So, the question here is "how and why" they were able to achieve such an accomplishment.
The "how" part is very simple.
In short, they found the four key elements of successful video games and used them quite effectively. More precisely, three of them were found by the veteran creator Yokoi in between 1966 and 1969, and the last one, which opened up a new frontier of video games, was found in 1981 by Miyamoto, who had no experience of making games before then.
On the other hand, the "why" part is much more deep and important. So, I'll center my discussion on the part.
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Actually, they were not the only people who discovered those elements. "Spacewar!", one of the earliest video games, did contain one of them.
Youtube: Spacewar! on the Computer History Museum PDP-1 (Steve Russell, 1962)
"Pong" became the world's first successful commercial video game because Nolan Bushnell, a co-founder of Atari, found the second one.
Youtube: Original Atari PONG (Atari, 1972)
"Space Invaders", which once totally dominated Japanese game industry, is probably the first video game to effectively utilize the third one.
Youtube: Space Invaders (Taito, 1978)
And, "Pac-Man" is the perfect example of what happens when those three elements are fully utilized concurrently - he became an American idol.
Youtube: Pac-Man Arcade gameplay (Namco, 1980)
By the way, those innovative games, as you may know, have many followers and clones.
"Computer Space", Nolan Bushnell's first product, was a modified version of Spacewar! and Pong is said to be inspired by a table tennis game developed for Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first home video game console; Pong itself became a victim of cloning.
Although Pac-Man is truly unique game, it was apparently influenced by other dot-eating games like "Head On(SEGA)" to some extent; Ms. Pac-Man, its popular sequel, was originally a MOD version of it.
Youtube: Head-On (SEGA, 1979)
Even Nintendo earned money by selling a modified version of Space Invaders before Yokoi and Miyamoto got involved in the development of arcade video games.
Youtube: Arcade Game: Space Fever (Nintendo, 1979)
Copying or stealing core mechanics of successful video games is one of the most widespread disease in the industry(are there any First-person shooters that are not influenced at all by "Doom" or its predecessor "Wolfenstein 3D"?)
Youtube: Wolfenstein 3D - Dos (developed by iD Software, 1992)
But Miyamoto is completely immune to it and he never tolerates developers in Nintendo doing such a shameful thing.
Just take a look at Wii Fit, Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life and Nintendogs - those games are beyond categorization and no other companies have succeeded in mimicking their success.
Why Nintendo is so special?
That's because Yokoi, its first developer, discovered the key elements of video games in a different field.
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As I told you in the last article, Yokoi started his career not as a game creator but as a toy designer. And more importantly, he had no one to consult with since he was the first developer in the company. So he had to find out what kind of products people wanted by himself. It was through this process that he found the three out of four key elements, and notably he did this work even before Pong was released.
So let's now talk about those elements, one by one.
The first and most essential element of video games is "instinctive pleasure" or, to put it more simply, "fun".
Whenever Shigeru Miyamoto, the most respected game creator on earth, develops a new game, he begins the process by researching what kinds of new fun he can provide.
For example, the earliest prototype of "Super Mario Bros." was extremely simple. There were no enemies, no background objects, even Mario was represented by a simple large rectangle because the single most important thing for him was to examine whether controlling a large character with a game pad could be a fun experience.
Shigeru Miyamoto (2010 @ Nintendo) :
Around December of 1984, I wanted to see what it would be like with a Mario jumping around who was about twice the size of the one in Mario Bros., so I asked the programmers at Nakago-san's company, SRD, to make a test version ...
- Iwata Asks: Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary
Link: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks/Super-Mario-Bros-25th-Anniversary/Vol-5-Original-Super-Mario-Developers/1-Using-the-D-pad-to-Jump/1-Using-the-D-pad-to-Jump-212727.html
As another example, when he created "Super Mario 64", the revolutionary 3D platformer, his approach was more radical. For him, moving Mario around in a open space was a truly fulfilling experience and it was all he cared about.
Shigeru Miyamoto (2007 @ Nintendo) :
This is quite an extreme view, but I actually felt at one point that this didn’t really have to be a game ...
There was no other game before Mario 64 where you could truly move around freely in a 3D environment, so it was fun just moving Mario around and finding stars.
- Iwata Asks: Super Mario Galaxy
Link: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks/Iwata-Asks-Super-Mario-Galaxy/Volume-4-Shigeru-Miyamoto/2-It-s-Fun-Just-Playing-Around/2-It-s-Fun-Just-Playing-Around-220674.html
For Miyamoto, his most essential part of the job is to discover new fun experiences and realize them using available resources and technologies.
Shigeru Miyamoto (2007 @ Nintendo) :
My initial focus, and my primary focus throughout development, is not these individual elements of the game. When I'm creating a game, what I always try to envision, what I always think about, is the core element of fun within the game.
- The Game Developers Conference 2007 keynote speech
Youtube: Shigeru Miyamoto 2007 GDC Keynote - Part 3 (quoted part begins from 10:57)
Needless to say, he learned the idea from Yokoi.