For the people who does not know about the history of the company and their experience in this area, Nintendo is a company that produces video games even before the birth of the Playstation and Xbox. It was originally a Japanese playing-card company.

As every good introduction begins with the products list, let me present the Nintendo game consoles from the beginning to this day. Thare are 2 major categories: home consoles and portable consoles.

• Home consoles
  • 1.1 Color TV Game
  • 1.2 Nintendo Entertainment System
  • 1.3 Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  • 1.4 Nintendo 64
  • 1.5 Nintendo GameCube
  • 1.6 Wii
  • 1.7 Wii U
• 2 Portable consoles
  • 2.1 Game & Watch
  • 2.2 Game Boy line
  • 2.3 Virtual Boy
  • 2.4 Nintendo DS
  • 2.5 Nintendo 3DS

Home consoles, Color TV Game

The Color TV Games series was composed from five diferent dedicated consoles, each designes to play a specific game or set of games. The players controlled their paddles with dials attached directly with the machine. As an alternative to the standard version it was introduced a C Battery powered model of Color TV Game 6. This series did not use removable storage system to storage its games on disc or in cartridge. It was distributed only in Japan.

Home consoles, Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System (known as NES) is an 8 bit video game console released in Europe (1986), Asia, North and South America (1985), Oceania, Africa and Australia (1987). In Japan (where it was first launched in 1983) and most of Asia (China, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, the Middle East and Hong Kong) this console was known as Famicon (Family Computer). The video game console was sold in 61 million units all over the world and it helped revitalize the video game industry in USA after its crash in 1983 and set the standard for subsequent consoles. It was the first console for which Nintendo courted third-party developers and the company continued to repair Famicon in Japan until October 31, 2007.

Home consoles, Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (known also as Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES) is a 16 bit video game console released by Nintendo in Europa, Asia, North and South America, Oceania and Africa between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and SouthEast Asia is also known as Super Famicon, in South Corea is known as Super Comboy and it was distributed by Hyundai Electronics. This console was a global success, the best selling console in 16 bit era - it was sold in 49 milion units. It also remained popular into the 32 bit era althoug Nintend were not longer offering repairs, replacements or accessories for the console.

Home consoles, Nintendo 64

Nintendo 64 (known also as N64 or Ultra 64), names for the 64 bit CPU, was released in Japan (june 1996), North America (september 1996), Europe and Australia (march 1997), France (september 1997) and Brazil (december 1997). It was discontinued in 2001 in Japan, North America and the areas that used Phase Aternating Line (an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries) when the GameCube was released. Nintendo 64 was released with 2 launch games in North America (Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64) and an additional one in Japan(Saikyo Habu Shogi). Phase Aternating Line regions had 3 lauch games: Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64 and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. It was sold in 32.93 million units.

Home consoles, Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube (known as NGC in Japan and GCN) was released in september 15, 2011 in Japan, november 16, 2011 in North America, may 3, 2002 in Europe and may 17, 2002 in Australia and it was discontinued on february 22, 2007. This game console was the first Nintendo console that used optical discs as its primary storage medium: mini DVD-based discs instead full-size DVDs. It was sold in 21.74 million units worldwide. Some of the games installed on Nintendo GameCube are Super Mario Sunshine, Pokemon Colosseum, Star Fox Adventures and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Home consoles, Nintendo Wii

It was released on november 19, 2006. The major feature of the Nintendo Wii console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, that may be used as a handheld pointing device and can detect motion and rotation in 3 dimensions. The Wii Remote also comes with a Nunchuk accessory wich proved additional control (more motion sensing and others), it contains a rumble device and a speaker to provide sensory feedback. As to the end of september 2011 Nintendo sold 89.36 million units of Wii worldwide. In late 2011 Nintendo released a reconfigured model called Wii Family Edition wich removed the Nintendo GameCube compatibility, but it was not released in Japan.

Home consoles, Nintendo Wii U

It's the upcoming video console by Nintendo, it was annouced in april 25, 2011, and it was unveiled during the Nintendo's press conference on june 7, 2011, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011. Nintendo Wii U is expected to be released in the second half of 2012 and it is said it's belonging to the eigth generation of video game consoles.

Portable consoles, Game & Watch

The Game & Watch series were handheld electronic games made by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991, they were created by the game designer Gunpei Yokoi. Each of the 59 games can be played on an LCD screen in addition to a clock and an alarm, most titles had a Game A and a Game B button - game B is usually faster, more difficult than Game A. The device was known as Tricotronic in Germany.

Portable consoles, Game Boy line

The Nintendo Game Boy is one of the world's best-selling game systems lines with over 200 million units sold worldwide. The classic version was sold in a number of revisions and variations. In 1998 Nintendo released the Game Boy Color, a new Game Boy platform with color graphics. These 2 platforms, combined, have sold 118.69 million units worldwide.

In 2001 Nintendo introduced the first major technological upgrade to the line: the Game Boy Advance. Later Nintendo released 2 revised models of Game Boy Advance. All three models, as the end of september 2011, have sold 81.51 million units worldwide.

Portable consoles, Nintendo Virtual Boy

Nintendo's Virtual Boy (known as VR-32 during development) was the first portable game console capable of displaying 3D graphics. It was released on july 21, 1995 in Japan and august 14, 1995 in North America.

Portable consoles, Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS (known as NDS or DS and iQue DS in Chine) was released in 2004. It contains 2 displays, the lowe one is a touchscreen, a built-in microphone and supports wireless IEEE 802. On march 2, 2006, Nintendo released in Japan the Nintendo DS Lite, a redesigned model of DS. Later it was released in Europe, North America and Australia. As the end of september 2011 Nintendo has sold 149 million units of DS, including over 93.5 million of DS Lites.

Portable consoles, Nintendo 3DS

Nintendo 3DS uses the same technology as Nintendo Virtual Boy. It contains 3 camers, 2 on the outside (for 3D photographs) and 1 internal above the top screen. The bottom screen is a touch screen and the top screen is Wide Screen and an autostereoscopic 3D LCD. As the end of september 2011 Nintendo has sold over 6.6 million units.