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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."
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 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.
Wikipedia has their article on the NES on the main page today. It also provides plenty of info on the system.