, video game 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.600 consoles are it looked at his things for kids and 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:49.720 it's and there's just no consistency in quality. So Nintendo 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.520 had an uphill battle here. So when they launched it 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.880 in New York, here's what it came with. This is 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:57.880 a huge difference to the way you buy a video 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.920 game console today. You got the console, you've got two games, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.400 you've got two game pads, you've got the Zapper light gun, 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:10.440 and you got the Robotic Operating Buddy or rob for 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:15.200 one hundred and twenty five dollars. Wow, that would be 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.680 about two fifty dollars in today's money. So it's still 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.960 sort of affordable in terms. I mean, you think about 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:26.240 the PlayStation three debuting at what six hundred dollars United States. Yeah, 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.280 so it's it's you know, it was a pretty amazing 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.800 deal at the time, and uh, it does very well, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.440 and then Nintendo starts to open up in other test 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.080 markets places like Chicago and Los Angeles. Um, still very 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:45.560 gradual until it goes nationwide pretty much in six. Uh 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.560 and at that point the price had moved up to 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.200 a hundred and ninety nine dollars, So the hundred five 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:53.840 was kind of the introductory price to kind of get 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.080 that word of mouth campaign going. And and once it 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:58.840 went nationwide, they figured they could price it at one 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.080 and that would be the right mart value for them 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.880 into no entertainment system, I don't know, it might sell 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.880 like hotcakes. Yeah, sure dead And in eight six that 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.960 was also when in Japan Nintendo introduced a special disc 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.760 system accessory in the Famicom, because I could remember in 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:20.200 Japan it was it was built as a family computer system, right, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:24.400 not just a video game console, so it would allow 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:28.120 you to actually use discs to uh play games on 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.560 the Famicom. Back in Japan, you could even go and 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.200 have you know, a disc made of a game or 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.480 whatever at a special vendors in Japan. Now and in 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.840 the United States, we were not so fortunate as to 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:41.880 get access to this, although I'm sure there are plenty 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.840 of collectors out there who have the Japanese version of it. 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.800 In America, that's always been a hot like underground market 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.040 in the United States. Yeah. Now, keeping in mind too 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.960 that in the late seventies, when or the mid seventies, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:00.200 when consoles were starting to come into the homes, Uh, 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.200 all this stuff was hardwired into the console itself, as 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.560 as Jonathan was just saying a minute ago. Then they 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.560 figured out that it was possible to make a connector 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.280 slot so that all the ROMs would be actually in 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.120 the cartridge itself and it would make a connection with 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:16.800 that cartridge when you plugged it. You had to give 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.120 it a firm push to get it snapped into the 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:20.920 slot the right way. Also, you had to you had 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.120 to breathe into the cartridge. That was that was required 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:29.680 before you. That's what we always did, ye before you. Well, 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:31.320 it's good to get the dust out of it. Of course, 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:34.199 some of the Atari cartridges had a little flap they 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.080 protected the guts. Not all of them, some of them, um, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:41.480 but yeah. They the Nintendo Entertainment System used similar cartridges too. 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.680 They were they were wider than the the Atari cartridges 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.640 of course, and and bigger. But yeah, they were using 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.720 the same types of programmable ROM chips that you would 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:54.320 just snap into the Uh. The game slot didn't have 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.000 a disk like the game systems do now. So in 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.720 eighties six they also introduced some titles that became big. 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.679 Commando huge in e s game Yeah, fun one too, 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.880 Ghosts and Goblins one of the most difficult games ever 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:14.120 also fun but hard, and then um there was came 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:18.559 out in six if that's not confusing. Uh, And in 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:24.680 eight seven, two other big names in Nintendo franchises debuted, 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:32.080 Castlevania and Metroid. Yeah. So a lot of the games 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:35.840 that would become sort of emblematic of Nintendo Entertainment System 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.440 started to launch right around this time, and uh, the 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:44.000 NES does incredibly well. Now, I never owned an NES. 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.719 I had a friend who lived down the street from 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:48.440 me who did own an NES, and I used to 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.480 go over to his house all the time and play. 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:52.840 And in fact, I played one of the games that 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.120 won the best Video Game of the Year for Nintendo 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:00.480 now that that happened back in that game was punch Out. 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:03.680 We're talking about the arcade game at that point, but 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.040 man oh, the arcade game was a huge hit. I 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.360 loved punch Out so much. That's one of those arcade consoles. 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.080 Like you know, you always have that fantasy of some 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.520 of us anyway of owning certain video game consoles, like 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:18.600 having a special room that would just have video game 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:20.680 consoles in it. Punch Out would be one of the 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.040 consoles I would own punch Out. There there are two 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:24.520 other titles I can think of right off the top 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.160 of my head that I would have to own for 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.680 that and on the one one would be the original 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:34.120 Star Wars arcade game use the Forest Luke and also 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.680 the Spy Hunter. Okay, those are the so those would 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:42.120 be the three Elevator Action maybe. Yeah, if I had room. 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:43.600 But if I only had room for three, it'd be 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.800 Spy Hunter, it would be Star Wars, and it would 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.600 be punch Out. Forget those of you keeping scored home. 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:54.040 Punch Out is the only one that's a Nintendo game. Yeah, anyway, yes, 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.560 but there you go, one of the three games would 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.679 be a Nintendo game, because when most of us think 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.440 of the Pendo we don't necessarily think of the arcade 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.240 games that much because they made such a huge name 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:07.360 in the home console market. Now, Donkey Kong of course 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.040 being like the big exception. Yeah, well that's how I 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.640 think that's how Nintendo was able to sell the Nintendo 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.719 Entertainment System was that they could say, hey, we were 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.599 the guys behind Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. And 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:20.800 Super Mario Brothers. Yeah, you don't have to worry about 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.960 us taking some sort of uh uh well, especially when 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.600 they were reporting games from the arcade to the console. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:29.960 You know, since it was the same company that was 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:34.320 producing these hit games, theres so much more faithful. Yeah, 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:36.240 and and so they you know, that could be a 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:37.960 message they send out to the market, is like you 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.720 don't have to worry about some terrible port of our 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:42.719 game because we're the ones who made the Arcade game, 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:44.760 We're the ones who made the console. You know that 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:48.000 the console is gonna reflect the gameplay that you are 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:50.320 familiar with in the Arcade. Well. One of the things 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:53.040 that Jonathan touched on in the first episode, and again 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:55.400 if you haven't listened to it, will wait for you 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.280 to come back and listen to that first. But one 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.520 of the things he touched on was that the UH 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:05.880 the UH CEO, the CEO at that time of of Nintendo, 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.480 insisted that everything go through him for approval. And that 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.800 was important in a way because it ensured that there 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:15.800 was going to be some quality in the stuff. They 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:17.760 weren't just throwing it out the door like certain other 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:22.000 companies that I can mention I didn't mention. Well, that 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.800 was part of the problem of Video Game Crash. Yes, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.400 So Nintendo had had taken the certification process, yes, and 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.360 that that was a selling point from the Nintendo Entertainment 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.840 System that the other consoles didn't have at that point, 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.120 because if a title was going to be on the NES, 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.880 it had to meet certain criteria, It had to had 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:43.040 to pass certification. It's frustrating for developers because the developer 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.360 might have a great idea, but for some reason they 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.920 run up against a barrier that to the developer seems 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.680 arbitrary and then, uh, you know. We see this today 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.120 with developers who developed for Apple, for example, for for 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.360 apps on the iPhone and the iPad. They're developers who say, 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.880 I submitted this, I thought it is a great idea, 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.000 and then I'm hitting a wall. And in some cases 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.280 it may seem arbitrary to an outside observer, but to 0:13:07.400 --> 0:13:11.040 Apple it may seem like, no, this is not following 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.080 our rules, and this the rules are there in order 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:16.640 for us to ensure that the user has a good 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.559 quality experience. At the end of the day. That was 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.600 a Nintendo's approach to with the video games, and said 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:23.680 they did not want to fall into the same trap 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.800 that Attari and Kaliko had fallen into, where they started 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.880 to put out and publish games that or they allowed 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.679 third party publishers to publish games that just did not 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.880 measure up. Now, that did not mean that Nintendo was 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:40.520 free of bad games, but they weren't glutted with them 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.000 like the Atari was towards the end of its days. Yeah, 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.760 it killed both Atari and Colico. Yeah, and if you 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.839 say yes, but Atari is still around, not really different 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:53.160 company company they purchased the name anyway. Anyway, Um, yeah, 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:55.440 that was that was one of the selling points. Um. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.520 And the other was, in addition to good marketing, they 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:01.880 had something that they could market around, and that was 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:07.439 Miamoto's characters. Um, Donkey Kong had made a name, well 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.880 not literally because his name wasn't his name at that point, 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.079 but had a name character in Mario, and they were 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:19.120 able to use those characters in successive games. And so, uh, 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:24.400 they basically had exclusivity. You didn't see Mario on games 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.800 that weren't licensed by Nintendo. Nintendo was was uh, basically 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.720 ensuring a future for itself by creating a storyline in 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.560 its games that could be carried from game to game. Yeah, 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.480 they really started to protect their intellectual property. They were 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:40.800 very protective of it. So and still still are. Yeah, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.800 you still are not going to find Mario pop up 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.000 on say an iPhone game, which that'll come into play 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.280 and at the end of our conversation today, but uh, yeah, 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.080 so Nintendo has taken this approach and it's working well 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:58.440 for them now in n uh so, this is ninety 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.720 years into the company's history for those kind of scores. 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.000 Ninety nine years in the company's history, Nintendo makes an 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:09.160 agreement with another company called Sony. I think I've heard 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.480 of them too. Yeah, they were going to work together 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.800 and put out a new video game console system that 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:19.000 would use optical disks instead of cartridges to store games. Hey, 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:21.240 that seems like a great idea because Sony is really 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.960 good with this electronics stuff, I hear. Now, unfortunate as 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.680 Nintendo doesn't take them off. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:30.960 Nintendo and Sony could not see eye to eye on 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.240 many aspects of the deal, and ultimately the deal fell apart. 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:39.400 Now this this collapse. Yeah, the collapse of this deal 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.240 would later lead Sony to develop its own video game 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.920 console system called the PlayStation. I think I've heard of 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:46.760 that too. You may very well have heard of that. 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.480 Wishes it hadn't. Yeah, PlayStation ended up causing a big 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.840 headache for Nintendo, particularly in Japan in a couple more years. 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:58.320 But we'll get into that in so on the company's centennial, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:01.680 which is so hard to think of, Like, there's so 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:03.720 many companies out there, and you're like, how many of 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.200 them are a century old or older. Not many, not 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.960 many are still around. Nintendo's one of them. Uh. In 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.120 the company introduces the game Boy. Yes now, the game 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.240 Boy sold for eighty nine dollars in the United States, 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.720 which is about a hundred and fifty dollars hundred fifty 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:24.240 six dollars today. Uh and the game Boys sold very well, 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.280 partially because it was marketed not just two kids, but 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:31.600 to adults who would spend time doing things like writing 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.120 the train or the bus. If you were one of 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.640 those people who was commuting on a system like that, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:41.119 then you would want something to occupy your time. And uh, yeah, 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.480 Chris is humming the theme song to the game that 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.560 was packaged with the game Boy that became like it was. 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:50.520 If you want to call about talk about a killer 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.880 app or a killer title, this is like one of 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:57.560 the top killer titles of all time. We're talking about Tetris, 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.280 which was not a video game develops specifically by Nintendo, 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:06.560 actually came from a Russian developer. But Tetris was such 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.359 a compelling puzzle game and it still is today that 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:14.800 it it was probably responsible for selling more Game Boy 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:19.280 units than just about anything else. I played Tetris for 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.280 so long on my game Boy that I could see 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.480 when I turned off. You could tell this this is 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.399 a good game. When you turn off the game and 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:29.280 you close your eyes to go to sleep and you're 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.600 still seeing those little shapes drift into place. Or when 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.480 you are moving and you're packing up the moving van 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.119 and at the time you're going do do do do 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.800 do do crooked space piece? I don't I needed an 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:46.560 L shape? Uh yeah, so why did I get that sectional? Um? Yeah? 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:50.520 I spent many many hours with my game Boy. Yeah. Yeah, 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.760 it was a very popular device, and that was my 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.240 first Nintendo system. And game Boy also was developed by 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.720 It was designed by gumpay Yakoit who we talked about 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:02.440 in the last podcast. He was the fellow who was 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.240 hired and had had turned Nintendo's fortunes around by introducing 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.520 a toy that became the Ultra Hand, basically an extendable 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.439 claw that would grip uh toy balls or you know, 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:15.000 that was what came with it, but you could use 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.600 it for all kinds of other games. Harassing the family 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:22.760 cat but yeah, the twice often than not probably. Yeah. 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:25.040 So he he was the fellow who designed the game Boys. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.000 So yeah, very popular design, very simple design, you know, 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.240 unlike his first portable uh for a this was this 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.840 was basically they hundred of portable games because before that 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.960 they were all hardwired, like the Mentel games with the 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.320 little led s that would go you know yeah, and 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:48.320 even even Nintendo's UH game games were all hardwired at 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.560 that point. So this was the first cartridge based one 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:54.040 that really started to take off huge. So in nineteen nine, 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.440 into No introduces the Super Famicom, which in the United 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.399 States a year later in ninety one was known as 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.639 the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Yeah, the NES was starting 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:06.920 to near the end of its lifecycle, although it was 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.719 still supported for a few years after this. UM and 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.639 the NES was an eight bit video game system, the 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.840 S and E S. The Supernintendo was a sixteen bit 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:20.080 game system, twice the bits and UM. At that time, 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:25.080 Nintendo boasted an ownership a market share of about eight 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.159 percent of the United States game industry and nine of 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:34.040 the worldwide game industry, so truly a dominant company at 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.879 this point. Also, this is a good time to mention 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:42.800 the character designs that Miyamoto came up with. The reason 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.119 why the characters look the way they do is because 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:49.280 the eight bit gaming era was so low resolution that 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.280 you had to pick a very simple yet iconic design 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.280 to be able to show people what your character look like. 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.159 So he has Mario has a giant nose, so you 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.439 could see that he Mario has a mustache because it 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:06.480 was easier to see than a mouth. His his his overalls, 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.400 his hat, all of that was designed because in order 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:12.800 for him to show up well against multiple backgrounds, he 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:14.960 had to have a very simple design. And we're talking 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:17.480 all the way back to the Donkey Kong days, so 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.760 um yeah. Even in the sixteen bet the designs get updated, 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.760 of course because now you've got higher resolution, but they're 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.639 still based on that very simple premise and it was 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.320 something that guided Miyamoto's design for for many years. Uh 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:35.600 yeah yeah. So now, right around the same time in Japan, 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:39.360 Nintendo starts to face down lawsuits brought against it by 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:44.920 competitors who are accusing Nintendo of fixing prices with retailers 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.720 so that essentially the Nintendo products would stay on store 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.280 shelves and and and keep selling while the competitor petitors 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.439 would end up getting pushed aside. Um, Nintendo was no 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.919 stranger to lawsuits in the century which makes sense. I mean, 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:01.280 you know, if you're the eminent player, than the antitrust 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:04.960 lawsuits are gonna start popping up. Because really, for a while, 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:08.840 Nintendo was, and no pun intended, the only game in town, 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.400 or so it seemed. Now we're gonna I'm gonna skip 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:14.840 ahead a little bit. So SNDS is really popular. A 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.200 lot of really popular titles come out on the SNS. 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:18.680 But I don't think I need to go into all 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.280 of those. Um, let's let's talk about one of Nintendo's 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:28.880 major missteps, not the power Glove, which was its own problem. 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:31.960 Nintendo hasn't always succeeded when it's come up with some 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.920 innovative products, and one of those innovative products that really 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:40.520 bombed by Virtual Boy. But what could be wrong with that? 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:43.520 Virtual reality was the wave of the future. We were 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:45.199 all going to be walking around with these things on 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:50.000 our heads that would show us these amazing immersed in 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:54.280 a computer world that would be uh indistinguishable from our 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:56.200 real world all around us, as long as our real 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:59.520 world all around us is a monochromatic vector graphic as 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:01.840 in terms intation. As it turns out, there's a glitch 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.880 in the matrix. Yeah, so the virtual boy comes out. 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:08.480 It's a head no display that's actually on a little 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.440 stand and you lean forward. It's almost like a pair 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.199 of binoculars. You you lean your head forward and you 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.560 have a screen for each eye. And it if only 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.800 it didn't have to be hardwired into your neural network. 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.879 It relied on something that we call parallax. And parallax 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.159