The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Created | Updated Feb 24, 2002
<p>The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, was the most popular 8-bit video game console of the 1980's and early 1990's. Manufactured by Nintendo Co., Ltd. of Japan, the NES succeeded where previous video game consoles had failed: the United States of America.
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In 1984, American sales of video games and video game units dropped dramatically. The games and units available had not met the quality standards consumers wanted. They no longer wanted to pay large sums of money for mediocre entertainment. Without consumers to sustain them many video game companies called it quits, nearly destroying the video game industry in the US.
</p><p>
In 1985, Nintendo released their Nintendo Entertainment System which bore more similarity to a VCR or stereo component than it did to previous video game consoles. It was box shaped, with a cartridge that loaded from the front instead of the top. Once the cartridge was inserted into the unit, a door in front of the cartridge slot was closed to hide the cartridge from view. This was certainly an odd design, as the cartridge slot had a spring mechanism that could easily break and the door could be left open, allowing dirt, dust and such inside the cartridge connector. This hindered proper electrical contact between the NES and its games, leading to scrambled graphics, sound distortion, and the like. Further, the top of the unit was flat and would often have food or drink set on it. If anything set on top spilled into the vent holes near the right side of the console, the unit would have to be taken in for repair.
</p><p>
If the design was so prone to damage, why did Nintendo decide to use it? The reason: money. Calling their new gaming unit an 'entertainment system' and putting it in a VCR-like box differentiated it from the NES's failed predecessors, which had top-loading cartridge designs and were called 'video game systems'. In order to keep the NES from sharing the fate of previous systems Nintendo avoided the old design and naming scheme. This tactic was used to prevent the consumer from associating the NES with older, less advanced systems. Nintendo's marketing strategy for the NES succeeded, and caused NES sales to skyrocket, thus earning Nintendo more money than was possible for any other system at that time.
</p>
More to come...
</p><p>
In 1984, American sales of video games and video game units dropped dramatically. The games and units available had not met the quality standards consumers wanted. They no longer wanted to pay large sums of money for mediocre entertainment. Without consumers to sustain them many video game companies called it quits, nearly destroying the video game industry in the US.
</p><p>
In 1985, Nintendo released their Nintendo Entertainment System which bore more similarity to a VCR or stereo component than it did to previous video game consoles. It was box shaped, with a cartridge that loaded from the front instead of the top. Once the cartridge was inserted into the unit, a door in front of the cartridge slot was closed to hide the cartridge from view. This was certainly an odd design, as the cartridge slot had a spring mechanism that could easily break and the door could be left open, allowing dirt, dust and such inside the cartridge connector. This hindered proper electrical contact between the NES and its games, leading to scrambled graphics, sound distortion, and the like. Further, the top of the unit was flat and would often have food or drink set on it. If anything set on top spilled into the vent holes near the right side of the console, the unit would have to be taken in for repair.
</p><p>
If the design was so prone to damage, why did Nintendo decide to use it? The reason: money. Calling their new gaming unit an 'entertainment system' and putting it in a VCR-like box differentiated it from the NES's failed predecessors, which had top-loading cartridge designs and were called 'video game systems'. In order to keep the NES from sharing the fate of previous systems Nintendo avoided the old design and naming scheme. This tactic was used to prevent the consumer from associating the NES with older, less advanced systems. Nintendo's marketing strategy for the NES succeeded, and caused NES sales to skyrocket, thus earning Nintendo more money than was possible for any other system at that time.
</p>
More to come...
