Hiroshi Yamauchi built Nintendo from a playing - card company into a video - gaming empire . He created such successes as the Game Boy , ` ` Donkey Kong '' and iconic characters such as Mario . Yamauchi died Thursday in 2015 at age 84 .
Hiroshi Yamauchi built Nintendo from a playing-card company into a video-gaming empire . He oversaw such successes as the Game Boy , `` Donkey Kong '' and iconic characters such as Mario . Yamauchi died Thursday in Japan at age 85 .