Nintendo's history goes back much further than Mario, Donkey Kong or even electronic games.

The company traces its beginnings to 1889, when Fusajiro Yamauchi began manufacturing traditional Japanese Hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto.

Nintendo spent decades in the playing-card business before branching into toys and, eventually, electronic entertainment. Its first home video-game systems didn't arrive until the 1970s.

That means the company behind some of the world's best-known video games was already in the game business when Queen Victoria was on the throne.

Nintendo is older than radio broadcasting, powered flight and the crossword puzzle.