Editing Nintendo (section)

==== 1969–1972: Classic and electronic toys ====
Yamauchi increased Nintendo's investment in a research and development department in 1969, directed by Hiroshi Imanishi, a long-time employee of the company. Yokoi was moved to the newly created department and was responsible for coordinating various projects.<ref name="Nintendo History" />{{Sfn|Sheff|1999|pp=20-21}} Yokoi's experience in manufacturing electronic devices led Yamauchi to put him in charge of the company's games department, and his products would be mass-produced.<ref name="BusinessInsider2019">{{cite web |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-game-boy-super-mario-history-evolution-2019-3#among-the-companys-many-new-ventures-nintendo-began-manufacturing-games-in-the-70s-it-started-selling-electronic-toys-like-its-popular-beam-guns-4 |title=From playing cards to 'Super Mario Bros.', here's Nintendo's history. |last=Malinsky |first=Gili |website=Business Insider |date=18 March 2019 |access-date=25 May 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804140151/https://www.businessinsider.com/nintendo-game-boy-super-mario-history-evolution-2019-3#among-the-companys-many-new-ventures-nintendo-began-manufacturing-games-in-the-70s-it-started-selling-electronic-toys-like-its-popular-beam-guns-4 |url-status=live }}</ref> During that period, Nintendo built a new production plant in [[Uji]], just outside of Kyoto,<ref name="Nintendo History"/> and distributed classic [[tabletop game]]s like [[chess]], [[shogi]], [[Go (game)|go]], and [[mahjong]], and other foreign games under the Nippon Game brand.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=32}} The company's restructuring preserved a couple of areas dedicated to playing card manufacturing.{{Sfn|Gorges|2015a|p=33}}

In 1970, the company's stock listing was promoted to the first section of the Osaka Stock Exchange,<ref name="Corporate Information : Company History" /><ref name="Nintendo History" /> and the reconstruction and enlargement of its corporate headquarters was completed.<ref name="Nintendo History" /> The year represented a watershed moment in Nintendo's history as it released Japan's first electronic toy—the ''Beam Gun'', an [[Optoelectronics|optoelectronic]] pistol designed by [[Masayuki Uemura]].<ref name="Nintendo History"/> In total, more than a million units were sold.{{Sfn|Sheff|1999|page=24}} Nintendo partnered with [[Magnavox]] to provide a [[light gun]] controller based on the ''Beam Gun'' design for the company's new home video game console, the [[Magnavox Odyssey]], in 1971.<ref name="gamestudies geemu">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.gamestudies.org/1302/articles/picard |title=The Foundation of Geemu: A Brief History of Early Japanese video games |first=Martin |last=Picard |volume=13 |issue=2 |issn=1604-7982 |magazine=Game Studies |date=December 2013 |access-date=14 April 2021 |archive-date=9 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201209202810/http://gamestudies.org/1302/articles/picard |url-status=live}}</ref> Other popular toys released at the time included the [[Ultra Hand]], the [[Ultra Machine]], the Ultra Scope, and the [[Love Tester]], all designed by Yokoi. More than 1.2&nbsp;million units of Ultra Hand were sold in Japan.<ref name="Before Mario: Nintendo's Playing Cards, Toys And Love Hotels" />