While we all remember Nintendo’s early days as a glorious time in the mid-80’s, their video game history dates back a little further. One of their earliest games was a title called Radar Scope for arcades, and it was no Mario. 1979 was not a good year for the Japanese company hoping to reshape its future from its origins as a card game maker.

The game was a rather generic space-shooter game. While it was originally popular in Japan, by the time it reached America, arcade owners were not impressed. Neither were gamers, as they used hard-earned quarters on other machines. Faced with disaster, Nintendo asked a young new employee named Shigeru Miyamoto to “fix” the game and replace the current version in their now worthless machines.

Instead of tweaking a bad game, Miyamoto simply created a new one. Which was the original Donkey Kong, and yes this was the first appearance of Mario. So Donkey Kong replaced the data in the Radarscope machines, and gamers flocked to it. Leading to Nintendo’s booming success and a future that would make all other video game makers jealous. I kinda wished Nintendo would re-release Radar Scope just for the fun of it.