History of Nintendo
Their first video arcade game was 1975's "EVR Race"; a handful of others followed in the next several years, "Radar Scope" and "Donkey Kong" being among the most famous of these. The early 1980s saw Nintendo's video game division (led by Yokoi) creating some of its most famous arcade titles. The massively popular "Donkey Kong" was created in 1981, with Shigeru Miyamoto as its mastermind, and released in the arcades and on the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision video game systems (although Nintendo themselves 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.
List of commercial failures in video gaming
In 1991, electronics company Philips entered the console gaming business by creating the "Compact Disc Interactive" console, better known as the "CD-i". Like the 3DO, the CD-i was marketed as not only a video game console, but also a multimedia console. Besides CD-i discs, the console was capable of playing Video CDs. The launch price was $700. It was originally intended to be an add-on for the Super NES, but the deal fell through. Nintendo, however, did give Philips the rights and permission to use five Nintendo characters for the CD-i games. In 1993, Philips released two Zelda games, "" and "". A year later, Philips released another Zelda game, "Zelda's Adventure", and a few months later, a Mario game titled "Hotel Mario". All four of these Nintendo-themed games are commonly cited by critics as being among the worst ever made. Much criticism was also aimed at the CD-i's controller. Although it was extensively marketed by Philips, consumer interest remained low. Sales began to slow by 1994, and in 1998, Philips announced that the product had been discontinued. In all, roughly 570,000 units were sold, with 133 games released.