Nintendo Entertainment System
The Dominator of the Third Generation
The Nintendo Entertainment System, or more commonly the NES, dominated the video game market of the third generation, the most being 90% of the US market. It’s been known as the Famicom, or Family Computer, in Japan and had unrivaled success.
Why was this console just so awesome, you ask? Read on!
Basics
After the video game crash that happened in 1983, many thought the market was dead and useless. A Japanese company by the name of Nintendo, however, saw the truth, and took advantage of the wide-open space.
It was a struggle to stock the consoles at first, but it soon picked up momentum, and within the first year, it was unstoppable.
The NES was designed by Masayuki Uemura, and it was released in Japan on July 15, 1983, with three versions of Nintendo’s popular arcade games – Popeye, Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Jr. Errors started with the NES, but after a recall, and a new motherboard, it became the best selling video game console in Japan.
When the NES was finally released in the North American market, not under the name Nintendo Advanced Video System like they had wanted, nor with a keyboard, wireless joystick, or cassette data recorder – the console was released under the name Nintendo Entertainment System.
When it was released, it had eighteen launch titles, including the best selling hit Super Mario Bros.
It’s release in Europe and Australia was a it different – it had two separate marketing regions, A and B. Distribution in B was most of mainland Europe – except for Italy – was handled by a few different companies, with Nintendo release the cartridges. Mattel dealt with the distribution for A, which was the UK, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.
The console, however, didn’t sell very well outside of North America and Japan – this didn’t stop the NES from becoming the best selling console in video game history, with 60 million sold during its lifetime world wide.
During the 1990’s, the NES lost popularity as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System showed up, along with the Sega Mega Drive. But even as the system was ceasing production, a number of the most popular NES games were being transferred to newer consoles, and they are still popular classics in the gaming world – games like Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, all Nintendo games that debuted on the NES. Likewise, with Capcom’s Mega Man, Konami’s Castlevania, and Square Enix’s Dragon Quest, that is so popular in Japan that it is actually against the law to release it on a weekday, and Final Fantasy, which has a massive fan base too large to really consider. These games started on the NES, and for that, we owe Nintendo – possibly even for modern video games.
Designer System, or Not So Much
So, there’s no question that the NES was a hit – however, the console was lacking slightly in the design center. It was simply a grey box on top, darker grey on the bottom, a front loading system, and two dark grey buttons. It wasn’t anything special in design, and nothing unique at all – it resembled a toy in nearly all aspects.
Two controller ports allowed two player gaming, and despite the console’s less than attractive design, the controllers made up for it.
Attractive and innovative, the controller boasted two control buttons – A and B – a start and pause button, and the first eight-way D-pad, which was tight in the controller itself, and very sturdy. The original controller was rectangular and fairly easy to use for long periods of time.
Another controller was released, also, later in the consoles life – it was often referred to as the dog bone controller for the two enlarged round areas on each side. It was much less popular then the original, however, and not quite as comfortable to use for most.
The library of games for the NES is, quite literally, massive. Classics like Contra, and Metroid were in full effect, and the bright graphics and fast game play allowed nearly any genre of games to excel to new heights – RPGs were just as fun as arcade or sports games.
Many think the reason that there were so many amazing games was because Nintendo had a close leash on third party developers, limiting how many games they made, and restricting them to only the NES. It’s also one of the reasons that other systems of the time lacked much third party support – in this, Nintendo was literally brilliant.
The cartridges are much larger then they needed to be, but were extremely easy to stack and sort, and worked out quite well. Color labels went in the corner, and on the top for easy sorting, and the graphics were basic, but unique for the time. Most cartridges were grey, but some games didn’t care for it – the Legend of Zelda games had a flashy metallic finish to it. A few others had different colors, but if you owned a large amount of games, they would mostly be the grey color.
The graphics for the time were sharper, more colorful, and overall simply better. A few problems, like games sometimes slowing, happened, but this was only minor annoyances, and happened with nearly every console in the third generation.
Best Console Ever?
It’s a personal choice, but many consider the NES the best console ever released by Nintendo – of course, the other console to possibly compete would be the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which sold 300,000 within the first few hours of released, and was so popular, Nintendo had to ship at night so the trucks wouldn’t be robbed.
If you’re looking for a great system to collect, with a ton of games and fun game play, the NES is the console for you – if you can find a working console, the possibilities are endless.
