Customer Reviews

Nintendo NES System - Video Game Console

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Arguably the single most important console in video game history, Nintendo Entertainment System (hereafter referred to as the NES), along with SUPER MARIO BROTHERS, singlehandedly resurrected the video game industry after the historic crash of 1983-1984. Rather than reviewing the system itself, which has been done many times, I think many people may find the history how of this revolutionary console came to the videogame industry's rescue very interesting; I know I do. I draw much of this information from various websites, one very good one in particular; unfortunately, I can't really plug them due to Amazon's policies. Email me if you want the websites.

By 1983, the gaming industry, in existence for a mere twelve years, had risen to an astonishing 3.2 billion dollar industry. Atari spearheaded the industry, which introduced its first console in 1977 (Atari Video Computer System), and since had grown to hold two thirds of the entire market. However, in 1984 all this would end with a thunderous crash. This concise overview will show you the history of the home consol crash and how the NES came to the rescue.

In 1976, Warner Communications bought Atari for $28 million from the company's founder, Nolan Bushnell. Over the next two years, Atari, suffering major production problems and Bushnell's bizarre management, lost Warner millions. Bushnell and Warner's CEO fought, and in 1978 Bushnell was forced to leave. Warner totally revamped the working style, and in 1979-1980, produced twelve new titles. However, Atari was still dragging down Warner's stock. Struggling to gain the market share, Atari made the smartest move they possible could have; in 1980, they began licensing arcade games, the first being SPACE INVADERS. Over the next two years, Atari overtook the market, bringing in over half of Warner's overall profits.

However, very significant problems would totally destroy the infant industry. In 1981, Atari released PAC MAN on the VCS, and, because it was such a huge arcade hit, quickly became a bestseller. Unfortunately, the quality was very low. This was a major blow to the company's image, with fans and critics alike extremely disappointed.

Another major stumble was one of video games' most infamous games, ET. Warner bought the rights from Spielberg for twenty one million dollars. Atari, expecting the game to be as big a hit as the movie, which was the highest grossing film at that point, purportedly made more ET cartridges than there were consoles themselves. ET proved to be a huge flop, nearly breaking Atari.

By 1983, Atari was in serious trouble. Suing Activision (which was disgruntled Atari employees who broke off and formed their own company) and Imagic, the two leading third party developers, Atari tried to gain control over its software catalogue. Atari lost the suits. Third party developers began popping up overnight, and the industry becomes saturated with very low-quality products. (One of the most controversial is CUSTER'S REVENGE by Mystique, where the goal is to rape a Native American woman while avoiding being shot by arrows.) The third-party developers went bankrupt; these cartridges were heavily discounted, and the major companies couldn't compete. Another factor is the home computer market, that was just starting to come alive in 1984. With an increasing amount of computer games and low prices, people started buying these over the consoles.

All these factors lead to the crash of 1984. In 1983 alone, Atari lost $356 million. Warner sold Atari to Jack Tramiel, former head of Commodore. The video game industry died, with no major American corporation coming anywhere near it. Enter Nintendo.

A little history here will be highly illuminating as well. What many people don't realise is Nintendo is a very old company, founded in 1889 (yes, you read that right) as a playing card company. It became Japan's largest playing card company, and was very successful. In the 1960s, they moved away from the cards and got into the game and toy markets. (A very interesting sidenote: during that same decade, Nintendo's president opened up a `special hotel' rented `by the hour.' Supposedly, the married president was one of the hotel's top customers). In the 1970s and early 1980s, the company scored significant points with big arcade hits and the Game and Watch product line. In 1983, Nintendo released the Famicom (Family Computer). It was a massive hit in Japan. In 1983, Nintendo went to Atari because they wanted to release the Famicon to the American market. Do to complications I won't go into, the deal fail through. In 1984 they were looking to broaden their market share.

1985, Nintendo announced the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System. They release SUPER MARIO BROTHERS in Japan, scoring a huge hit. In 1986, the NES comes full throttle into the American market, quickly becoming the biggest selling console ever, largely because of that title. The NES owes much of its success to SUPER MARIO BROTHERS. Coming prepacked with the console, there are an estimated 40 million copies of SMB in existence, making it the highest selling video game ever.

Unparalleled, SMB blew open the doors to the videogaming world. With rich palettes of colour, eight four level worlds, spot-on play control, and expert level design, SMB was a much longer game than most of Atari's products and was a game unlike any other at that time. SMB also had the benefit of being very simple to grasp; run, jump, and fire. It was also the first side-sroller as we know it, though Atari's PITFALL set up the concept. Also, it's one of the best. Without SMB, NES wouldn't have been nearly as big a hit in the beginning.

In the end, Nintendo came at the industry's key moment. With a powerful new console (for that time) and a very well-designed game, Nintendo resurrected video gaming. With its phenomenal success of the NES and SMB, the video game industry once again took off, becoming one of the world's most significant economical contributors.

And we very largely have the NES to thank for it.

Seriously now. Are any of us worthy of reviewing this thing?

The Nintendo Entertainment System may have brought more hours of joy to more people than any other man-made invention in the history of the world. Folks, this is one of the few things ever invented that just never gets boring. You beat one game, get sick of it, and you have 30,000 other games to try, 40% of which are good, 30% of which are unbelievable. Some of my favorite titles are Dragon Warrior, the Legend of Zelda series, Castlevania, Mike Tyson's Punchout, the Super Mario Brothers series, etc. But you know the titles. You know them as well as I do.

How fun is playing Nintendo? Playing Nintendo is possibly the most fun you can have without there being ten beautiful naked women in the room with you, calling your name and gesturing suggestively. Actually, cut that. Playing Nintendo is so much fun that, even if the naked chicks were in the room with you, you might not notice that they were there because you would be so immersed in the game. You think I am joking? I am not. Playing Nintendo is so much fun that it is almost dangerous--after hitting the power switch it is easy to get so caught up in a game that you ignore smoke alarms, telephone calls, knocks at the door, your term papers, your roommates calling for help, your wife, sketchy-looking people prowling around outside, etc.

I always wondered why our government did not put the addictive properties of Nintendo to use for constructive purposes. For example, I think that the Taliban would stop hating us if we would just drop 800 Nintendo systems on their villages. After stomping on a few Little Goombas, they would inevitably undergo a transformation and our different cultures could surely then live together in harmony. Another suggestion of mine is that we give Nintendos to dangerous prisoners in jails. The crazy guys would get so into Nintendo that they would not even attempt to eat the other people in their cell. Lives might be saved because of Link, Zelda, Bagu and Ganon.

If you already own a Nintendo, then you know exactly what I am talking about. If you don't own a Nintendo, then you haven't really lived yet. Take about three weeks off from work, ship your wife off to see relatives, turn off your cell phone, pull down the curtains and purchase yourself a set. I guarantee that those three weeks will be among the most blissful weeks of your life. You will thank me, and you will live a better and fuller life for the experience.

I was raised on gameboards and NES. I left the gameboards and explored our NES system. We started out with almost 100 games, and now we have over 200! I own almost 20 of my own games today.

The games aren't all about blood, gore, and sexual content. They are more family friendly. Some of my favorites include Dragon Warrior, River City Randsom, Final Fantasy, Kirby's Adventures, Metroid, Zelda/Link, Star Tropics, Friday the 13th, and many more. Most of these allow you to save your game, and some allow 3 or more different games to be stored at once.

This system can be hard to clean on the inside, which is the only downside I can think of. Although, if you buy one used there is no guarantee that it will be clean, work, or in mint condition anyway.

For all the people buying the used systems and then complaining about them: spend a few more dollars and get a brand new one! Imagine all the money you are saving by buying a classic, rather than a hyped up system with few games (each costing more than a brand new NES and a few games).

The NES gets 5 stars for game selection, 5 stars for family-friendliness, and 5 stars for price.

The NES, or the Nintendo Entertaiment System, is a system that revolutionized gaming in the late 80's. The graphics are not that good (were talking 8 bit here!) but the storylins of most games are good and the fun level is high. Overall a great system!

The 8-bit NES System takes you back to a simpler time. A time when graphics weren't overwhelming and violence wasn't as prevalent in video games. (Yes, of course there was some, but not to the extent of, say, Grand Theft Auto and it's ilk.) The games are easy to comprehend and play. They're also easy and cheap to find at thrift stores. All you have to do is clean them up and pop them in. Many web sites offer PDF downloads of the manuals/instructions as well so don't worry that you don't get the game mint in the box. The system and games are easy to maintain. Anyone with a phillips head screwdriver and a q-tip with a dab of rubbing alcohol can keep games and system clean and blink-free. New 72 pins can be easily installed for under 10 bucks - then your old system will play forever. I particularly like the Role Playing Games and the ability to save games for future play. Super Mario Bros. 3 is by far the best (and one of the toughest) video game ever created. Enjoy it! Relive your youth or show your kids what video games were like "back in the day."

After the video game crash of '83, many retailers and electronic manufacturers left the home video game market for dead, but a Japanese company called Nintendo saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.

Perhaps the greatest NES innovation was its streamlined, compact controllers, boasting four buttons (including Start and Select) and the first modern, eight-way directional pad (instead of a joystick). These comfortable controllers proved very durable and well suited to long playing sessions.

The NES boasts an absolutely HUGE library of games, including numerous classics like Contra, Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, and of course the Super Mario Bros series. With its bright graphics and fast gameplay, the system excelled in practically every style of video game, from sports to arcade to RPGs. Although the system had its share of old standards like Pac-Man and Galaga, many titles were innovative and pushed the limits of 2D gameplay. It's also interesting to note that Nintendo closely controlled third-party game developers by reserving the right to manufacture the cartridges for the system (hence the Nintendo "seal of quality").

All in all, this system was un-falcon-believable when it came out. Pay homage to the roots and play one today!

I got this system when I was 5 years old at a yard sale for $10 along with the gun zapper thingy and about 15 games.By far my favorites were Super Mario,Super Mario 3,duckhunt and others.The controller isn't very comfortable though being a plastic rectangle(Nintendo corrected this for the SNES)but the controlls are very simple,just a directional pad,start,select,and A,B buttons.Great system.

Ahh, the system that started it all for me, and millions of others on the tail end of "Generation-X". My parents thought they had bought a Pandora's box home, but parents of a future, more enlightened age will see video games in a better light - they are as stimulating for the mind as books are even if they don't impart as much historical information or wisdom.

What more can be said about the classic 8-bit system? It is still fun to play, for starters, and for an old guy of 26 like me, having to keep track of a mere 2 controller buttons instead of the 50 or so on gamecube or xbox is pleasing.

Little kids might be able to kick my --- in Halo but I'll beat Super Mario Bros in 1/4 the time of any of those whippersnappers.

This is the system that single-handedly resurrected the U.S. videogame market. Before the days of the NES and Nintendo, Atari and its 2600 VCS reigned supreme. And Atari could've stayed on top had it accepted Nintendo's request for Atari to market Nintendo's Famicom in the States. Well, around that time Warner Communications sold its Atari home division to the infamous Tramiel family who decided that Atari should be about computers, not video games. In 1985 Nintendo introduced the NES and thanks to a chubby Italian plumber named Mario, games were suddenly "in" again. Atari saw Nintendo's success and brought its 2600 Jr. and 7800 systems out of the mothballs(the Tramiels shelved these projects as soon as they took over Atari), but kids were hooked on Mario, not Pole Position....it was too little too late for Atari, and Nintendo went on to dominate the industry. There were some absolutely GREAT games for the NES. My favorites are the Mario series (original Mario Bros., Super Mario 1, Super Mario 2, Super Mario 3), the Zelda series, RC Pro Am, Punchout (it was Mike Tyson's Punchout for a while, but after Mike Tyson's conviction, the original version was recalled and renamed Punchout and in the game itself, ear-bitin' Mike was replaced by Mr. Dream), and Maniac Mansion. The only problem with the NES is its front-loading mechanism is prone to dust, dirt, and bent cartridge connectors...you would be better off finding the top-loading NES, but the top-loading NES is extremely rare.

Although the Atari 7800 and the Sega Master System had better hardware technology than the NES, they lacked the one important thing that the NES had...not only a huge library of game, but also a huge library of good games. The 7800 had minimal support (rumor has it that the Tramiels spent a little in advertising for the 7800 versus the multi-million dollar campaigns that Nintendo made), and Sega wasn't much better with the Master System. It's true that Nintendo's "third-party exclusivity" contracts (which meant that if a third-party company made games for the NES, they made them only for the NES, and they couldn't make games for competing systems) severely hampered the libraries of the 7800 and SMS, but the 7800 was doomed anyway (the Tramiels simply didn't care and basically ran the company into the ground until they sold the company to JTS), and SMS games were usually bad. The NES had its share of turkeys (one word of advice...steer clear of games made by unlicensed company Color Dreams [aka Wisdom Tree]...their games are so bad it's pathetic) but IMHO their good games outweighed the bad games.

I'm going to start of simple:the graphics are not great. That is because the system is over 10 years old. If you are all about graphics, don't get this. If you like great games, this is for you. For one thing, it is cheaply priced. It has many of the original games like Dragon Warrior1-4, Final Fantasy, Zelda, and many others. You can also play 4-player with the NES Satelite. This game system is really awesome for the price.