Hiroshi Yamauchi, who
built Nintendo from a small playing-
card company into a global video-
gaming empire before buying the
Seattle Mariners, died Thursday in
Japan. He was 85.
Yamauchi took over the company
from his ailing grandfather as a
university student in 1949 and ran it
until 2002 -- a remarkable span of 53
years.
He guided Nintendo from its pre-
electronic days as a maker of
children's games through its
emergence as the creator of hugely
popular video-gaming platforms such
as the Nintendo Entertainment
System, the Game Boy, hit games
such as "Donkey Kong," and iconic
characters such as Mario, the
mustachioed Italian plumber.
Nintendo confirmed the news
Thursday in an e-mailed statement
to media outlets. The company said
Yamauchi died of pneumonia at a
hospital in central Japan.
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