Nintendo Times- Ten Years of NES History

This article was printed in the November 1995 issue of Nintendo Power (Issue #78).

In October of 1985, Back to the Future was hot at the box office, The Cosby Show and Family Ties were the talk of television, and Punch-Out!! was sucking up quarters at arcades nationwide. The home video game market, in contrast, hadn't just fallen on hard times by the mid-80's, it had burned out in a colossal blaze, fueled by stacks of lousy games. By the time Nintendo introduced the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, in 1985, the company had a hard time, at first, finding anyone who was willing to give it a try.

The NES used the same technology as the Famicom, which had become tremendously popular in Japan. Nintendo knew that the NES was a great product, but it also knew that it would be challenging to get players in North America to try video games again. Players and stores were wary. Both had been burned by Atari's flame out, so Nintendo knew that it had to set the NES apart from the earlier generation of games.

Although the heart of the NES was an eight-bit computer, it wasn't intended to serve the same purpose that home computers did. It wasn't for word processing, balancing checkbooks or creating spreadsheets. And, although its primary users were kids, it wasn't a toy either. It was an electronic product meant for entertainmen. Thus it was dubbed the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The Famicom, with its red and white casing, looked much like a toy, so it was redesigned for the U.S. market. The first prototypes, designed in the U.S., were sleek, with top-loading Game Paks and wireless components including a light gun, a keyboard and a piano keyboard. Reaction to the system was not good. It was perhaps too sleek, and kids had no interest in the keyboards, which were eliminated. The final design was simple and more box-like than the prototype, but it included two peripherals designed to intrigue players: the Zapper light gun and a Robotic Operating Buddy, R.O.B. for short.

R.O.B. stood all of 9 1/2" tall, and he operated with two games, Gyromite and Stack Up. In Gyromite, R.O.B. balanced spinning gyros on platforms, and in Stack Up, he stacked up colored blocks to match the on-screen display. He moved back and forth and up and down. That's it. Not exactly exciting stuff by today's standards. But he did look cool, and he even came with custom shades (a glare guard, actually).

The NES, with R.O.B. and the Zapper, launched in New York City with a library of 17 games, including Baseball, Clu Clu Land, Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Duck Hunt, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Mach Rider, Pinball, Stack-Up, Super Mario Bros., Tennis, 10-Yard Fight and Wrecking Crew. From there, sales moved to Los Angeles the following February, and by September of '86, they went national. The phenomenon had begun.

In September of 1987, Nintendo upped the play value of the system by packing Super Mario Brothers in with the NES. Players had gotten to know Mario in the arcade, but it wasn't until he went home with the NES that he became a household name. That's when beating Bowser became a global goal, and the Minus World became a part of almost every kid's vocabulary. With his bro, Luigi, Mario showed players just how fun an action game could be, and along the way, he became more popular than even Mickey Mouse

Mario was, of course, the main man, and he would go on to star in two more NES titles, including Super Mario Bros. 3, the biggest-selling video game of all time. He also had cameo roles in a number of other NES games, including Dr. Mario and NES Open Tournament Golf. Other characters made names for themselves on the NES, too, though. The Legend of Zelda, released in July of '87, introduced Link and the ever-kidnapped Princess Zelda, and the following month, Samus Aran, the first heroine for the NES, revealed her identity in Metroid. Both games became classics in their own rights, spawning sequels on the NES and later on Game Boy and the Super NES.

Out of the popularity of the NES grew the Nintendo Fun Club, which included a newsletter that was first printed in 1987. It was produced quarterly, and soon there were two and a half million members, all screaming for even more codes and tricks. Nintendo decided that players needed something bigger, a magazine packed with secret tips, winning strategies and full-color maps, a magazine that would help players get the most from their games.

The result: Nintendo Power. The first issue, printed in July, 1988, was sent free to all Fun Club members, and more than a million of them paid to become regular subscribers to what was, in the beginning, a bi-monthly magazine. Nintendo Power went monthly in January, 1991, featuring all of the best games made for the NES. Kid Icarus. Metroid. Mega Man. Castlevania. Zelda II. Ninja Gaiden. Double Dragon. Adventure Island. Battletoads. Blaster Master. Bomberman. Contra. Dragon Warrior. Final Fantasy. Ghosts 'n' Goblins. Adventures of Lolo. Tecmo Super Bowl. Punch-Out!! Rad Racer. R.C. Pro-Am. Ice Hockey. All of them have been in the spotlight on the pages of Nintendo Power. All became NES classics.

The NES, for all the years of powerful fun it served up, gave way to new generations of both players and systems. It's no surprise, though, that players who moved on to the Super NES still go back to play their favorite classics on the NES. For one more shot at Bowser. One more trip through Hyrule. One more battle with the Mother Brain. They may be eight-bit, but they're still gaming at its best. It's the games themselves - not the graphics, not the music, not the pure processing power - that make the fun happen. And the NES made it all happen.

Typed by Tony Erdman December 21, 1997.

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