Super Mario
How Nintendo Conquered America
Penguin Publishing Group · Print & ebook · September 25, 2012
The definitive story of the rise of Nintendo.
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- Who it’s for
- Follow how Nintendo turned an arcade gamble into a defining force in video games.
- Themes
- Nintendo’s rise, Video-game industry, Mario’s popularity
- Genres
- Corporate Histories, Games, Business Lives
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For younger readers: Legend of Zelda Complete Box Set, Game On!, Super Mario Little Golden Book (nintendo®)
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Start with this bookAbout this book
The definitive story of the rise of Nintendo. In 1981, Nintendo of America was a one-year-old business already on the brink of failure. Its president, Mino Arakawa, was stuck with two thousand unsold arcade cabinets for a dud of a game (Radar Scope). So he hatched a plan. Back in Japan, a boyish, shaggy-haired staff artist named Shigeru Miyamoto designed a new game for the unsold cabinets featuring an angry gorilla and a small jumping man.
Continue reading
Donkey Kong brought in $180 million in its first year alone and launched the career of a short, chubby plumber named Mario. Since then, Mario has starred in over two hundred games, generating profits in the billions. He is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, yet he’s little more than a mustache in bib overalls. How did a mere smear of pixels gain such huge popularity? Super Mario tells the story behind the Nintendo games millions of us grew up with, explaining how a Japanese trading card company rose to dominate the fiercely competitive video-game industry.
Pixels to Powerhouse
Follow how Nintendo turned an arcade gamble into a defining force in video games.
Come here for
- The business stakes behind familiar games
- A close look at Mario’s unlikely cultural reach
Expect
- Nintendo’s rise told through its games
- Industry history with a distinctly playful subject
Where it sits
| Business Lives | 40% |
|---|---|
| Corporate Histories | 38% |
| Games | 27% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Science & Tech Pioneers
- Corporate Histories
- Game Dev
- Authors
- Jeff Ryan
- Publisher
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Published
- September 25, 2012
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Nintendo’s rise · Video-game industry · Mario’s popularity
- Reading lane
- Science & Tech Pioneers