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The Lifespan of The Nintendo Entertainment System
Via Press the Buttons, a node over at Everything2 with an excellent synopsis of the lifespan of the Nintendo Entertainment System. It details the background of the video game industry at the time that the NES came onto the stage, the launch and the peak of its success, and the factors that led to the console's eventual decline. From the writeup: "In the aftermath of the home video game crash in 1983, nobody in North America seemed to want anything more to do with video games. Having been burned by the atrociously bad Atari 2600 games flooding the market and the rise of the home computer, both retailers and parents, and to a lesser degree gamers, were reluctant to risk their hard-earned money on another console. Analysts claimed that video games were yet another fad in an infamously faddish time that came and went and now are gone."
to this day, my friends and i still play complete seasons of TECMO super bowl. it is one of the greatest games of all time. i can't believe they speak of the NES in the past tense! IT LIVES!!
This article reminded me of how no matter how advanced video games get in terms of graphics and plot, there's something to be said for the simple pleasure of shooting simulated ducks on the NES... Sometimes you just can't beat the classics.
I don't know, I think Duck Hunt was pretty real. Don't tell me I'm the only one that used a treadmill as a trench and ducked behind it, shooting the ducks from behind cover.
My family still got the original hardware funtioning well. It had to be repaired twice, but for being the all consuming entertainment for four rough housing brothers thats's pretty good. And just try to find someone to fix a busted ps2 or xbox. The support isnt the same.
I couldn't wait for better video games, I knew they had a long way ahead of them. JUST LIKE NOW MMOG haven't hit fast paced action yet. This statistic war MMOPRGS is dull. Once a game come out that blends action with RPG, it will rule supreme like nintendo 8 bit did over atari2600, its the same gap.
:P
That said, the next big thing after that will be video cameras tracking your motions. Buy a camera array and set it up in your home(or arcade), hold a lightsabre, wear vr goggles, and dodge/move/slash enemies. Its not as far off as you think. I have it slated on my todo list after my action MMOG due out in 15 years
Hey anyone know where I can have free filehosting? I have a 10 meg file which is a demo of my game, but I have no place to share it. My game isn't fun yet, but it demonstrates Tekken meets MMOG.
God spoke to me.
What a great article. Technical details of the NES, as well as a good overview of the history of the system, and well written to boot. It brought me back to the Christmas 1987, when I first got my Nintendo. That was the most exciting Christmas I've ever had.
Next time don't stick your goopy PB&J sandwiches into the slots!
(My NES, bought on its first release in the USA waaaayyy back, still functions perfectly. God, is that thing 20 years old, now?
My only complaint is that my parents got me the Gyromite bundle instead of the Super Mario bundle. I was the only kid in elementary school who didn't have Mario!)
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
There are so many inaccuracies in this article! Let's see...
* The NES has 2k bytes of ram built in, not 4k. Cartridges can contain an 8k RAM expansion to expand the total RAM to 10k, the expansion can also be battery backed to save games.
* The NES is not capable of rendering 16x16 sprites, only 8x8 or 8x16 sprites. Those of course can be combined to form larger sprites.
Then some nitpicks:
* I've heard from other articles that Nintendo never tried selling the Famicom directly in America before redesigning it, but I have nothing to back this up with.
* Kirby's Adventure, weighing in at 768 kilobytes, is far larger than Dragon Warrior 4.
* The article fails to mention the bootleg joysticks being sold today which contain illegal NES multicarts built in, these display directly on a TV and have no cartridge slot. No problem, this is probably beyond the scope of the article.
is useless without pictures!
Hello again, My son. I recommend 50megs.com
I can't give you FTP access, but if you were to email me that demo I could host it for you for a while at fred.wackiness.org. My friend owns the site, but I could show it to him, he might give you a subdomain of your own.
SAILING MISHAP
Just because you weren't born yet when the NES came out doesn't mean we older gamers can't look back at the history of our hobby.
Grow up already, kid.
I would definitely recommed "The Ultimate History of Video Games", by Stephen Kent. It's about 600 pages long and is a comprehensive history of videogames from the 1920's pinball tables to 2001, with special emphasis on the activities of the 1980's. I read it in about a week, it's fascinating stuff for anyone interested in the field.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
mmm mario. My nes is still on top in my basement, not plugged in though (has my n64 on top of it, and a 2 broken psx's shoved behind em)
It wokred ~5 years ago my juniro year in high school. Could still work now:) I get my mario fix with my dreamcast emu disk though. got a few hundred of my fav nes games all in one convenient package. Ah, the classics.
I think i worked my way through mario3 while at work (as lab monitor) on a flash stick via an emulator; went through the entire game without losing a life by saving/reverting till i made the part without dieing, all with keyboard. Ahhh a labor of love.
Gyrobwah? I guess that's why it still functions perfectly; many systems were used until they barely worked at all. Insanely-long sessions of Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Bros. 3 (the latter of which is extremely long and contains no save feature) were the death of many a NES console. Considering the popularity, even today, of unauthorized Famicom/Nintendo clones, I'd say the NES is far from "dead".
Going back to school for entry-level jobs?
I dont think a Nintendo fan is one to say grow up. You reek of irony, take a bath
Wikipedia has their article on the NES on the main page today. It also provides plenty of info on the system.
Step away from the computer already, punk. I hear some marketer screaming the word "extreme!" somewhere in the distance; I think they're looking for you.
Probably some junk peddler with something to sell, and they know you're down for whatever.
This must be the first article that came, out of the box, pre-slashdotted....
And just try to find someone to fix a busted ps2 or xbox. The support isnt the same.
That's because it was really easy to service a NES. Fixing any problem on the Nintendo went something like this:
Pick up cartrige
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
Pick up Nintendo
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
Repeat until disired results are accomplished.
Step away from yours. I hear Reggie screaming the word "innovative" somewhere in the distance, he's looking for your ass.
VR goggles are the "next big thing" or a future "next big thing" in video gaming. As soon as they are mass marketted to coincide with some popular new MMOG and they are combined with gyroscopes to correspond head movement to camera movement, they are going to take off. The tech is there, but prices just keep it from becoming mainstream.
LCD technology is ready. 3D gaming is ready. Immersive MMOG's are ready.
Put it on and you may never take it off.
"the factors that led to the console's eventual decline"
Speak for yourself buddy, I'm still trying to beat Spy Hunter!
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
That's the reason why the last console I purchased was a N64. Either there was a shortage of games, or a glut of mediocre games on the market, or they were all of the same 2-3 varieties, which is the way I think the industry is now. I suspect unless game developers get more creative, the console industry will experience another decline.
(Yes, I know... *whoosh" goes the joke over my head...)
;)
Actually, dust wasn't the problem. It was the pins. They would get bent more and more each time you inserted a cartridge, to the point of not making contact anymore. A small screwdriver and a lot of patience can fix that
Eat the rich.
Cyber Gadget makes a unit called the Famulator which is a re-designed (or re-re-designed depending on how you look at it) NES toploader that sells for just under 3,000 yen. You can use your US NES carts on it, but you'll need an adapter like the one sold by Lik-Sang.
Everybody I know came up with special magic smacking-the-side-of-the-case patterns that got the NES to read the cartridge. Smack left-left-right-blow-smack top-play....*red* *red* FUCK!
I've inherited my late Grandpa's old NES with low mileage, so I don't have to deal with that anymore.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
Pick up cartrige
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
Pick up Nintendo
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF (inhale)
Repeat until disired results are accomplished.
I've found it helps alot more if you exhale. Inhaling like that just makes you cough and hack up dust.
The original Deluxe set did not come with Super Mario Bros - Just Duck Hunt and Gyromite. I had to pick between Wrecking Crew and Super Mario Bros for my 7th birthday, and I had no clue which one to get.
Or forget blowing in there, and just fix it yourself I did this, it took only about 30 minutes, and the NES works like the day I got it.
Lets look at the recent slashdot articles
The Lifespan of The Nintendo Entertainment System - Pro nintendo
Nintendo Revolution Details Reaffirmed - Pro nintendo
Next Zelda Game Examined - Pro nintendo
Sony Cancels PS3 Showing - Anti Sony
PSP Not A Sellout Hit - Anti Sony
Sony Recants on Dead Pixels (Sort Of) - WTF do you mean sort of? They replace PSPs with dead pixels. Thats not sort of.
Im sick of this, if I wanted biased troll bullshit, I'd go to gamefaqs.
Im sick of this, if I wanted biased troll bullshit, I'd go to gamefaqs.
Hey, there's an idea.
Yes, that's definitely a better solution if you have a soldering iron and aren't afraid to use it...
I didn't even know those parts were still available. Thanks for the link!
Eat the rich.