Thursday, October 14, 2010

Fun Home Entertainment Systems

Time for one more lovely guest post; this time focusing on Nintendo's ground-breaking NES console. Mind you, there are many NESs to be found on eBay.com and eBay.co.uk.

When the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in the United States in 1985, it revolutionized video games. The graphics and game play blew away everything else at the time. The console would permanently change video gaming by the time it was discontinued in the US in 1995. It has to be considered one of the best video game systems of all time. Growing up in the 1980’s meant growing up with video games and especially Nintendo. Families that did not have the NES console knew someone who did, and it was a highly coveted.

The graphics on the NES were far superior to anything else available at the time, offering many more colors and greater detail to images. Many games included iconic characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong, and Link, in the Legend of Zelda series. The combination of graphics improvements and unique characters made the gaming experience engaging for those of all ages. While the console came with two controllers, some games were meant to be played as a single player and others offered a two player mode. The games were interactive and competitive.

By the time the NES was discontinued, Nintendo reported that it sold almost 62 million units. Some of its best selling games belonged to the Mario franchise including over 40 million copies of Super Mario Brothers that was often packaged with the console and Super Mario Bros 3, which sold 18 million copies. This franchise is one of several that remained popular on following consoles from Nintendo. The establishment of unique, colorful characters is a part of what makes this system successful.

About the author: James Mowery is a computer geek that writes about technology and related topics. To read more blog posts by him, go to monitors.

4 comments:

  1. *sigh* The Commodore 64 is far superior to NES hardware in just about every aspect there is. Now, the funny thing is that the C64 was launched several YEARS before anyone had even heard about the NES.

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  2. Yes, well, Pete, I do believe that James is referring to other consoles. Not gaming machines in general. Other than that you're quite right. After all, we did have the way more powerful SMS in Europe before the NES.

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  3. I made the switch from consoles to computers (VIC20/C64/PC) before the NES hit the scene in the U.S. so I never even noticed the "video game crash" until I read about it on the internet many years later. When I did start dipping my toes back in the console waters the Genesis/Megadrive and SNES were already out, so I never developed the love for the NES.

    SO - while I fully respect the NES's place in video game console history, the long-winded point of my comment here today is to salute the flag that Swedish Pete has hoisted. Salute!

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  4. I'm more of a computer man (gnome?) myself dear MadPlanet and -to be frank- always were. Consoles have always seemed both incredibly simple and very expensive, but I have to admit the NES was a cultural phenomenon.

    Anyway, salute!

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