I am old enough that I can remember the first video game that went mainstream – Pong.  It was a console-based, two-dimensional table tennis game that could be played with one or two players.  The player(s) controlled a paddle that was basically a short vertical line and attempted to keep a small circle representing a ball in play.  As the ball ricocheted and increased in speed, players were challenged to move their paddles up and down the screen to return the ball and avoid losing the point.

Introduced in 1975, the game took America by storm and motivated its developer and distributor, Atari, to create more games.  The games created became more complex and included better graphics.

A decade later, however, Nintendo supplanted Atari as the leader in video gaming, launching its entertainment system that was accompanied by Super Mario Brothers – one of the best-selling video games of all time.  The graphic below provides a wealth of information and some surprising facts about Nintendo.