Nintendo Pioneer Talks NES Phenomenon

Thanks to Video-fenky for his article translating a recent Famitsu interview with Hiroshi Imanishi, former executive director of Nintendo, about the original launch of the Famicom/NES console, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last week. The Famicom wasn't immediately well-received, according to Imanishi: "We were the new kid on the block, and a lot of places said to us 'We've already seen Donkey Kong in the arcades and on the Game & Watch! You're putting it out again?'" He also describes how the trademark NES controller almost never came to be: "...during development the majority of Nintendo wanted to include a regular joystick with the system. However, during that time, we made the first multi-screen Game & Watch, and we introduced the control pad so you wouldn't have to keep on glancing at your hands while you're playing the game"

Comments

if only they had used a joystick...

[gl4ss]

as default controller.. how many thumbs could have been saved!

the nes arcade style stick controller that nintendo sold too was _very_ good imho especially for games like tmnt2(the arcade conversion), the 'flying stick' kind of a stick(stinger??) that nintendo sold sucked ass though imho, mostly because digital sticks like that just suck major ass.