Nintendo's American journey began with a near-disaster. In 1980, Nintendo of America was stuck with 2,000 unsold arcade cabinets of a failing shooter called Radar Scope .
To overcome the intense retailer skepticism following the Atari-led market crash, Nintendo carefully rebranded its Japanese "Famicom" for the U.S..
: President Hiroshi Yamauchi tasked a young artist, Shigeru Miyamoto , with creating a new game for the existing hardware.
: Miyamoto designed a game featuring a "jumping man" (originally Jumpman) and an ape, which earned $180 million in its first year and saved the American subsidiary.