The history of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) spans the 1982 development of the Family Computer, to the 1985 launch of the NES, to Nintendo's rise to global dominance based upon this platform throughout the late 1980s. The or was developed in 1982 and launched in 1983 in Japan. Following the North American

video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

, the Famicom was adapted into the NES which was brazenly launched in North America in 1985. Transitioning the company from its arcade game history into this combined global 8-bit

home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...

platform, the Famicom and NES continued to aggressively compete with the next-generation 16-bit consoles including the 1988 Sega Genesis. The platform was succeeded by the Super Famicom in 1990 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991, but its support and production continued until 1995. Interest in the NES has been renewed by collectors and

emulators In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

, including Nintendo's own

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Uni ...

platform.

Origins (1981–1984)

Development (1981–1983)

The

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...

experienced a period of rapid growth and unprecedented popularity during the late 1970s to early 1980s, with the

golden age of arcade video games The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development and cultural influence of arcade video games, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The period began with the release of ''Space Invaders'' in 1978, ...

and the

second generation of video game consoles In the history of video games, the second generation era refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld video game consoles available from 1976 to 1992. Notable ''platforms'' of the second generation include the Fairchil ...

: ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter an ...

'' (1978) and its

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...

clones had become a phenomenal success across arcades worldwide,

game consoles A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a ...

such as the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...

and the Intellivision became popular in North American homes, and the

Epoch Cassette Vision The is a home video game console made by Epoch Co. and released in Japan on July 30, 1981. A redesigned model called the Cassette Vision Jr. was released afterwards. The term ''cassette'' is a contemporary Japanese synonym for ROM cartridge, no ...

became the best-selling console in Japan. Many companies arose in their wake to exploit the growing industry; one such company was Nintendo. The basis for the Famicom hardware was

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...

hardware. A major influence was

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Namco Taiwan in Kaohsiung, ...

's ''

Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, wh ...

'' (1979), which had replaced the more intensive

bitmap In computing, a bitmap is a mapping from some domain (for example, a range of integers) to bits. It is also called a bit array or bitmap index. As a noun, the term "bitmap" is very often used to refer to a particular bitmapping application: t ...

rendering system of ''Space Invaders'' with a hardware sprite rendering system that animated sprites over a

scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...

background, allowing more detailed graphics, faster gameplay and a scrolling animated starfield background. This provided the basis for Nintendo's ''

Radar Scope is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Nintendo R&D2 and published by Nintendo. The player assumes the role of the Sonic Spaceport starship and must wipe out formations of an enemy race known as the Gamma Raiders before they destroy t ...

'' (1980) arcade hardware, which they co-developed with

Ikegami Tsushinki () is a Japanese manufacturer of professional and broadcast television equipment, especially professional video cameras, both for electronic news gathering and studio use. The company was founded in 1946. History Ikegami introduced the first ...

, improving on ''Galaxian'' with technology such as high-speed

emitter-coupled logic In electronics, emitter-coupled logic (ECL) is a high-speed integrated circuit bipolar transistor logic family. ECL uses an overdriven bipolar junction transistor (BJT) differential amplifier with single-ended input and limited emitter current to ...

(ECL) integrated circuit (IC) chips and

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

on a 50 MHz printed circuit board. Following the commercial failure of ''Radar Scope'', the game's arcade hardware was converted for use with ''

Donkey Kong is a video game franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto and owned by Nintendo. It follows the adventures of a gorilla named Donkey Kong (character), Donkey Kong and his clan of other Ape, apes and monkeys. The franchise primarily consists of plat ...

'' (1981), which became a major arcade hit. Home systems at the time were not powerful enough to handle an accurate port of ''Donkey Kong'', so Nintendo wanted to create a system that allowed a fully accurate conversion of ''Donkey Kong'' to be played in homes. * Led by

Masayuki Uemura was a Japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor. He was known for his work as an employee of Nintendo from 1971 to 2004, most notably for serving as a key factor in the development of the Nintendo Entertainment System. A former em ...

, Nintendo's R&D2 team began work on a home system in 1982, ambitiously targeted to be less expensive than its competitors, yet with performance that could not be surpassed by its competitors for at least a year. The console began development under the codename Project GAMECOM. Uemura analyzed the innards of rival consoles, including the

and

Magnavox Odyssey The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September ...

, sidestepping their primitive technology. Their main competition was the

, the best-selling console in Japan at the time, with Nintendo president

Hiroshi Yamauchi was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company in 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being subsequently succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year tenure, Yamauchi transformed Nintendo from a hanafu ...

telling employees he wanted them to develop a console both more powerful and cheaper than the Cassette Vision.

Nintendo R&D2 commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D2, was a Japanese team within Nintendo that developed software and peripherals. While usually occupied in system operating software and technical support, the team would come back to early development in the ...

engineer Katsuya Nakakawa analized the IC chips of the more powerful ''Donkey Kong'' arcade hardware, concluding that it would be possible to use them as a basis for their console. Another Nintendo R&D2 engineer, Takao Sawano, proposed that the

D-pad A D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad; officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern vid ...

of Nintendo's

Game & Watch The Game & Watch brand ( ''Gēmu & Uotchi''; called ''Tricotronic'' in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as ''G&W'') is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. C ...

handheld devices should be adapted for the console. * Meanwhile in North America, the toy manufacturer

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. It was a successful toy company in the 1980s, mass-producing versions of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game conso ...

was working on a new home console to compete with the Atari 2600 and which would be capable of handling fairly accurate ports of arcade games. Coleco demonstrated a prototype of the ColecoVision to Nintendo R&D2 engineers, who were impressed by the smoothly animated graphics. It left a strong impression on Sawano and Uemara, who had the ColecoVision in mind while working on Nintendo's new console in Japan. However, while the ColecoVision was a significant improvement over the Atari 2600, there was still no console comparable to the original ''Donkey Kong'' arcade hardware. Nevertheless, the bundled port of ''Donkey Kong'' helped the ColecoVision become a major success in North America. Uemura sent the engineers Katsuya Nakakawa and Masahiro Ootake to meet with

Ricoh is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational imaging and electronics company (law), company. It was founded by the now-defunct commercial division of the Riken, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) known as the ''Riken ...

, a

semiconductor manufacturer The semiconductor industry is the aggregate of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductors and semiconductor devices, such as transistors and integrated circuits. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semiconduc ...

that had previously worked with Nintendo on arcade games. One of Ricoh's supervisors was Hiromitsu Yagi, a former

Mitsubishi Electronics , established on 15 January 1921, is a Japanese multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the core companies of Mitsubishi. The products from MELCO include elevators ...

engineer who had previously designed the

large-scale integration An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

(LSI) chips for the Nintendo Color TV-Game consoles in the 1970s. To determine the system specifications of the new console, Nakakawa and Masahiro brought along a ''Donkey Kong'' arcade machine for Ricoh to analyze, in order to help build a console more powerful than any consoles at the time and which would be comparable to the ''Donkey Kong'' arcade hardware. Uemura initially thought of using a modern

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mo ...

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just Processor (computing), processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes Instruction (computing), instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU per ...

(CPU), but instead settled on an 8-bit CPU based on the inexpensive

MOS Technology 6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...

, supplementing it with a custom

graphics chip A video display controller or VDC (also called a display engine or display interface) is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video-signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computin ...

, the

Picture Processing Unit A video display controller or VDC (also called a display engine or display interface) is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video-signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computin ...

, produced by Ricoh. To reduce costs, suggestions of including a

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

, and floppy disk drive were rejected, but expensive circuitry was added to provide a versatile 15-

pin A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch ...

expansion

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

connection on the front of the console for future add-on functionality such as

peripheral device A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the ...

s. The keyboard,

Famicom Modem The , also known as the Famicom Net System and Famicom Modem, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer video game console, and was released in September 1988 only in Japan. Predating the modern Internet, its proprietary dial-up information ...

, and

Famicom Disk System The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System or just Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Family Computer home video game console, released only in Japan on February 21, 1986. It uses proprietary floppy disks called "Disk Cards" for ...

would later be released as add-on peripherals, all utilizing the Famicom expansion port. Other peripheral devices connecting via the expansion port would include the Famicom Light Gun,

Family Trainer The Power Pad (known in Japan as Family Trainer, and in Europe and briefly in the United States as Family Fun Fitness) is a floor mat game controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a gray mat with twelve pressure-sensors embedded ...

, and various specialized controllers. Many would be released in Japan only, such as the

Famicom 3D System The Famicom 3D System is a Japan-exclusive accessory for the Nintendo Family Computer releasedPlunkett, Luke. Nintendo's First 3D Technology Shot A Spaceship At Mario's Face'. Kotaku. 30 April 2010. in 1987. Overview The 3D System consists of ...

and Famicom Disk System. The wireless broadcast functionality of the TV Tennis Electrotennis (1975) got Nintendo designer Masayuki Uemura to consider adding that capability to the Famicom. He ultimately did not pursue it to keep system costs low.

Famicom release in Japan (1983–1984)

Nintendo held its own exhibition to unveil the Famicom, becoming a sensation among toy show exhibitors. Shortly after, the competing

Sega SG-1000 The is a home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was Sega's first entry into the home video game hardware business. Developed in response to a downturn in arcades starting in 1982, the SG-1000 was created on the advice of Hayao Nakay ...

was unveiled at the Tokyo Toy Show. Launching on July 15, 1983, the Family Computer (commonly known by the Japanese-English term Famicom) is an 8-bit console using interchangeable

cartridge Cartridge may refer to: Objects * Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition * ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device * Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators Other uses * Cartridge (surname), a ...

s. The Famicom was released in Japan for (about $150 at the time, or equivalent to $ in ). Its

launch game This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

list is ''Donkey Kong'', ''

Donkey Kong Junior is a 1982 arcade platform game that was released by Nintendo. It is the sequel to '' Donkey Kong'', but with the roles reversed compared to its predecessor: Mario (previously named "Jumpman") is now the villain and Donkey Kong Jr. is trying ...

'', and ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. at 500,000 units in its first two months. However, many Famicom units reportedly had faulty graphics chips and froze during gameplay. After tracing the problem to a faulty circuit, Nintendo voluntarily recalled all Famicom systems just before the holiday shopping season, and temporarily suspended production of the system while the concerns were addressed, costing Nintendo millions of dollars. The Famicom was subsequently reissued with a new motherboard. The Famicom easily outsold its primary competitor, the

. By the end of 1984 Nintendo had sold more than 2.5 million Famicoms in the Japanese market. This made it the best-selling console in Japan, surpassing the Cassette Vision. Sales exceeded Nintendo's expectations, leading to the Famicom being sold out, so Nintendo raised projections and increased production for the following year. Nintendo had planned to be the exclusive provider of Famicom games during its launch year. Major arcade developer

approached Nintendo about Famicom development, as they had no means of cartridge production. They contracted a 30% fee to Nintendo per game sold, consisting of 10% as a licensing fee for the console, and 20% as the production cost of new cartridges. By 1984, third party Famicom games were published. This 30% fee became a ''de facto'' standard in console and storefront licensing for video game publishing through the 2010s.

Going international (1984–1987)

Marketing negotiations with Atari (1983)

Bolstered by its success in Japan, Nintendo soon turned its attention to foreign markets. As a new console manufacturer, Nintendo had to convince a skeptical public to embrace its system. To this end, Nintendo entered into negotiations with Atari to release the Famicom outside Japan as the Nintendo Enhanced Video System, with plans to release the system by the end of 1983. Though the two companies reached a tentative agreement, with final contract papers to be signed at the 1983 Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Atari refused to sign at the last minute, after seeing

, one of its main competitors in the market at that time, demonstrating a prototype of ''Donkey Kong'' for its forthcoming

Coleco Adam The Coleco Adam is a home computer and expansion device for the ColecoVision released in 1983 by American toy and video game manufacturer Coleco. It was an attempt to follow on the success of the company's ColecoVision video game console. The Ad ...

home computer system. Coleco had licensed ''Donkey Kong'' for the

ColecoVision ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision. The console offered a closer exp ...

home console, but Atari had the exclusive computer license for the game. Although the game had been originally produced for the ColecoVision and could thus automatically be played on the backward compatible Adam computer, Atari took the demonstration as a sign that Nintendo was also dealing with Coleco. Though the issue was cleared up within a month, by then Atari's financial problems stemming from the

North American video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

coupled with the departure of Atari CEO

Ray Kassar Raymond Edward Kassar (January 2, 1928 – December 10, 2017) was president, and later CEO, of Atari Inc. from 1978 to 1983. He had previously been executive vice-president of Burlington Industries, the world's largest textile company at the t ...

left the company unable to follow through with the deal in time to make the target launch.

North America

Nintendo VS. System (1984–1986)

The Famicom hardware first made its North American debut in the arcades, in the form of the Nintendo VS. System in 1984; the system's success in arcades paved the way for the official release of the NES console. After the

, many American retailers considered video games a passing

fad A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short- ...

, and greatly reduced or discontinued the inventory of such products.

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing card ...

's market research was met with warnings to stay away from

home consoles A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...

, with US retailers refusing to stock game consoles. Meanwhile, the arcade industry also had a slump as the

came to an end, but arcades were able to recover and stabilize with the help of software conversion kit systems.

realized there was still a market for video games in North America, where gamers were gradually returning to arcades in significant numbers. Yamauchi still had faith there was a market for the Famicom, so he decided to introduce it to North America through the arcade industry. Nintendo developed the VS. System with the same hardware as the Famicom, and introduced it as the successor to their Nintendo-Pak arcade system, which had been used for titles such as ''

Donkey Kong 3 is a platform shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo. It is the third installment in the ''Donkey Kong'' series and it was released for arcades worldwide in 1983 and the Family Computer in 1984, then later released in North Am ...

'' and ''

Mario Bros. is a 1983 arcade game developed and published for arcades by Nintendo. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate creatures emerging from the ...

'' While technologically weaker than Nintendo's more powerful '' Punch-Out'' arcade hardware, the VS. System was relatively inexpensive, epitomizing

Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of the ...

's philosophy of "lateral thinking with withered technology." The VS. System was also able to offer a wider variety of games, due to being able to easily port over games from the Famicom. Upon release, the VS. System generated excitement in the arcade industry, receiving praise for its easy conversions, affordability, flexibility and multiplayer capabilities. The VS. System became a major success in North American arcades. Between 10,000 and 20,000 arcade units were sold in 1984, while individual ''Vs.'' titles often appeared as top-earners on the US arcade charts, such as ''

VS. Tennis is a sports video game developed by Nintendo in 1983, and released for the Family Computer (Famicom) in 1984. The arcade game version ''Vs. Tennis'' was also released for the Nintendo VS. System in 1984, becoming a hit at Japanese and American ...

'' and '' VS. Baseball'' in 1984, then ''

Duck Hunt is a 1984 light gun shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console and the Nintendo Vs. System arcade hardware. The game was first released in April 1984, in Japan for the ...

'' and '' VS. Hogan's Alley'' in 1985. By 1985, 50,000 units had been sold, having established Nintendo as an industry leader in the arcades. The Vs. System went on to become the highest-grossing arcade machine of 1985 in the United States. By the time the NES launched in North America, nearly 100,000 VS. Systems had been sold to American arcades. The success of the VS. System gave Nintendo the confidence to release the Famicom in North America as a video game console, which would later be called the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Nintendo's strong positive reputation in the arcades generated significant interest in the NES. It also gave Nintendo the opportunity to test new games as VS. Paks in the arcades, to determine which games to release for the NES launch. Nintendo's software strategy was to first release games for the Famicom, then the VS. System, and then for the NES. This allowed Nintendo to build a solid launch line-up for the NES. Many games made their North American debut on the VS. System before releasing for the NES, which led to many players being "amazed" at the accuracy of the arcade "ports" for the NES, despite most VS. System games originating on the Famicom.

Advanced Video System home computer (1985)

Nintendo Advanced Video System (retouched)

Nintendo president

said in 1986, "Atari collapsed because they gave too much freedom to third-party developers and the market was swamped with rubbish games." After the deal with Atari failed, Nintendo proceeded alone, re-conceiving the Famicom console with a sophisticated design language as the "Nintendo Advanced Video System" (AVS). To keep the software market for its console from becoming similarly oversaturated, Nintendo added a

lockout Lockout may refer to: * Lockout (industry), a type of work stoppage **Dublin Lockout, a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers 1913 - 1914 * Lockout (sports), lockout in sports leagues **MLB lockout, lock ...

system to obstruct unlicensed software from running on the console, thus allowing Nintendo to enforce strict licensing standards. The software carries the

Nintendo Seal of Quality is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

to communicate the company's approval. Nintendo's product designer Lance Barr, who would continue with the company for decades, retooled the Famicom console with a sleek and sophisticated design language. The toy-like white-and-red color scheme of the Famicom was replaced with a clean and futuristic color scheme of grey, black, and red. The top and bottom portions are in different shades of grey, plus a stripe with black and ribbing along the top, and minor red accents. The shape is boxier: flat on top, and a bottom half that tapered down to a smaller footprint. The front of the main unit features a compartment for storing the wireless controllers out of sight. To avoid the stigma of video game consoles, Nintendo issued prerelease marketing of the AVS as a full home computer, with an included keyboard, cassette data recorder, and a BASIC interpreter software cartridge. The BASIC interpreter would later be sold together with a keyboard as the ''

Family BASIC is a consumer product for programming on the Nintendo Family Computer, the Japanese equivalent to the Nintendo Entertainment System. ''Family BASIC'' was launched on June 21, 1984 to consumers in Japan by Nintendo, in cooperation with Hudson Sof ...

'' package, and the cassette deck for data storage would later be released as the Famicom Data Recorder. The AVS includes a variety of computer-style input devices: gamepads, a handheld joystick, a 3-octave

musical keyboard A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, sh ...

, and the Zapper

light gun A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol. Early history The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensin ...

. The AVS Zapper is hinged, allowing it to straighten out into a wand form, or bend into a gun form. The AVS uses a wireless

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

interface for all its peripherals, including keyboard, cassette deck, and controllers. Most of the peripherals for the Advanced Video System are on display at the

Nintendo World Store Nintendo New York (previously known as Nintendo World and The Pokémon Center) is the flagship specialty store of video game corporation Nintendo. Located in 10 Rockefeller Plaza, at Rockefeller Center in New York City, the two-story, store open ...

. The system's first known advertisement is in ''

Consumer Electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...

'' magazine in 1985, saying "The evolution of a species is now complete." The AVS was showcased at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show held in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

during January 5-8, 1985, in a reportedly "very busy" booth headed by Nintendo of America's president

Minoru Arakawa is a Japanese businessman best known as the founder and former president of Nintendo of America, and the co-founder of Tetris Online, Inc. Biography Minoru Arakawa was born on 3 September 1946 in Kyoto, Japan, the second son of Waichiro Arakaw ...

. There, attendees acknowledged the advanced technology, but responded poorly to the keyboard and wireless functionality. All of the more than 25 games demonstrated were complete, with no prototypes. No retail pricing information was given by Nintendo, reportedly seeming to "test the waters" with potential distributors, in an unpredictable market. Although Nintendo's Gail Tilden had reported sales of more than 2.5 million units of the Famicom across the previous 18 months yielding a 90% market share in Japan by the beginning of 1985, the American video game press was skeptical that the AVS could have any success in North America. News Wire reported on January 12, 1985, "It's hard to believe, but a Japanese company says it intends to introduce a new video-game machine in the United States, despite the collapse of the video-game industry here." The March 1985 issue of ''

Electronic Games An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...

'' magazine stated that "the videogame market in America has virtually disappeared" and that "this could be a miscalculation on Nintendo's part". Roger Buoy of Mindscape allegedly said that year, "Hasn't anyone told them that the videogame industry is dead?" Video game historian Chris Kohler reflected, "Retailers didn't want to listen to the little startup Nintendo of America talk about how its Japanese parent company had a huge hit with the Famicom (the system from which the NES was adapted from). In America, videogames were dead, dead, ''dead''. Personal computers were the future, and anything that just played games but couldn't do your taxes was hopelessly backwards." ''Computer Entertainer'' openly rebuked the media after attending a humbly optimistic June 1985 CES, "Can another video game system buck the trend and become a success? ... Perhaps if the press can avoid jumping all over the Nintendo system and let American consumers make up their own minds, we might find out that video games aren't dead after all."

Redesign as the Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)

At the June 1985 Summer CES, Nintendo returned with a stripped-down and cost-reduced redesign of the AVS, having abandoned the home computer approach. Nintendo purposefully designed the system so as not to resemble a video game console, and would avoid terms associated with game consoles, with marketing manager Gail Tilden choosing the term "

Game Pak Game Pak is the brand name for ROM cartridges designed by Nintendo for some of their earlier video game systems. The "Game Pak" moniker was officially used only in North America, Europe, and Oceania. In Japan, as well as other Asian territories a ...

" for cartridges, "Control Deck" for the console, and "Entertainment System" for the whole platform altogether. Renamed the "Nintendo Entertainment System" (NES), the new and cost-reduced version lacks most of the upscale features added in the AVS, but retains many of its audiophile-inspired design elements, such as the grey color scheme and boxy form factor. Disappointed with the cosmetically raw prototype part they received from Japan, which they nicknamed "the lunchbox", Nintendo of America designers Lance Barr and Don James added the two-tone gray, the black stripe, and the red lettering. To obscure the video game connotation, NES replaced the top-loading cartridge slot of the Famicom and AVS with a front-loading chamber for software cartridges that place the inserted cartridge out of view, reminiscent of a

VCR A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. ...

. The Famicom's pair of hard-wired controllers, and the AVS's wireless controllers, were replaced with two custom 7-pin sockets for detachable wired controllers. Using another approach to market the system to North American retailers as an "entertainment system", as opposed to a video game console, Nintendo positioned the NES more squarely as a toy, emphasizing the Zapper

, and more significantly,

R.O.B. R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) is a toy robot accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was launched in July 1985 as the in Japan, and October 1985 as R.O.B. in North America. Its short lifespan yielded only two games in the ...

(Robotic Operating Buddy), a wireless

toy robot An entertainment robot is, as the name indicates, a robot that is not made for utilitarian use, as in production or domestic services, but for the sole subjective pleasure of the human. It serves, usually the owner or his housemates, guests or cl ...

that responds to special screen flashes with mechanized actions. Although R.O.B. successfully drew a stream of retailers to Nintendo's Summer 1985 CES booth to see the NES, they were still unwilling to sign up to distribute the console.

North American launch (1985–1986)

In a show of strength and confidence by a company that rejected positions of weakness, an intense direct campaign ensued by a dedicated 12-person "Nintendo SWAT team" who relocated from Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond. The team included

's president

, Tukwila warehouse manager and game tester Howard Phillips, Redmond warehouse manager and product designer Don James, product designer Lance Barr, marketer Gail Tilden, her boss Ron Judy, and salesperson Bruce Lowry. Having failed to secure a retail distributor in the last year, the team would deliver the NES debut itself. This began a series of limited

test market A test market, in the field of business and marketing, is a geographic region or demographic group used to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide scale roll-out. The criteria used to judge the acceptabilit ...

launches at various metropolitan American cities prior to nationwide release. Instead of the traditional business of test launching at a cheaper mid-sized city, Arakawa boldly chose the nation's largest market,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

as its initial test market with a $50 million budget. Only with R.O.B's reclassification of the NES as a toy,

telemarketing Telemarketing (sometimes known as inside sales, or telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequen ...

and shopping mall demonstrations, and a risk-free proposition to retailers, did Nintendo secure enough retailer support there of about 500 retailers in New York and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. As the

bellwether A bellwether is a leader or an indicator of trends.bellwether
" ''Cambridge Dictionary''. Ret ...

and key toy retailer of New York City, the grandest and most important site was a 15 square foot area at

FAO Schwarz FAO Schwarz is an American toy brand and store. The company is known for its high-end toys, life-sized stuffed animals, interactive experiences, brand integrations, and games. FAO Schwarz claims to be the oldest toy store in the United States ...

. This had a dozen playable NES displays surrounding another giant television, featuring ''Baseball'' being played by real

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

players who also signed autographs in order to anchor the curious audiences to a familiar American pastime among all the surreal fantasy games. In a huge gamble by Arakawa and without having informed the headquarters in Japan, Nintendo offered to handle all store setup and marketing, extend 90 days

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

on the merchandise, and accept returns on all unsold inventory. Retailers would pay nothing upfront, and after 90 days would either pay for the merchandise or return it to Nintendo. At Nintendo's unprecedented offer of risk absorption, retailers signed up one by one, with one incredulously saying "It's your funeral." The Nintendo Entertainment System then consisted of the Deluxe Set and an initial library of 17 games which were chosen by playtester Howard Phillips. The Deluxe Set included a Control Deck console, two gamepads, R.O.B., the Zapper

, and the Game Paks ''

Gyromite R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) is a toy robot accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was launched in July 1985 as the in Japan, and October 1985 as R.O.B. in North America. Its short lifespan yielded only two games in the ...

'' and ''

''. Fifteen additional games were sold separately: ''

10-Yard Fight is an American football sports video game that was developed and published in Japan by Irem for arcades in 1983. It was published overseas by Taito in the Americas, by Electrocoin in Europe, and by ADP Automaten GmbH in West Germany. Gamepl ...

'', ''

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

'', ''

Clu Clu Land is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in 1984 in Japan for the Famicom and was later released in North America in 1985 as a Nintendo Entertainment System launch tit ...

'', ''

Excitebike is a motocross racing video game developed and published by Nintendo. In Japan, it was released for the Famicom in 1984 and then ported to arcades as ''Vs. Excitebike'' for the Nintendo Vs. System later that year. In North America, it was init ...

'', ''

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

'', '' Hogan's Alley'', ''

Ice Climber is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the arcade Nintendo VS. System, VS. System in 1984, and for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System consoles in 1985. The characters Popo and Nana (Pepe and Nana in the German lan ...

'', ''

Kung Fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to commo ...

'', ''

Pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

'', '' Soccer'', ''

Stack-Up R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) is a toy robot accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was launched in July 1985 as the in Japan, and October 1985 as R.O.B. in North America. Its short lifespan yielded only two games in the ...

'', ''

Super Mario Bros. is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...

'', ''

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

'', ''

Wild Gunman is a light gun shooter game developed and published by Nintendo. Originally created as an electro-mechanical arcade game in 1974 by Gunpei Yokoi, it was adapted to a video game format for the Famicom console in 1984. It was released in 1985 a ...

'', and '' Wrecking Crew''. The first test launch was in New York City on October 18, 1985, with an initial shipment of 100,000 Deluxe Set systems. Nintendo began marketing the system the same month in October 1985. Headquartered in a Hackensack warehouse oozing with

EPA The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

hazards "something like 'rats and snakes and toxic waste'", the SWAT team worked every day even through Christmas Eve 1985, in what Don James called "the longest and hardest I ever worked consecutive days in my life" and what Howard Phillips called "every waking hour ... at the crack of dawn ... seven days a week". President Arakawa joined them at the warehouse and at retail stores, once running a TV up a flight of stairs just to follow in the whole team's footsteps. While unloading their products into stores, the Nintendo of America crew was confronted by strangers who resented any Japanese-influenced company in a time of international trade issues and cheap Japanese clones of American products. A security guard reportedly said, "You're working for the Japs? I hope you fall flat on your ass." Gail Tilden said, "I remember one woman coming up to me, and I don't know what sparked her to do this, but she came up to me and said, 'Nintendo. That's a Japanese company, right? ... I hope you ''fail''!'". Retail staff resentful of the disastrous video game market rolled their eyes at Nintendo staff, with one manager looking at Nintendo's inventory and saying "Somebody told me I've got to sell this crap." The first sale came soon and quietly, of a Deluxe Set and the 15 additional games, to a gentleman who the team later realized was employed by an unspecified Japanese competitor. Sales were not high but encouraging throughout the holiday season, though sources vary on how many consoles were sold then. In 1986, Nintendo said it had sold nearly 90,000 units in nine weeks during its late 1985 New York City test. 460,000

game cartridges A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electro ...

were also sold in 1985. Following its success in the New York City test market, Nintendo planned to release it gradually across different US states over the first six months of 1986, starting with

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

at the end of January 1986; Nintendo cited production capacities and other considerations as reasons for the gradual rollout. In January 1986, an independent research firm commissioned by Nintendo delivered a survey of 200 NES owners, showing that the most popular given reason for buying an NES was because children wanted R.O.B. the robotfollowed most strongly by good graphics, variety of games, and the uniqueness and newness of the NES package. R.O.B. is credited as a primary factor in building initial support for the NES in North America, but the accessory itself was not well received for its entertainment value. Its original Famicom counterpart, the Famicom Robot, was already failing in Japan at the time of the North American launch. The NES was also credited with bringing arcade-style gaming to homes. For the nationwide launch in 1986, the NES was available in two different packages: the fully featured Deluxe Set as had been configured during the New York City launch, and a scaled-down Control Deck package which included the console, two gamepads, and ''

'' In early 1986, Nintendo announced the intention to adapt the

floppy drive A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

peripheral to the NES by late 1986, but the need was obviated by the proliferation of larger and faster cartridge technology, and the drive's NES launch was canceled as well as the original being discontinued in Japan by the early 1990s. Nintendo added Los Angeles as the second test market in February 1986, followed by Chicago and San Francisco, then other top 12 US markets, and finally nationwide in September. Nintendo and Sega, which was similarly exporting its Master System to the US, both planned to spend $15 million in the fourth quarter of 1986 to market their consoles; later, Nintendo said it planned to spend $16 million and Sega said more than $9 million. Nintendo obtained a distribution deal with toymaker Worlds of Wonder, which leveraged its popular

Teddy Ruxpin Teddy Ruxpin is an animatronic children's toy in the form of a talking 'Illiop', a creature which looks like a bear. The toy's mouth and eyes move while he reenacts stories played on an audio tape cassette deck built into its back. It was crea ...

and

Lazer Tag Lazer Tag is a brand name for the pursuit game using infrared toy guns, generically known as "laser tag". It was developed by Worlds of Wonder and launched in 1986. As one of America's top hit toys of 1986-1987, Lazer Tag was aggressively lever ...

products to solicit more stores to carry the NES. From 1986 to 1987, this provided the initially reluctant WoW sales staff with windfall commissions, which Arakawa eventually capped at $1 million per person per year. The largest retailer

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

sold it through its Christmas catalog and the second largest retailer

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

sold it in 700 stores. Nintendo sold 1.1 million consoles in 1986, estimating that it could have sold 1.4 million if inventory had held out. Nintendo earned $310 million in sales, out of total 1986 video game industry sales of $430 million, compared to total 1985 industry sales of $100 million.

Europe and Oceania

The NES was also released in Europe and Australia, in stages and in a rather haphazard manner. It was launched in Sweden in September 1986, and in the rest of mainland Europe in different months of 1987, depending on the country. Italy, the United Kingdom, and Australia all received the system in 1987, where it was distributed exclusively by

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

. In Europe, the NES received a less enthusiastic response than it had elsewhere, and Nintendo lagged in market and retail penetration, though the console was more successful later. During the late 1980s, NES sales were lower than that of the Sega Master System in the United Kingdom. By 1990, the Master System was the highest-selling console in Europe, though the NES was beginning to have a fast growing user base in the United Kingdom. Sega continued outselling Nintendo in the UK into 1992; a reason cited at the time by Paul Wooding of ''

Sega Force ''Sega Force'' was an early 1990s publication that covered the Sega console range (Sega Mega Drive, Mega-CD, Master System and Game Gear). History ''Sega Force'', along with ''Nintendo Force'', was initially announced in mid-1991 by Newsfield. ...

'' was that, "Nintendo became associated with kids playing alone in their rooms, while Sega was first experienced in the arcades with a gang of friends". Between 1991 and 1992, NES sales were booming in Europe, partly driven by the success of the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

which helped uplift NES sales in the region. By 1994, NES sales had narrowly edged out the Master System overall in Western Europe. Among major European markets, the Master System led in the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Spain, whereas the NES led in France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. In Australia, the NES was less successful than the Master System.

South Korea

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, the hardware was licensed to

Hyundai Electronics SK hynix Inc. is a South Korean supplier of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips. Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker (after Samsung Electronics) and the world's third-largest semiconductor company. ...

, which marketed it as the Comboy from 1991. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the government of Korea (later South Korea) imposed a wide ban on all Japanese "cultural products". Until this was repealed in 1998, the only way Japanese products could legally enter the South Korean market was through licensing to a third-party (non-Japanese) distributor, as was the case with the Comboy and its successor, the Super Comboy, a version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The Comboy sold 360,000 units in South Korea by 1993. This was less than half of the Master System (marketed as the Gam*Boy or Aladdinboy by

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

), which sold 730,000 units in the country by 1993.

Soviet Union and Russia

After the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, the introduction of the NES was attempted in two ways. The first was the launch through local distributors. The second, much more popular method, was in the form of an unlicensed Taiwanese hardware clone named the Dendy produced in Russia in the early 1990s. Aesthetically, it is a replica of the original Famicom, with a unique color scheme and labels, and with controller ports on the front using

DE-9 The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smallest connectors used on computer systems. Description, n ...

serial connectors, identical to those used in the

and the Atari 8-bit family of computers. All Dendy games sold in Russia are

bootleg Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to: * Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially * Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence: ** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...

copies, not licensed by Nintendo. In 1994, Nintendo signed an agreement with the Dendy distributor under which Nintendo had no claims against Dendy and allowed the sale of games and consoles. A total of units were sold in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Leading the industry (1987–1990)

In Japan, the Famicom had sold about units by January 1986, helped by the success of ''

'' (1985), and increased sales to more than units with 95% of the home video game market by early 1987. In North America, the NES sold units in 1986, out of worldwide sales of that year. By 1988, the console had sold units in Japan and was projected to top in the United States by the end of the year. The NES widely outsold its primary competitors, the Sega Master System and the

Atari 7800 The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges, making it one ...

. The successful launch of the NES positioned Nintendo to dominate the home video game market for the remainder of the 1980s. Buoyed by the success of the system, NES

produced similar sales records. The console's library exploded with classic flagship franchise-building and best-selling hits like ''Super Mario Bros.'' (1985), ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

'' (1986), and '' Metroid'' (1986). Toward the 1987 Christmas season, sales of the NES had dwarfed those of

and all other original products of its American distributor, Worlds of Wonder. In October 1987,

president

discontinued the NES distribution contract with the failing WoW in favor of Nintendo's own growing clout, while hiring WoW's sales staff awaythe same sales staff previously offered to Nintendo by Atari in 1983. ''

'' (1987) was the first NES game to sell over cartridges (non-bundled) in the United States. At more than 40 million copies, ''Super Mario Bros.'' was the highest selling video game in history for many years. Released in 1988 in Japan, '' Super Mario Bros. 3'' would gross more than $500 million, with more than 7 million copies sold in America and 4 million copies in Japan, making it the most popular and fastest selling standalone home video game in history. By mid-1986, 19% (6.5 million) of Japanese households owned a Famicom; one third by mid-1988. By 1990, over units were sold in the United States, present in 38% of American households, compared to 23% for all personal computers. The NES had reached a larger user base in the United States than any previous console, surpassing the previous record set by the Atari 2600 in 1982. In 1990, Nintendo also surpassed

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

as Japan's most successful corporation. By early 1992, more than units had been sold worldwide, with in the United States by early 1993. Its popularity greatly affected the computer-game industry, with executives stating that "Nintendo's success has destroyed the software entertainment market" and "there's been a much greater falling off of disk sales than anyone anticipated". The growth in sales of the Commodore 64 ended; Nintendo sold almost as many consoles in 1988 as the total number of Commodore 64s had been sold in five years.

Trip Hawkins William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. Career A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his f ...

called Nintendo "the last hurrah of the 8-bit world", with Nintendo having completely destroyed the Commodore 64 game market as of Christmas 1988.

Market decline (1990–1995)

In the late 80s, Nintendo's dominance was addressed by newer, technologically superior consoles. In 1987,

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

and Hudson Soft released the

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...

, and in 1988, Sega released the

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...

. Both were introduced in North America in 1989, where they were respectively marketed as the TurboGrafx-16 and the Genesis. Facing new competition from the PC Engine in Japan, and the Genesis in North America, Nintendo's market share began to erode. Nintendo responded in the form of the

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...

(Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe), the Famicom's 16-bit successor, in 1990. Although Nintendo announced its intention to continue to support the Famicom alongside its newer console, the success of the newer offering began to draw even more gamers and developers from the NES, whose decline accelerated. Nintendo did continue support of the NES for about three years after the September 1991 release of the Super NES, with the NES's final first-party games being '' Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II'' and ''

Wario's Woods ''Wario's Woods'' is a puzzle video game developed by TEC and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in Japan and North America in 1994 and Europe in 1995. A spin-off of the ''Mario'' series, players control T ...

''. In Christmas 1991, both the NES and SNES were outsold by the Sega Genesis in North America. This led to Nintendo's share of the North American market declining between 1991 and 1992. In contrast, NES sales were booming in Europe during that same period. A revised Famicom (HVC-101 model) was released in Japan in 1993. It takes some design cues from the

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in ...

. The HVC-101 model replaces the original HVC-001 model's

RF modulator An RF modulator (or radio frequency modulator) is an electronic device whose input is a baseband signal which is used to modulate a radio frequency source. RF modulators are used to convert signals from devices such as media players, VCRs a ...

with

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

composite audio/video output, eliminates the hardwired controllers, and features a more compact case design. Retailing for ¥4,800 to ¥7,200 (equivalent to approximately $4260), the HVC-101 model remained in production for almost a decade before being finally discontinued in 2003. The case design of the AV Famicom was adopted for a subsequent North American rerelease of the NES. The NES-101 model differs from the Japanese HVC-101 model in that it omits the RCA composite output connectors of the original NES-001 model, and sports only RF output capabilities. ASCII Entertainment reported in early 1993 that stores still offered 100 NES games, compared to 100 on shelves for Genesis and 50 for SNES. After a full decade of production, the NES was formally discontinued in the U.S. in 1995. By the end of its run, more than 60 million NES units had been sold throughout the world.

Discontinuation and emulation (1995–present)

The NES's market presence declined from 1991 to 1995, with the Sega Genesis and Nintendo's own Super NES gaining market share, with next-generation CD-ROM-based systems forthcoming. Even though the NES was discontinued in North America in 1995, many millions of cartridges for the system existed. The secondhand market of video rental stores, thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, and games repackaged by Game Time Inc. / Game Trader Inc. and sold at retail stores such as

K-Mart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inco ...

, was burgeoning. Many people began to rediscover the NES around this time, and by 1997, many older NES games were becoming popular with collectors. At the same time, computer programmers began to develop

capable of reproducing the internal workings of the NES on modern personal computers. When paired with a

ROM image A ROM image, or ROM file, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge, or used to contain a computer's firmware, or from an arcade game's main board. The term is frequen ...

bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represente ...

-for-bit copy of a NES cartridge's program code), the games can be played on a computer. Emulators also come with a variety of built-in functions that change the gaming experience, such as save states which allow the player to save and resume progress at an exact spot in the game. Nintendo did not respond positively to these developments and became one of the most vocal opponents of ROM image trading. Nintendo and its supporters claim that such trading represents blatant software piracy. Proponents of ROM image trading argue that emulation preserves many classic games for future generations, outside of their more fragile cartridge formats. On May 30, 2003, Nintendo announced that it would stop production of the New Famicom in September, completely discontinuing the Famicom alongside the Super Famicom (which was being manufactured as the Super Famicom Jr.) and the disk rewriting services for the Famicom Disk System. The last Famicom, serial number HN11033309, was manufactured on September 25; it was kept by Nintendo and subsequently loaned to the organizers of Level X, a video game exhibition held from December 4, 2003, to February 8, 2004, at the

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography The is an art museum concentrating on photography. As the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, it was founded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and is in Meguro-ku, a short walk from Ebisu station in southwest Tokyo. The museum al ...

, for a Famicom retrospective in commemoration of the console's 20th anniversary. In 2005, Nintendo announced plans to make classic NES titles available on the

download service for the Wii console, which is based on their own emulation technology. Initial titles released included ''

'', ''

'' and ''

'', with blockbuster titles such as ''

'', ''

Punch-Out!! is a video game series of boxing created by Nintendo's general manager Genyo Takeda, and his partner Makoto Wada. The first game was '' Punch-Out!!'' made in 1984 as an arcade unit, which was followed by a sequel '' Super Punch-Out!!'' (1984) ...

'' and '' Metroid'' appearing in the following months. In 2007, Nintendo Co., Ltd. announced that it would no longer repair Famicom systems, due to an increasing shortage of the necessary parts. In 2016, Nintendo announced the

NES Classic Edition NES Classic Edition is a dedicated home video game console by Nintendo, which emulates the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It launched on November 10, 2016 in Australia and Japan, and November 11, 2016 in North America and Europe. Aesthet ...

, a

dedicated console A dedicated console is a video game console that is limited to one or more built-in video game or games, and is not equipped for additional games that are Digital distribution in video games, distributed via ROM cartridges, Compact disc, discs, d ...

designed as a miniature replica of the original NES; it features 30 games along with

save state A saved game (also called a game save, savegame, savefile, save point, or simply save) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardw ...

capability for each game. It released in Australia on November 10, and in Europe and North America the following day. Nintendo also released a Famicom version of the console, featuring a different set of games, in Japan on November 10. The console immediately sold out upon launch due to high demand; intended to be a limited-time release, Nintendo discontinued it in April 2017. Following the release of its successor, the

Super NES Classic Edition The Super NES Classic Edition is a dedicated home video game console released by Nintendo, which emulates the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console, a successor to the NES Classic Edition, comes with twenty-one Super NES titles pr ...

, the NES Classic Edition was re-released on June 29, 2018; both consoles were discontinued after the end of the holiday season that year. As of June 30, 2018, Nintendo has sold 3.6 million units of the NES Classic Edition.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo Entertainment System

Origins (1981–1984)

Development (1981–1983)

Famicom release in Japan (1983–1984)

Going international (1984–1987)

Marketing negotiations with Atari (1983)

North America

Nintendo VS. System (1984–1986)

Advanced Video System home computer (1985)

Redesign as the Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)

North American launch (1985–1986)

Europe and Oceania

South Korea

Soviet Union and Russia

Leading the industry (1987–1990)

Market decline (1990–1995)

Discontinuation and emulation (1995–present)

See also

References