Nintendo Entertainment System

Following the video game crash of 1983 in the games industry went from being worth 3.2 billion dollars in 93 to a 100 million in 85 that’s a 97 percent drop. A lot of companies went out of business and there was a huge gap in the market. That’s where Nintendo came in.

It all started when Nintendo released the Famicom Disk System in Japan in February 1983. It was the most popular console in Japan at that time. With all of their success in Japan they decided to try and expand into the US market. They would release the NES, Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. When they were designing the NES they wanted to make it as best as it possibly could be. They added an unnecessary eject button for removing the cartridges because they thought that children would get enjoyment of just pressing the button and the cartridge would come out. It was the simple features like this and fact that Nintendo were determined to have the highest quality console and games that made them stand out and why they became so successful. Nintendo had also seen what mistakes other companies had made around that time they made sure that they were not going to do the same.

The success that Nintendo had in Japan pales in comparison to their success in the US with the launch of NES in 1985. With the launch titles like Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt, two of the most iconic video games of all time. Nintendo sold 7 million consoles by 1988 (which was more than the Commodore 64 had done in its first 5 years). With some more iconic games released within the next couple of years including Mega Man, Castlevania, Metal Gear, Metroid, Punch Out and The Legend of Zelda Nintendo cemented themselves as the one of the biggest and most successful companies of all time, but they have been credited to resurrecting the games industry after the crash in 1983.

This is the original design of the console.

This is the Nintendo Famicom which was only released in Japan. It was released two years before the NES.

This video highlights 20 games that defined the NES.

Technical Specifications:

CPU: 6508 8-bit (using a custom Motorola 6502 class)

Memory: 2kb of RAM

Video: 2k of RAM

Sound: PSG sound chip