Nintendo’s first coin-operated arcade game was a computerized version of the board game Othello. Released in Japan in 1978 as Computer Othello, it was an early tabletop-style arcade machine in which players competed by placing and flipping black-and-white discs on a board.
Othello is closely related to the older game Reversi. Both use an 8-by-8 board, but the modern Othello rules specify the opening four discs and the way the game ends. On each turn, a player brackets one or more opposing discs between two of their own, flipping the captured discs to their color.
Computer Othello is especially important in Nintendo history because it was the company’s first arcade video game developed and published by Nintendo. It predates the company’s worldwide arcade breakthrough with Donkey Kong, which appeared in 1981 and helped establish Nintendo as a major video-game maker.
The answer is sometimes confused with Go, another Japanese board game. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi reportedly wanted a computerized Go game, but the technology of the time made Othello a more practical project.