Super mario: how nintendo conquered america, paperback/jeff ryan

The first princess Mario saved was Nintendo itself.

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.

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.