Of course, the NES was the US version of Nintendo "Family Computer" or "Famicom", which has been released in Japan in 1983. It was re-designed for the US market to look like a VCR, so it didn't resemble older video game machines like the Atari or Colecovision. Those consoles had caused the huge video game crash of 1983 by releasing too many console versions and too many rubbish games too quickly, and at too high a price. (Hmm, sounds familiar... - Ed)
The classic machine, in all it's VCR-like glory.
The US launch was lucky to have Super Mario Bros as a launch title, but the launch line-up was quite robust, even by today's standards. The launch line-up was:
Super Mario Bros.
Clu Clu Land
Ice Climber
Kung Fu
Pinball
Donkey Kong Jr. Math
Wrecking Crew
Mach Rider
Excitebike
Baseball
Golf
Tennis
10 Yard Fight
Wild Gunman
Duck Hunt
Hogan's Alley
So how did the NES change gaming history? Well, first it re-created the US video game market after it had been almost non-existent for the two years since the crash. Nintendo did this in a variety of ways. The NES had powerful hardware at a cheap price, and Nintendo invented modern inventory management and marketing strategies to get the system into as many stores (and therefore homes) as possible.
Secondly, Nintendo were the first company to openly court 3rd parties to make games for their console, and to control game numbers and quality. Activision, a break away company from Atari, became the world's first 3rd party developer when a court order forced them to pay a fee to Atari to develop games for the VCS.
Nintendo adopted this strategy as a contract, and implemented it via a lockout chip in every cartridge. So you had to pay Nintendo to make a game that would work on their system, the game had to be of sufficient quality, and you could only release so many games a year, to kepp quality levels high.
Finally, it was the hardware itself. The NES was far more powerful then any other console at the time, and was actually cheaper to buy. It's unlikely any jump in level of graphical detail between generations has been as great as that between the Atari VCS generation and the NES (you could argue the jump from 2D to 3D, but early 3D graphics were pitiful).
From this
To this
And the hardware allowed such new levels of gameplay that most games today still have the same basic structure as NES games. It was the first system to create a new type of game that played differently to short-burst arcade games. For example, the Legend of Zelda was released mid 1986, and it was the first ever console game in the US with a save feature - the first game that took more then one sitting to complete.
Well, there you have it. If you have one at home, We'd suggest dragging out the old NES (in our case, it's still plugged into the TV right now!), playing a game of Super Mario Bros, and tipping your glass to the system that re-invented the whole thing we're on about.
You must have one beefy AV switcher, a TV with lots of inputs, or both.
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