Nintendo
In 1975, Nintendo moved into the video arcade game industry with "EVR Race", designed by their first game designer, Genyo Takeda, and several more games followed. Nintendo had some small success with this venture, but the release of "Donkey Kong" in 1981, designed by Miyamoto, changed Nintendo's fortunes dramatically. The success of the game and many licensing opportunities (such as ports on the Atari 2600, Intellivision and ColecoVision) gave Nintendo a huge boost in profit and in addition, the game also introduced an early iteration of Mario, then known in Japan as Jumpman, the eventual company mascot.
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo initiated a limited test launch process prior to nationwide release. The first test launch saw the NES and its initial library of eighteen games released in New York City on October 18, 1985, with an initial shipment of 100,000 systems. Each set included a console, two gamepads, a R.O.B., a Zapper, and the Game Paks "Gyromite" and "Duck Hunt". The library of eighteen launch titles are "10-Yard Fight", "Baseball", "Clu Clu Land", "Duck Hunt", "Excitebike", "Golf", "Gyromite", "Hogan's Alley", "Ice Climber", "Kung Fu", "Pinball", "Stack-Up", "Tennis", "Wild Gunman", and "Wrecking Crew". Lucas M. Thomas wrote for IGN that he considered the "Baseball" title to be a prominent key of success at the test launch event.