# First Nintendo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2006, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608 "2006-12-18T09:47:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/1 "2006-12-18T09:47:57Z")
This is sure to be a quick and easy one for you guys - in which year did Nintendo launch its first home gaming system and what was it? I have a bet with a friend and would really like to win 10 bucks… Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/2 "2006-12-18T09:52:30Z")
Nintendo launched the Magnavox Odyssey in Japan in 1975 - it wasn’t their own-developed product though. > **[Magnavox Odyssey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey)** > > The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box that connects to a television set, and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots and one line of varying heigh... ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/3 "2006-12-18T09:53:20Z")
1. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/4 "2006-12-18T09:54:21Z")
[QUOTE=Book Monster] This is sure to be a quick and easy one for you guys - in which year did Nintendo launch its first home gaming system and what was it? I have a bet with a friend and would really like to win 10 bucks… Anyone? [/QUOTE] [1889](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo), if we can trust wikipedia, and it appears that we [can](http://www.nintendo.com/corp/history.jsp). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/5 "2006-12-18T09:57:00Z")
Nice. OK, I think perhaps we need a clearer definition of ‘home gaming system’ ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/6 "2006-12-18T10:00:40Z")
Will “games console” do? And I thought that the NES was their first, am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/7 "2006-12-18T10:03:41Z")
Nintendos FIRST home gaming system? Is it not the NES? Sure, they’ve had lots of arcades, and of course the one you mentioned, the Odyssey. But Nintendo’s very own home gaming system I believe is the NES. Correction, 1985: > **[Nintendo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo#Gaming_systems)** > > Nintendo Co., Ltd.\[c\] is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and manufactures both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company in 1889 to produce handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business and becoming a public company, Nintendo began producing toys in the 1960s, and later video games. Nintendo developed its first arcade games ... > [@Wiki](#): > > The massively popular Donkey Kong was created in 1981 with Miyamoto as its mastermind, and released in the arcades and on the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision video game systems (although Nintendo itself generally had no involvement with these early console ports). This release method would be used on several later Nintendo arcade games of this same period, including the original Mario Bros. (not to be confused with the later Super Mario Bros.). In addition to this arcade and dedicated console game activity, Nintendo was testing the consumer handheld video game waters with the Game & Watch. **Then, in 1985, Nintendo struck gold with its Nintendo Entertainment System and continued with the handheld gaming market with their highly successful GameBoy.** Nintendo continued producing updates of these two concepts, leading it to become one of the world’s most recognized video-game manufacturers. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/8 "2006-12-18T14:25:14Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Nice. OK, I think perhaps we need a clearer definition of ‘home gaming system’ [/QUOTE] Especially considering that: [QUOTE=Nintendo] 1889 - Fusajiro Yamauchi began manufacturing “Hanafuda,” Japanese playing cards in Kyoto. [/QUOTE] [Nintendo Company History](http://www.nintendo.com/corp/history.jsp) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/9 "2006-12-18T14:42:43Z")
Well, yes - that’s what I meant. ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/10 "2006-12-18T15:03:02Z")
The Famicom, the Japanese version of the NES (assuming we’re talking about home video game consoles) was released in 1983. ---
**Author:** ![Emerald\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Emerald\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emerald_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/11 "2006-12-18T16:42:37Z")
Come on guys, it’s gotta be the Famicom. If I invited you all over to play on my new “home gaming system” and it turned out to be poker night instead, you would all think I was crazy. No one calls Magic: The Gathering a “home gaming system” either (it’s a CCG). I hardly think you can count the Odyssy either, especially since Nintendo had no involvment with it at all until it had been out for 3 years already. They functioned as an importer/reseller only. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/12 "2006-12-18T17:13:31Z")
**Famicom,** the Japanese NES, came out in 1983. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-nintendo/384608/13 "2006-12-18T17:21:21Z")
That Odyssey game brings back memories. Sticking those plastic overlays on the TV with static electricity. It sure seems sucky in retrospect, but I was so amazed at the time.