Cleopatra Lived Closer to the Computer Age than to the Pyramids, and Other Atypical History Facts

Cleopatra Lived Closer to the Computer Age than to the Pyramids, and Other Atypical History Facts

Khalid Elhassan - December 30, 2019

Cleopatra Lived Closer to the Computer Age than to the Pyramids, and Other Atypical History Facts
Nintendo’s early stock in trade. Wikimedia

24. Which is Older: Nintendo, or Jack the Ripper’s Murder Spree?

Japanese multinational Nintendo Co. Ltd., the giant video game company, is best known as the creator of top-selling franchises such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokemon. The company is associated with electronics and is known as a pioneer of one of the world’s most modern technologies: video game entertainment. However, it was founded over a century ago during the steam power era, in 1889 – contemporaneous with Jack the Ripper.

Nintendo came along long before video games were even a theoretical concept. When the company was founded in the nineteenth century, it produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. In 1956, the company began trying its hand at new ventures to supplement its playing cards business, upon realizing that playing cards had limited growth potential. So Nintendo set up a taxi company, before establishing other divisions such as a TV network, a love motel chain, toys, and a food company specializing in instant rice.

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