Neatorama shares a N-Sider article on video game maker, Nintendo, had a pretty colorful history. It was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in 1889 to produce and sell playing cards made from the bark of mulberry trees...

There are more at ClassicGaming and GameSpot. Seen on Digg (#1 and #2). Lastly, Wikipedia.

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10/14/2006 3:07 PM PDT: Squirl has a collection of photographs of pre-1980 and pre-video games toys. Seen on Boing Boing.