Video: Nintendo's five greatest ever video games Hiroshi Yamauchi, who has died aged 85, ran Nintendo for more than 50 years and made the company into a global success. Under his leadership, Nintendo produced some of the great video games and hooked generations of video game players. Older gamers will have fond memories of the Donkey Kong arcade game, launched in 1981, which proved to be a major milestone in the company's development. The character the player moved around the screen was called Jumpman, but gradually marketing material began to refer to him as Mario. Four years later Super Mario Bros marked the formal debut of Mario the rotund plumber, now thought to be one of the most recognised games characters ever. When he assumed control of what was then the family business, the company was making Japanese playing cars. Half a century on Nintendo is the largest video games business in the world. Videos courtesy YouTube/Nintendo