PlayingCardForum.com - A Discourse For Playing Cards

Off Topic Chat => The Conversation Parlor => Topic started by: Magasaki on October 13, 2015, 12:56:40 PM

Title: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Magasaki on October 13, 2015, 12:56:40 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=231&v=MeAttf-uyG4

a cheeky glimpse at some history!
Title: Re: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Don Boyer on October 14, 2015, 10:20:58 AM
Hysterical!
Good stuff.
Title: Re: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Rob Wright on October 15, 2015, 12:51:55 AM
How cool was that. Can you imagine what those cards a worth. I didn't know that Nintendo was origanaly a playing card company.
I wonder if there is anybody here that lives in Japan near there. That could be a really cool story for Card Culture.
Title: Re: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Magasaki on October 15, 2015, 08:35:18 AM
They won't let you in or pretty much talk about they're playing card history. It's all a bit weird! Nintendo are a famously opaque company - even to the gaming community.
Title: Re: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Worst Bower on October 15, 2015, 10:18:40 AM
Nintendo still makes cards, including karuta like hanafuda decks. They also produce traditional board games and mahjong sets. There's the story that the head of Nintendo visiting USPC's headquarters in the 1950s. He was shocked that the world's largest card maker had such a small office that he realized he won't expand with just cards. Nintendo then diversified into toys and eventually video games. Their biggest competitor in the card market is Angel Playing Cards.

Current decks: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n09/index.html (http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n09/index.html)

Decks that they've produced: http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/WWPCM/japan/nintendo.htm (http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/WWPCM/japan/nintendo.htm)
Title: Re: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Don Boyer on October 15, 2015, 02:45:23 PM
I could be wrong on this, but many Japanese companies with a history that extends into or earlier than World War II appear to be loathe to talk about their history that far back.
Title: Re: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Worst Bower on October 15, 2015, 03:33:41 PM
I could be wrong on this, but many Japanese companies with a history that extends into or earlier than World War II appear to be loathe to talk about their history that far back.

I think that only applies to the former monopolies, the notorious zaibatsus that dominated the economy before the war.

Most of the world's oldest companies are Japanese and they're mostly family owned, small to mid-size businesses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies)
Title: Re: Nintendo playing cards
Post by: Don Boyer on October 15, 2015, 03:42:46 PM
I could be wrong on this, but many Japanese companies with a history that extends into or earlier than World War II appear to be loathe to talk about their history that far back.

I think that only applies to the former monopolies, the notorious zaibatsus that dominated the economy before the war.

Most of the world's oldest companies are Japanese and they're mostly family owned, small to mid-size businesses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies)

Ancient history is fine - but they tend to be reticent if they aren't as ancient and a fair percentage of their history was in the war effort early-mid 20th century.