Nintendo's NES game console turns 20!

[Zim Hosein]

It was 20 years ago today, to paraphrase the Beatles song, that "Super Mario Bros." started to play.

On Oct. 18, 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) first went on sale in the United States. It was an 8-bit video game console, and largely thanks to "Super Mario Bros.," a spinoff from the arcade hit "Donkey Kong," the NES quickly became the most successful game system of its era.

"It has been 20 years, which is hard to believe," said Beth Llewelyn, Nintendo senior director of corporate communications. "Super Mario Bros." was "a great game. That's what it all boils down to. It offered something new. It was the first side-scrolling game."

In the interim, Nintendo's consoles included the Nintendo 64 and the current GameCube.

And while most cell phones are now capable of game performance far beyond that of the NES, the machine's legacy lives on.

Today, Nintendo is overshadowed in game consoles by Sony, with its PlayStation series, and by the Microsoft Xbox. But Nintendo still is considered the worldwide leader in handheld video game devices, with its GameBoy series and the Nintendo DS. However, Sony is also gaining significant ground in handhelds with its PlayStationPortable.

For its part, the "Mario" franchise is very much alive and well. Current members of the family include "Super Mario Strikers," "Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time" and "Mario Party 7."

Previous Next Meanwhile, Nintendo is getting ready to release its next-generation console, the so-called Revolution. While it promises to be a significant leap forward from the GameCube, it has mostly been relegated to also-ran status by the forthcoming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and the excitement those two platforms have generated.

But Llewelyn said that the Revolution, which is expected to be released next spring, will feature the ability to download old Nintendo games, including titles going all the way back to the NES.

In any case, those who remember the launch of the NES 20 years ago are almost certainly no longer in the video game industry's most coveted demographic. Yet, many remain committed gamers and probably relish their first NES memories.

"When it comes down to it, it (was) just a great game play experience," Llewelyn said. "That started back with the first NES game."

Nintendo's NES game console turns 20

Oh the memories! :heart:

 

[GhettoFob]

:gift:

 

[CrackRabbit]

I was late on the Nintendo revolution, bought an Atari 7800

 

[state 08]

Sh1t, I still have mine. NEVER EVER giving it up. It's what got me into gaming. Too many memories to count. I actually save all my old systems.

So far:

NES
Game Gear
GBA (1st GEN)
N64
PSX
GameCube

 

[dawnbug]

Heehee, I remember my family's first NES-- we probably didn't get one until around 1990, because I was 5 or 6. It was so fun to play and to watch someone else play, and it was definitely something that our whole family enjoyed.

And my bf and I still have an NES. I'm pretty much the only one who plays it, though.

 

[Bozono]

Ahhh. I shall always love Nintendo. Playing Boomer's Adventure in Asmik World in the library at school in like 5th grade was the highlight of the school day. Game Boy pwnz.

 

[yourdeardaniel]

nintendo makes nice consoles and games

 

[nakedfrog]

Many great memories... and the day I found out you could RENT games! That was an epiphany. And a couple years later, Hastings Video opened up, and I could rent games for under $1.

 

[733SHiFTY]

Man I miss the days when my cousins would come over, and we would play mario bros 3, and have contests to see who could survive the longest on that 2 player level you could do...

 

[d33pt]

Anyone remember ROB? Hahah that thing was so lame. My dad paid extra for the deluxe set with ROB. Never really used him for much.. ended taking him apart and couldn't put it back together. The gyro spinner was great though.. those things spun for a long time.

 

[Rock Hydra]

How was the Nintendo packaged?

How I remember it being packaged was in that hard plastic stuff that is a bitch to get open where I usually have to take scissors to.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: d33pt
Anyone remember ROB? Hahah that thing was so lame. My dad paid extra for the deluxe set with ROB. Never really used him for much.. ended taking him apart and couldn't put it back together. The gyro spinner was great though.. those things spun for a long time.

I think when I was a kid I only ever ran across one person who had one. We played Gyromite. It was kinda cool.
I also knew one kid who had Arkanoid with the special controller. That was really cool.

 

[jiwq]

http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/movies.cgi?rec=Y

And be sure to check out this site for some videos of people beating NES games in style.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: d33pt
Anyone remember ROB? Hahah that thing was so lame. My dad paid extra for the deluxe set with ROB. Never really used him for much.. ended taking him apart and couldn't put it back together. The gyro spinner was great though.. those things spun for a long time.

I think when I was a kid I only ever ran across one person who had one. We played Gyromite. It was kinda cool.
I also knew one kid who had Arkanoid with the special controller. That was really cool.

Where did you grow up nakedfrog? When I was a young lad, everyone I know had one, we only had 2 decisions to make after school, whose house and what game! Those were the days!

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: d33pt
Anyone remember ROB? Hahah that thing was so lame. My dad paid extra for the deluxe set with ROB. Never really used him for much.. ended taking him apart and couldn't put it back together. The gyro spinner was great though.. those things spun for a long time.

I think when I was a kid I only ever ran across one person who had one. We played Gyromite. It was kinda cool.
I also knew one kid who had Arkanoid with the special controller. That was really cool.

Where did you grow up nakedfrog? When I was a young lad, everyone I know had one, we only had 2 decisions to make after school, whose house and what game! Those were the days!

Eh, I meant only one person had ROB...
I was living in Layton, UT when I got the Nintendo.
I actually still have my NES Satellite... the only game that we ever really had fun with in four player mode was Ironman's Off-Road.

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: d33pt
Anyone remember ROB? Hahah that thing was so lame. My dad paid extra for the deluxe set with ROB. Never really used him for much.. ended taking him apart and couldn't put it back together. The gyro spinner was great though.. those things spun for a long time.

I think when I was a kid I only ever ran across one person who had one. We played Gyromite. It was kinda cool.
I also knew one kid who had Arkanoid with the special controller. That was really cool.

Where did you grow up nakedfrog? When I was a young lad, everyone I know had one, we only had 2 decisions to make after school, whose house and what game! Those were the days!

Agreed. Those were the times. I used ot walk like 3 miles to my friend's house to play Nintendo.

(barefoot, in the winter with blistering winds, uphill both ways )

 

[raildogg]

Good old days.

ahhhh how I miss them

 

[mcmanager]

Originally posted by: d33pt
Anyone remember ROB? Hahah that thing was so lame. My dad paid extra for the deluxe set with ROB. Never really used him for much.. ended taking him apart and couldn't put it back together. The gyro spinner was great though.. those things spun for a long time.

Nintendo originally marketed ROB for a reason.
The north american market was EXTREMELY leary about video game systems given the fantastic crash of the video games industry with atari and intellevision (matel) producing so many crap games.

Nintendo captured the market by designing their north american NES to look like a serious piece of electronics. They went out of their way to make the game carts 2x the size of the jap ones and have them load like a tape in a VCR right down to the cart being pushed down into the deck. The ROB robot was designed to showcase the nintendo as something signifigantly other than a gaming system (their promises were vague and of course nothing came of them). The reason the NES was called the 'control deck' is because it controlled ROB and whatever the other accessory was. It was initially marketed to NA as a computer control deck for those accessories...

And it worked!

 

[jiwq]

The best thing about the NES were the fancy gadgets they had. Previously mentioned was ROB. Anybody also remember the Powerglove or U-Force? Those things were way ahead of their time! While none of the gadgets really took off, they were nonetheless cool when you look back on it.

 

[nakedfrog]

Come to think of it, one of my best friends had the Bandai Powerpad. That was pretty sweet, too. Some sort of Track & Field game came with it, I think.

 

[nakedfrog]

One of my all-time favorites ever was River City Ransom... we kept playing that well into the Super NES years.

 

[thegimp03]

Hah, speaking of...I just unpackaged and hooked my Nintendo up to my new 50 inch Sony Projection LCD to play Duck Hunt...So sweet.

 

[CptObvious]

Originally posted by: jiwq
The best thing about the NES were the fancy gadgets they had. Previously mentioned was ROB. Anybody also remember the Powerglove or U-Force? Those things were way ahead of their time! While none of the gadgets really took off, they were nonetheless cool when you look back on it.

I never got the chance to use either, but I remember wanting to get the Glove after seeing The Wizard.

 

[Svnla]

I can't believe it has been 20 years. I used to have a NES with ROB. Some of the games I like: Contra, GoGo 13, Double Trouble, Double Dragon.

 

[bleeb]

I :heart: Nintendo