The Secret Disguise Nintendo Used to Trick Every Store in America

In 1985, Nintendo walked a video game console into American stores by insisting it wasn't one. This is the story of how a 1889 Japanese playing card company became Nintendo of America, survived a warehouse full of unsold arcade cabinets, disguised the NES as a toy to save an industry Atari nearly killed, and built the licensing model and mascot that still define gaming forty years later — from Donkey Kong to the Switch and the billion-dollar Mario movies.