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.
Nintendo video game consoles
The Game Boy was the first handheld game console sold by Nintendo that featured interchangeable cartridges for each game, unlike the Game & Watch that had a different system for each game. Released in 1989 in Japan, it is one of the world's best-selling game console lines, with over 100 million units sold worldwide. The classic Game Boy was sold in a number of different revisions and variations, including the streamlined Game Boy Pocket and the Game Boy Light in Japan. In 1998, Nintendo released the Game Boy Color, a new Game Boy platform with color graphics. Combined, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color sold 118.69 million units worldwide.