<DIV><B>The first princess Mario saved was Nintendo itself.</B></div><div><B> </B></div><div>In 1981, Nintendo of America was a one-year-old business already on the brink of failure. Its president, Mino Arakawa, was stuck with two thousand unsold arcade cabinets for a dud of a game (<i>Radar Scope</i>). So he hatched a plan.</div><div> </div><div>Back in Japan, a boyish, shaggy-haired staff artist named Shigeru Miyamoto designed a new game for the unsold cabinets featur­ing an angry gorilla and a small jumping man. <i>Donkey Kong </i>brought in $180 million in its first year alone and launched the career of a short, chubby plumber named Mario.</div><div> </div><div>Since then, Mario has starred in over two hundred games, gen­erating profits in the billions. He is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, yet he’s little more than a mustache in bib overalls. How did a mere smear of pixels gain such huge popularity?</div><div><i>Super Mario </i>tells the story behind the Nintendo games millions of us grew up with, explaining how a Japanese trading card company rose to dominate the fiercely competitive video-game industry.</div><br>