Did You Know Nintendo Offered Vacuum Cleaners & Instant Rice Before Video Games?
Nintendo has a fascinating history. In 1963, Nintendo tried to expand its blooming playing card business by tapping into other markets. At the time, this included establishing a company selling food. Specifically, Nintendo briefly sold instant rice — an attempt to compete with instant noodles, which at the time were everywhere. Of course, noodles continue to be widely available, but the instant rice branch of Nintendo quickly disappeared, with not even a footnote on their website.
Another similarly failed product was the Chiritory, which was essentially just a vacuum cleaner. This being Nintendo, it wasn’t an ordinary vacuum cleaner; rather, it was a remote-controlled vacuum cleaner — like a Roomba but more complicated. Again, not as successful, but the legacy carried on, as “WarioWare, Inc.” included a mini-game where you controlled a Chiritory.
The device was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who designed various toys and gadgets for Nintendo, including a successful Love Tester (for testing, well, love attraction between two users). He stuck with Nintendo and created the Game & Watch handheld device, and he also worked on the design of the original Game Boy.
