Tokyo:Hiroshi Yamauchi, founder of Japans Nintendo video-game empire who in 1991 stepped up to buy the Mariners and keep them from moving from Seattle, died Thursday at 85.

Yamauchi died on Thursday of pneumonia at a hospital in central Japan.

Yamauchi was just 22 when he took over the family business from his ailing grandfather and he went on to head the firm for over half a century.

It was during his tenure  in 1983  that Nintendo released a games console called the “Family Computer,” which laid the foundations for the modern video-game industry.